Page 23 - FCW, Sept/Oct 2018

IT MODERNIZATION ENABLING DATA TO ADVANCE CITIZEN SERVICES
In IT Modernization, All Roads Lead to Data
How agencies are breaking down silos to deliver better citizen services
With ambitious plans underway to modernize the way government uses information technology, awareness is growing that it all boils down to one thing: data.
Modernizing IT means viewing data not as
a byproduct of agencies and missions, but as a strategic asset to be leveraged throughout. That, in turn, means adopting different ways of handling data.
“The U.S. government is one of the largest producers of data,” said Karina Homme, senior director for Microsoft Azure Government. “Every day, thousands of federal workers are collecting,
analyzing and distributing massive amounts of data, from weather forecasts to economic indicators to health statistics. Data is increasingly becoming
a source of public value creation. Given this,
it’s good to see that the President’s Management Agenda (PMA) calls out data as a primary goal, acknowledging it as a strategic asset for agencies.”
The PMA, released by the White House in March, calls for the development of a federal data strategy to drive better data exchange. The document parallels the Modernizing Government Technology Act (MGT), which was included in last year’s National Defense Authorization Act and created funding
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