Digital Transformation: How to Stay Mission-Centric in a Hybrid World

Digital Transformation: How to Stay Mission-Centric in a Hybrid World MARKET TRENDS REPORT

Executive Summary

Long before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, agencies were looking to modernize their infrastructures and find ways to leverage their data more effectively. Not only did regulations require it, but it was also the only logical way forward. Then COVID-19 shut everything down. Agencies on the path to digital transformation already had a method for connecting to their workforce remotely. For other agencies, COVID-19 presented a solid argument for pressing ahead with renewed urgency.

Going forward, data is the key to mission success – getting it, ensuring its security, analyzing it and then making mission-critical decisions based on those insights. That’s not as easy as it sounds.

There are two important components that make data analysis possible: hybrid cloud infrastructure and data governance. A hybrid cloud infrastructure is critical for accessing data and managing critical applications in remote locations; it is also an important building block for training and modeling artificial intelligence (AI) models at the edge.

Strong data governance is equally important for enabling effective AI and machine learning (ML) at the edge. Effective data governance and management policies protect sensitive data and prevent users and devices from accessing data that they shouldn’t. Together, these building blocks help agencies use their data more efficiently.

To learn more about how agencies can get timely, actionable insights from any location using the right data, GovLoop partnered with Dell Technologies, which provides innovative digital solutions that help agencies accelerate their digital transformations.

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By The Numbers: Diving into Digital Transformation

96%

of digital leaders say that their ability to collect, analyze and act on data has made it easier to adapt and survive.

75%

of public sector officials said that their organizations’ digital transformation was spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic.

80% 73% of organizations fasttracked at least some digital transformation programs in 2020.

of business transformations fail due to poor planning.

89%

of federal respondents feel that their agencies are lagging in digital transformation.

More than 75% of leaders say that their organizations’ digital capabilities significantly helped them cope with the challenges triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic.

54%

of public sector respondents say that they have participated in a transformation program within the past two years.

6%

of public sector respondents said that they are very satisfied with the data access that their organization provides them to support decision-making.

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION: HOW TO STAY MISSION-CENTRIC IN A HYBRID WORLD

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How to Crack the Infrastructure Puzzle

Challenge: Getting Data to Where It’s Needed

Solution: A Robust Hybrid Infrastructure

It may seem obvious that technology should support the mission, but in many cases across government, technology can inhibit that support. Without the right infrastructure and processes in place, IT employees are often forced to create workarounds just to get users the resources that they need. Here are some of the biggest challenges that agencies are facing:

The first step in solving these challenges is adopting a robust hybrid cloud infrastructure combining public, private and edge clouds. This “cloud smart” model allows agencies to move workloads between on-premises environments and multiple clouds to satisfy privacy, security and productivity requirements. An ideal hybrid cloud infrastructure should offer a single-pane-of-glass environment that provides a consistent management experience and infrastructure that simplifies workload migration.

Access to all the data necessary for making missioncritical decisions: Data is critical to making decisions, but employees often don’t have easy access to all the data they need. That’s because data is everywhere – in data centers, multiple clouds and, more frequently, at locations far from an agency’s headquarters. There are also times when important data sets are inaccessible because they have been moved into secure or even secret repositories.

Fully secure, complete access to data from anywhere, on any device: The ability for employees working anywhere to have fully secure, complete access to resources is now critical, yet security and access remain challenges. With remote work now the norm, agencies are struggling to find ways to secure data while still providing access to valid users, and to secure the endpoint devices used to access this data.

Spotty connectivity and balky systems: Connectivity issues, latency and legacy systems can cause real bottlenecks.

This is especially true at the edge; depending on the location and local conditions, connectivity isn’t always a given. If there is connectivity, it is often spotty and slow. Yet the work of government never stops; analysts need access to data so they can train and run AI models, even in a disconnected mode.

Once connectivity is restored, the process can then continue.

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The second step is establishing a strong data governance model that protects both data and access by setting appropriate levels of access. Good data governance ensures that sensitive data is only accessible to approved users, and changes access appropriately for users who have left the organization or whose roles have changed. This is particularly important at remote or edge locations, where connectivity and other factors can impact security.

“Data governance is tied to who I am and what I can have access to, but it can also be tied to where I am at a current point in time,” said Mansour Yusuf, Chief Cloud Architect for Dell Technologies. “I may be in a location where I shouldn’t have access to particular data sets because it’s not a secure connection, or because opening that content in my current location could put that data at risk.”

Robust hybrid cloud infrastructure and good data governance provide the basis for running workloads anywhere successfully, whether at the core, the edge or in the cloud.

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Best Practices for Building a Hybrid Infrastructure

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Go With an Integrated Solution.

Point products are helpful – to a point. There are certainly plenty of good point solutions that support specific edge capabilities, but those are merely a stopgap measure, not a permanent fix. Consider instead an integrated solution that supports all requirements regardless of workload type or location.

Extend Your Infrastructure to the Edge.

With more data being generated at the edge – on aircraft and submarines, at accident scenes, in hospitals or vehicle depots – agencies want to be able to run AI and ML processes and algorithms so they can gain insights as quickly as possible.

“The idea is that analysts can act immediately from wherever they are by using algorithmic languages to preprocess data at the edge, and then pushing it back to the core when they are able to connect and get some real insight based on that data,” Yusuf said.

Keep Remote Workers on Task.

Study after study finds that public sector employees working remotely want to stay that way – but they can only do that if they have a seamless, secure experience. The best way to do that is by automating and standardizing how employees access resources, collaborate and communicate and providing each worker with the specific devices and applications they need.

Don’t Rush into Modernization.

While it’s tempting to jump on the modernization bandwagon, moving too fast can cause frustration and cost agencies much time and money. Instead, start by learning as much as you can about the cloud operating model. Next, take the time to understand your organization’s mission, workloads, remote work, security policies, flexibility requirements and appetite for risk. “You need to understand your agency’s True North: where you are starting and where you want to get, along with the points in between to get you there,” Yusuf said.

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION: HOW TO STAY MISSION-CENTRIC IN A HYBRID WORLD

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Case Study: Private Cloud + Public Cloud Services = Mission Success

While defense agencies almost always require secure connectivity and private clouds, some civilian agencies also need those capabilities. That was the situation one federal civilian agency found itself in. The agency needed to find a way to increase its use of cloud and cloud services while complying with policies that prohibited it from connecting to the outside world.

Consultants from Dell Technologies used a systematic approach to determine how to make it work. Consultants first identified the types of workloads the agency wanted to run in the cloud and gathered information on how it wanted to consume the capabilities. The most complicated requirement was incorporating data analysis using AI and ML at the edge securely.

Dell then began building a modern infrastructure using its own technology, Unified Workspace, in concert with technology from partners including Microsoft and VMware. The result was a private, on-premises cloud using public cloud services in a disconnected model. This allowed the agency to take advantage of the automation and orchestration services the cloud model provides. With this model, the agency was able to decouple some of its older, monolithic applications and use container services and other new platform-as-a-service (PaaS) capabilities for those applications.

For other functions, the agency could now build out an infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) option for many of its services within its own facility while still meeting policy and data security requirements. By tying edge data to a backend data lake, the agency now has a separate, secure repository for data to run continuous analytics.

HOW DELL TECHNOLOGY HELPS Dell Technologies has spent more than a decade helping governments modernize, automate and transform IT. With partnerships with more than 4,200 cloud providers, Dell has the expertise and reach to help agencies at all levels build private and hybrid cloud solutions and connect them with remote workers as well as edge data, devices and analytics.

Agencies today are choosing to take advantage of these capabilities by implementing Dell Technologies Unified Workspace, which provides an end-to-end approach to deploying, securing, managing and supporting devices. This solution provides ready-to-use devices with applications already provisioned using VMware Workspace ONE

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shipped directly to remote users or edge locations.

VMWare Workspace ONE allows agencies to deliver and manage applications from the cloud.

Unified Workspace secures endpoints from both above and below the operating system and uses intelligent solutions like Dell SafeGuard and Response to prevent, detect and remediate attacks and Dell SafeData to encrypt sensitive data on devices and in the cloud. Dell SafeID can then handle credential protection and Dell SafeBIOS can complete the security protection. Unified Workspace also incorporates DellProSupport for PCs to automatically detect issues, while relying on predictive analytics for proactive issue prevention.

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Conclusion

Data is critical to agency operations and effectiveness at every level, not only for information access and effective application usage, but for the increasingly important output of models that use AI and ML to generate insights.

A modern hybrid cloud infrastructure combined with enforceable data government policies is the anchor that provides secure, complete access to data from any location, on any device. With these capabilities, users can preprocess, train and model AI applications at the edge, providing the kind of real-time insights that can make the difference between mission success and failure.

ABOUT DELL

ABOUT GOVLOOP

Dell Technologies is a unique family of businesses that provides the essential infrastructure for organizations to build their digital future, transform IT, and protect their most important asset, information.

GovLoop’s mission is to “connect government to improve government.” We aim to inspire public-sector professionals by serving as the knowledge network for government.

GovLoop connects more than 300,000 members, fostering cross-government collaboration, solving common problems and advancing government careers. GovLoop is headquartered in Washington, D.C., with a team of dedicated professionals who share a commitment to connect and improve government.

For more information about this report, please reach out to info@govloop.com.

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION: HOW TO STAY MISSION-CENTRIC IN A HYBRID WORLD

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