Ep. 65 A Better Approach to Intelligence Analysis and Data Visibility

April 20, 2023

(Recorded at Ford’s Fish Shack in lovely downtown Ashburn, VA)

Our post-Covid world is full of clouds merging, remote data being collected, and a rash of new federal security initiatives. This is causing federal technology professionals to look for better ways to see what is on their network and then make decisions on how to use that data.

In the last six months, there has been a surge of interest in a company called Elastic.

During today’s interview with George Teas from Elastic, he shares with listeners the importance of accurately knowing what is on your system and how to manage data from multiple sources.

Many users need information quickly because they need actionable information. Elastic has evolved into an offering that can index petabytes of information in milliseconds.

In addition to speed, today’s hybrid network generates data from sensors from railroads, planes, and even geospatial information from satellite constellations. The range in type of information varies from structured to unstructured.

George Teas shares that two major concerns for the federal audience are data visibility and analytics. He uses the Department of Homeland Security as an example.

"There are two key problems that we kind of see with our customers across the board. One is data visibility, that's a major issue . . . the other one is data analytics"

George Teas, Elastic Tweet

Some estimate that DHS may have thirty to forty different data sources to pull from. If there is an imminent threat, managers must be able to draw information from on premises servers, proprietary information, the public cloud, as well as the hybrid cloud. A flexible system must be used to derive information from this complex system.

Once you have visibility into your system, Elastic can assist you in using tiered storage. Essentially, you can segment data into cheaper storage, and frozen storage to reduce cost or even analyze the data quicker.

Listen to the interview to gain a better perspective on breakthroughs in data analysis and visibility in the challenging world of cheap storage, multiple systems, and high-security requirements.

If you enjoyed this article, you may want to listen to Ep. 60 Solving a Billion Dollar Paper Problem