For years, however, this concept of data alignment and integration wasn’t easy. There was not a great way to pull data together without relying on manual efforts to obtain that 360 degree view of the information.

Over the last 3-to-5 years, this concept has been able to gain real traction with the development and acceptance of the cloud and better big data tools.

One driving force behind this effort is the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act (DATA Act).

Just take a look at what the Small Business Administration is doing because of the DATA Act.

SBA developed its Grants Data Explorer, which is a visualization tool that keeps track of what grants the agency is making, where they’re going and how much grant money the recipient has used.

The agency is developing four flat files and adding information on appropriations, object classes and activities and awards — with a fourth file that links awards and financial data together.

At the Consumer Product Safety Commission, as another example, the issue isn’t how much data, but the velocity and variety of data it collects.

The CPSC is using the cloud to develop a data lake to deal with its information management and governance challenges.

These two examples are among the hundreds across the government that are trying to figure out how best to address not just the velocity and variety, but also the volume of data.

To reach the ideal world of seamless integration, there are several challenges, including the cost to maintain the information and to bring it all together either in one place or so it runs across one set of tools.

Another ongoing challenge is the data tends to be static so how do agencies use tools to understand the data, make necessary changes, add or take away intelligence from this historic data and give it to the agency’s decision makers?

All of this comes back to the three areas that every should focus upon and the ones that we will explore today: data integration, data agility and enterprise data management.

Moderator

Jason Miller, Federal News Radio

Jason Miller is an executive editor and reporter with Federal News Radio. As executive editor, Jason helps direct the news coverage of the station and works with reporters to ensure a broad range of coverage of federal technology, procurement, finance and human resource news.As a reporter, Jason focuses mainly on technology and procurement issues, including cybersecurity, e-government and acquisition policies and programs.

Panelists

Thomas Beach, Senior Advisor, Office of the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

Thomas A. Beach is a Senior Advisor in Office of the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). As a Senior Advisor, Thomas supports the Director and the Deputy Director of the USPTO to achieve mission critical goals of delivering timely and quality patents and trademarks, and to manage operations of the agency. Thomas A. Beach also serves as the acting Portfolio Manager/Lead of the Digital Service & Data Analytics (DSDA) IT Portfolio to develop and deliver on both Open Data and Big Data initiatives to unleash and unlock the value of patent and trademark data and to harness the power of “big data” enterprise-wide as a data-driven analytics program (data science and machine learning based) to gain business intelligence and insights at every operational level to ensure that patents and trademarks are of the highest quality.

Previously, he has served a detail at the Partnership for Public Service in Washington, DC, focusing on the Ready to Govern: Improving the Presidential Transition program. At the USPTO, Thomas served as a Supervisor and Patent Examiner covering Offshore Oil & Gas Technologies and Business Methods (Fixed Income & Stock Trading and Portfolio Management). His additional work experience includes Strategic Patent Analyst at NIKE, Inc; Corporate Development at The Patent & License Exchange, a start-up company in Pasadena, CA; and Equity Research Analyst for Integrated Oil Companies at Allianz Asset Management GmbH in Munich, Germany. As a graduate from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Engineering, Thomas received his Master’s Degree from Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business.

Kelly Tshibaka, Chief Data Officer, U.S. Postal Service Office of the Inspector General

In November 2015, Kelly Tshibaka was appointed Chief Data Officer in the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General, where data analytics has resulted in more than $920M in financial impact or audit findings in FY16. Prior to this appointment, she served as the Acting Inspector General of the Federal Trade Commission.

Kelly also served in the Office of the Director for National Intelligence (ODNI), conducting civil liberties and privacy oversight and serving as Counsel to the Inspector General. Prior to the ODNI, Kelly served as the Special Assistant to the Department of Justice Inspector General, conducting sensitive investigations; overseeing audits, investigations, and inspections; and assisting in managing employees nationwide.

Kelly is a graduate of Texas A&M University and Harvard Law School. She grew up in Alaska and currently resides in the D.C. area with her husband Niki and five children.

Atri Kalluri, Chief of the Decennial Information Technology Division, U.S. Census Bureau

Atri Kalluri has worked for 20 years at the Census Bureau, and is currently the Chief of Decennial Information Technology Division.  He is responsible for provisioning IT solutions in support of Decennial (2020), American Community Survey (ACS), Geographic Support System (GSS) programs and Center for Enterprise Dissemination Services and Consumer Innovation.  Prior to that he was the Assistant Division Chief for Spatial Data Systems and Database Management.  Atri is a proven technology leader and innovator with a track record in implementing enterprise solutions in support of national programs and initiatives.  He helped implement state of the art solutions that enabled unprecedented geospatial data processing capability for the Census Bureau.  He pioneered the design and development of software systems for automated update and improvement of the Master Address File/Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing (MAF/TIGER) database.  He led the development of solutions, systems, and services that are playing a critical role in the creation and dissemination of authoritative data that feeds the geospatial industry in the country.  He also led the development and Cloud implementation of tools and systems for the local, state, and tribal governments to help assess and improve their geospatial data, and to securely exchange that data with the Census Bureau.

Navin Vembar, Chief Technology Officer, General Services Administration

Navin Vembar is the CTO of the General Services Administration, and formerly lead the IT for the Integrated Award Environment. He’s been in the federal space since 2001 across multiple agencies. His passion is to bring together technology and innovation to solve government and citizen problems.

Jon Bakke, Executive Vice President of Customer Operations, MarkLogic

Jon Bakke has 23 years of secure enterprise systems experience, with an exceptional track record in innovation, customer service, solution development, delivery and global team leadership.

Mr. Bakke is an industry expert in data management and software development, having worked at companies that include Oracle, Hewlett Packard (EDS), Northrop Grumman, and Sprint.  Jon leads the worldwide field teams at MarkLogic where he has been an executive for over 5 years.  During that time, MarkLogic has shifted its go-to-market aspirations to align with Customer Outcomes to, in turn, align with MarkLogic’s growth objectives in the Enterprise Software Market under his leadership.  Prior to MarkLogic, Jon managed an Oracle business that developed an ultra-secure, ultra-scale database platform for specialized use in the United States Government to successfully support customers with the extremely sophisticated Cyber Security requirements – this domain continues to be a passion and focus for his teams in all verticals at MarkLogic.  At Sprint, Jon was the principle architect for the Nextel Online platform in the late 1990’s that integrated Internet with Cellular Telephony for the first time in a cutting edge project that was state-of-the-art in its day.

Jon is an active and avid supporter of the Kessler Foundation for People with Disabilities and United Cerebral Palsy charities.

He holds a Master’s Degree from East Carolina University and a Bachelor’s Degree from Saint Cloud State University.

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