DLT Solutions recently sat down with NetApp Senior Director of U.S. Public Sector Channel Sales, David Drahozal, to discuss the recent revolution of NetApp's data fabric solutions.

DLT: So David, tell us a little about what you do at NetApp.

David: For over a decade, I’ve had the privilege of leading the US Public Sector channel here at NetApp.  Its been a real exciting time as we have evolved from a NAS company to a leader in the consolidated virtualized data center, to today being a leader in hybrid cloud capabilities.

Any federal IT pro can tell you that analyzing log files is something they’ve been doing for years. That said, as applications get more complex, performance becomes more important and security issues increase. Log analytics are fast becoming a critical component of an agency’s monitoring and management infrastructure.

So much data, so little time. Disparate sources such as sensors, machines, geo-location devices, social feeds, server and security system logs, and more, are generating terabytes of data at unfathomable speeds. Getting any kind of real-time insight and, we dare you to dream, acting on that data as it flows in, is not an easy feat for resource-constrained government agencies.

Blockchain is no longer just a buzzword or simply a “technology to watch.” This database technology is being explored by agencies across government, from the General Services Administration (GSA) to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), from the Federal Maritime Commission to military supply chain professionals across the Department of Defense (DoD).

The promise of blockchain is dramatic. It can help enhance agencies’ business processes and provide far greater transparency and efficiency.

DLT has been a partner of Ansible for several years, and in 2015 when another partner of ours, Red Hat, acquired Ansible, our government customers gained new opportunity to make the automated enterprise a reality.

What is Ansible?

Your database is truly critical to the successful operation of your data center, yet databases pose extraordinarily complex management challenges. Try as you might to resolve issues as they arise, you may find yourself coming up short.

Part of the problem is that many people consider database health and performance to be one and the same, but that’s not necessarily the case. These concepts aren’t strictly interchangeable, and if you treat them as such, you may be impeding your own ability to troubleshoot.

Want a good idea of “what’s coming next” in federal IT? Look no further than the financial services industry.

Consider the similarities between financial firms and government agencies. Both are highly regulated and striving for greater agility and efficiency and better control of their networks and data—not to mention both are highly regulated. Meanwhile, cybersecurity remains a core necessity for organizations in both industries.

Social media has had a significant impact on federal, state, and local governments across the country. From the routine to the critical, social media has become a vital tool for building awareness of missions, sharing policy updates, communicating services and products, and enhancing citizen engagement. The immediacy of social media is also particularly useful to emergency response agencies who can leverage its outreach capabilities to aid response efforts.

Data is an incredibly important asset. Unfortunately, too many agencies continue to treat data as an easily replaced commodity.

But we’re not talking about a database administrator’s (DBA) iTunes library. We’re talking highly sensitive and important government data that can be too easily lost or compromised.

It’s time to stop treating data as a commodity and create a secure and reliable data recovery plan by following a few core strategies.

Growing data volumes and burgeoning virtual workloads are putting increasing pressure on public sector data center power and storage systems, while also taking a toll on staff and tax payer dollars.

Performance silos, forklift upgrades and increasing licensing costs are forcing organizations to change how they do business. But agencies can turn this situation around in a flash!