The Department of Energy has received well-deserved acclaim for their ability to seamlessly transition to remote work in the face of COVID-19. Over the past three years, their investments in IT Modernization with an eye towards scalability turned what could have been an entire system re-architecture into a simple matter of purchasing more licenses.
But for Rocky Campione and his predecessor Max Everett, the duty of Department of Energy CIO wasn’t simply to enable mission partners to do their jobs. It was to take IT and apply it to the mission, empowering employees to do their jobs better. For them, it was ultimately about leveraging technology to reduce the friction to innovation.
Thinking Cloud-Smarter with Hybrid Cloud
That same framework has led agency CIOs to start to think about data differently. After the push to move everything to cloud, followed by the realization that certain data needed to be available on-premises, CIOs have worked to find the balance that best supports their mission. This hybrid approach of managing data to match application workload, security requirements, and cost efficiencies isn’t a novel concept, but in practice, implementation isn’t always straightforward.
Intelligent Data Fabrics and Dynamic Data Tiering
Vendors in industry have developed data tiering as a solution, which automates data management given policy-based decision-making. But some market-leaders, such as Hitachi Vantara, have taken this technology further, incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to support a dynamic, more intelligent, data tiering that reduces or eliminates the human intervention needed to generate policies in the first place.
The Future of Federal IT
As the culture around personal devices evolves across both civilian and defense agencies, data governance will become even more crucial to mission success. Agencies will turn towards expanding personal device management, collaboration tools, and cybersecurity to support their mission partners and foster innovation in their workforce.
To learn more about the Department of Energy’s successful IT Modernization initiatives and related insights from industry leaders, check out GovernmentMatter’s “Agency in Motion: Energy” program: