The perfect match: Agility and big data (VIDEO)

The federal government’s big data movement is a perfect example of the need for agility.

Federal agencies need tools and technologies to effectively consume data to get to real insight, said Andras Szakal, vice president and chief technology officer, U.S. Federal at IBM.

In an interview with FedScoopTV, Szakal said, “agility is the ability to effectively respond to changing missions and technology dynamics.” He continued, federal agencies need to be able to quickly implement new technologies and improve capabilities to provide services to its citizens.

Szakal said IBM helps agencies by providing commercial off the shelf, or COTS, products tailored for government. An example, IBM’s Watson Solution – made famous as a contestant on Jeopardy – these types of solutions help agencies analyze and utilize large amounts of data quickly.

Another area IBM helps its clients be more agile with is increased business process modernization, or BPM. BPM allows federal agencies to automate a number of their business processes. This will allow more time and energy to be put toward other projects. That type of added agility allows for better coordinating of development resources.

As for cloud computing, Szakal said its not as much a technology, but it is a set of paradigm shifts such as virtualization, resource pooling, utility services and the like wrapped together. The key for organizations is to look beyond the word cloud, and to look deeper inside at specific parts of the cloud to determine which are the best for their organization.

“Most government agencies will benefit by adopting some kind of hybrid model,” Szakal said.

Continue the discussion of agility with Szakal and other IBM leaders as well as executives from throughout the federal government at FedScoop’s Agile Government Summit held November 1, 2012, at the Renasissance in Washington, D.C.