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GovConExec Spring Issue Expands on Big Data Opportunities, Mergers

GovConExec, published by GovCon Wire’s parent company Executive Mosaic, released the Spring 2012 issue, providing the latest news and government contracting executive views on healthcare, mobility, the current budget environment as well as on the new market buzz big data.

GovConExec explores how big data is impacting the contracting community in its feature article, “The Big Picture on Big Data.” Industry experts weigh in on how the 2.5 quintillion bytes of data produced each day poses both opportunities and problems in the government space.

Mark Herman, executive vice president for Booz Allen Hamilton, told GovConExec that Booz is going where the data is, playing a role with electronic health records, trade and immigration, financial and improved payments and climate and weather science.

GeoEye is similarly following suit investing in analytic and processing technologies as well as with its $3.8 billion, 10-year contract win with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency for imagery and related services.

Brian O’Toole, GeoEye chief technology officer, explained to GovConExec that while the government previously did much of the work cataloguing data and making it available on government-run archival systems, his company is now providing those services in a software-as-a-service model.

Big data is driving a new set of contract services demands, which government contracting firms are shaping themselves to meet. With big data came a flurry of acquisitions within the government contracting community.

GovConExec highlghts ManTech International Corp.’s (NASDAQ: MANT) purchase of federal healthcare systems integrator Evolvent Technologies Inc. for an undisclosed amount as well as General Dynamics'(NYSE: GD) $960 million purchase of healthcare IT Vangent Inc. for approximately $960 million cash.

Sotera Defense Solutions completed the acquisition of  Potomac Fusion Inc. and IBM (NYSE: IBM) acquired intelligence analytics firm i2 Group to expand the company’s big data solutions to the government space. SAP additionally acquired a company that specifically tailored its offerings to meet new market demands.

GovConExec says SAP’s Sybase company, which is being realigned into a national security services organization, developed solutions specifically for that target area.

GovConExec provides an overview the varying needs of government agencies dealing with big data. Among the top needs is affordable storage capacity for the large amount of data sets agencies deal with.

Mark Weber, NetApp public sector senior vice president, tells GovConExec there “aren’t enough disc drives in the world to store all the data these sensors are going to suck in, nor does anyone have enough money to buy all those disc drives.”

Potential applications of harnessing big data affect multiple government sectors, but a huge challenge remains in the capacity for storage and the cost those capabilities yield.

See the full picture of all that the C-level suite executives had to say on big data and its market implications in the full magazine issue.

The GovCon Industry-focused magazine is available for subscription,  here.

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