Increased connection speed and cheap storage have produced tremendous amounts of data for the federal government as well as state governments. It would not be an exaggeration to say that data collection is going bonkers for state and local governments. IoT devices are attempting to manage traffic, COVID has multiplied jobless claims, and the cloud is making storage inexpensive.
Today’s challenge is not running out of space but trying to apply data in a hyperconnected world to help achieve the mission of the enterprise, for today’s discussion, the states of Virginia and Delaware. This is a discussion among data management leaders at the state level and a subject matter expert from Dell Technologies.
It may be hard to believe, but a state like Virginia has a deep and diverse group of data sets as a focus of concern. Carlos Rivera from the state of Virginia described how he must handle 2400 operational data sets across 63 executive agencies. He states that just when you think you have a handle on data collection, it grows and explodes exponentially.
One of his biggest challenges is getting people to understand that data is not only an asset but a strategic asset that has to be carefully managed to glean insights.
Jennifer Koester from Delaware offers that one way to leverage that data is for a state to enable sharing of data within the state and with the public.
Sometimes, data structure can solve many problems. Rob Silverberg from Dell defines the term “data lake” and its value in deriving value from massive amounts of data. Essentially, data can be collected in a structured or unstructured manner. Transitioning data to a data lake allows the data to be ingested quicker.
Rob suggests that setting up a private data lake is easy – the challenges arrive when one tries to set up a data lake and include sharing data. Sharing data is a priority for both state technology leaders in the interview.
Carlos Rivera states his experience in establishing the Commonwealth Data Trust organization for the State of Virginia. Carlos provides a non-technical observation; he maintains a leader must establish relationships with all the parties to be able to share the data effectively.
One topic is highlighted by Carlos Rivera as well. The fact that bias can be present in any data set. If you allow this to happen, all your results can be questioned. Although one can inadvertently fall into these traps, newer technologies can assist in preventing this problem.
To view this webinar: Innovating with Data: Governing in a Hyperconnected World.
Featured Speakers:
Carlos Rivero
Chief Data Officer,
Commonwealth of Virginia
Jennifer Koester
Director, Enterprise Data Mgmt.,
Dept. of Tech. & Info.,
State of Delaware
Rob Silverberg
Chief Strategy & Innov. Ofc,
State & Local Government,
Dell Technologies
John Breeden
Discussion Moderator,
Contributing Editor,
FedInsider
