Big data presents unique challenges to agencies

Big data may be on everyone’s lips but as agencies begin to think about how to manage, leverage and store large volumes of information, few have given much thought to actual challenges that may arise

Speaking at a June 21 event on big data held in Washington, Aaron Bird, general manager at Adobe Insight, said agencies grapple with dealing with large amounts of data that are beneficial and interesting when merged into a single platform. The management, sharing and storage of that unsiloed data present the largest roadblocks, he said.

Bird highlighted how the government and industry have different challenges around big data, saying it’s potentially easier to solve big-data problems for commercial-sector customers than federal clients primarily because of access to data.

Federal agencies have to consider security and privacy to a much higher degree, he said.  However, the primary challenge for agencies just launching efforts into big data is how to actually get the data.  Agencies may know from which sources they want to extract data but to actually pull it together often poses another roadblock, Bird said.

Another obstacle is getting multiple agencies to coordinate and communicate with each other, a seemingly tall order, Bird stressed.

“The infrastructure and technology may exist but [agencies] have a different set of challenges in fighting through processes and policies to bring that data together,” he said. “That’s where everyone seems to start, and few agencies have actually successfully gotten past that."

The June 21 panel discussion was part of Federal Computer Week’s Executive Briefings event series.