How Agencies Can Operationalize Data for Better Decision-Making

Government agencies today are inundated with data — from crime statistics to weather and traffic sensor data and more. Not only that, but they must account for the mix of new and legacy systems that house these various data points.

Efforts such as the forthcoming Federal Data Strategy and the 2016 Modernizing Government Technology (MGT) Act are aimed at improving how the government uses its IT resources to better serve the public. This law identifies that nearly 75 percent of the government’s IT budget is spent maintaining outdated systems that are at risk for attacks and remain largely inefficient. It also notes cloud computing and shared multi-tenant infrastructures in the cloud or on-premise as part of this IT modernization.

As cloud adoption grows, so is the amount of government data that agencies have the potential to parse and use for decision-making. For example, the U.S. government analyzes an enormous amount of data every day to determine the best course of action in military and civilian applications. Data is valuable to a broad range of activities including cybersecurity, weather modeling, disease prevention, logistics, identity management, entitlement planning and many other use cases.

But turning this data into insights requires the right tools. Government agencies require solutions that provide simplicity, flexibility and resiliency that also meet the taxpayers’ demands for better services and convenience. That’s the role technologies such as MapR are playing for a growing number of civilian, defense and intelligence agencies.

“MapR Technologies is a visionary Silicon Valley software company and creator of the next-generation data platform for AI and analytics, with the scale and reliability required by enterprise-grade, mission-critical deployments,” according to the company. “The MapR Data Platform delivers the power of dataware to accelerate data-driven innovation.”

MapR Technologies works closely with companies like AlphaSix, which specializes in designing, implementing and supporting big data analytics for federal agencies. It also assists organizations with cybersecurity services and solutions to protect the vast amount of data agencies are generating. MapR is part of an ecosystem of solutions that AlphaSix uses to enable agencies to access previously unavailable data in a collaborative environment.

Using the MapR Platform, agencies can ingest data from traffic cameras, toll plaza, fleet systems, and weather systems. It also connects seamlessly with Internet of Things (IoT) devices to enable faster emergency responders and enables actionable intelligence such as real-time route optimization, weather and evacuation alerts.

Agencies need the ability to operationalize data across multiple edge, on-premises and cloud environments to determine the best course of action.

With MapR, governments can harness the power of all their data to keep up with their constituents and satisfy their expectations. With secure, timely access to all this data, governments can now offer safer, more agile public services, make important government decisions inclusive of citizens’ feedback, and prevent crimes from happening.

To learn more about data warehouses and how AlphaSix can help your agency, visit alphasixcorp.com.