Jimmy Kelley, senior director of data center sales and strategy at Dell Technologies, said federal agencies looking to modernize their IT systems to achieve mission goals should improve their data storage and management efforts.
In an article published on Carahsoft.com, Kelley wrote that having effective data storage and management could enable agencies to improve their decision-making, ensure compliance with regulations and security protocols, and leverage cloud, big-data analytics and other innovations to improve service delivery.
The Dell Technologies executive noted that agencies should develop a comprehensive data strategy that allows them to safeguard prior investments, protect data regardless of location and provide them with the “maximum amount of flexibility while addressing the government’s decision criteria, including cost, compliance, performance, data sovereignty and security.”
3 Pillars to Guide Federal Data Strategy
Kelley explained that companies like Dell help federal customers decide whether data should be on premises or in the cloud by using three pillars: taking a people-centric approach, becoming intentionally data-driven and data-focused, and optimizing technology interoperability.
“By thinking through an agency’s needs from a line-of-business and people perspective, we can help the agency decide whether data belongs on premises or in the cloud and determine the best service model for managing all the data,” he wrote.
3 Steps to Advance Government Digital Transformation
According to Kelley, there are three concrete steps agencies should take to advance digital transformation.
The first two are modernizing the IT infrastructure to support an agency’s existing and future requirements and automating IT services delivery for application owners and specific business lines.
“The third step is to transform operations from the inside out to refine processes and train people,” he noted. “At Dell, we help agencies empower new ways of working by modernizing user experiences and fueling innovative decision-making with intuitive apps and data-driven insights.”
Kelley also highlighted the importance of finding an industry partner that could help agencies address digital challenges amid a rapidly changing security landscape.