5) Edge Analytics
Analytics is rapidly evolving from a separate and distinct business function into a fluid aspect of system operations and user experiences.
The capabilities of edge analytics are particularly relevant as government CIOs and agency program leaders design new mobile services that are augmented by situational context and real-time interactions.
Edge analytics possess three distinct characteristics. Primarily, they are advanced — they apply predictive and prescriptive algorithms and cognitive computing to make real-time assessments about what will happen or what should happen.
Second, edge analytics are pervasive. They are embedded into business processes and applications to deliver responsive and agile organisational performance. Finally, edge analytics are invisible.
They operate continuously in the background, tracking user activity, processing sensor and environmental data, dynamically adjusting workflows to enhance the user experience, or managing activities during events as they unfold.
6) Scalable Interoperability
Government agencies are starting to increasingly rely on data exchange with external partners in order to optimise their service delivery networks and business functions, such as cross-boundary collaboration and service coordination, monitoring and outcome reporting.
Scalable interoperability offers government CIOs, enterprise architects and business process analysts an incremental, "just enough" approach to architecture and standards to deliver "soon enough" value.
By narrowing the scope of interoperability initiatives, a motivated community of interest — that is, stakeholders who receive tangible benefits from improved data exchange — can agree to use application-neutral and source-neutral extensible identifiers, formats and protocols to achieve mutual goals.
7) Digital Government Platforms
In digital business, citizens should no longer have to navigate among various agencies and programs through vertical, first generation e-government Web portals in order to locate the services they seek.
A digital government platform incorporates service-oriented architecture (SOA) design patterns for the provision and use of enterprise services across multiple domains, systems and processes.
Vendor offerings are still at an early stage, and they focus primarily on supporting smart cities; examples include IBM Smarter Cities, Microsoft CityNext, Cisco Smart+Connected Communities, SAP Urban Matters, Oracle's Solutions for Smart Cities and Capgemini's Global Cities.
Despite their focus on operational technologies and the Internet of Things (IoT), these platforms address many of the issues pertaining to the data exchange and event triggering that are typical of digital government.
8) Internet of Things
The IoT is the network of physical objects (fixed or mobile) that contains embedded technology to communicate, monitor, sense or interact with multiple environments. For government, the IoT enables the digital transformation of service strategies.
Government agencies can expect IoT-driven changes in several different areas, including environmental or public infrastructure monitoring, emergency response, supply chain inspection, asset and fleet management, and traffic safety.
Government CIOs will need to approach the IoT strategically to evaluate how a growing base of intelligent objects and equipment can be combined with traditional Internet and IT systems to support breakthrough innovations in operational performance or public service delivery.
9) Web-Scale IT
Web-scale IT is a system-oriented architectural pattern of global-class computing that delivers the capabilities of large cloud service providers within an enterprise IT organisation.
Web-scale IT enables the rapid and scalable development and delivery of Web-based IT services that leverage agile, lean and continuous delivery principles. For government, the shift to Web-scale IT is a long-term trend with significant IT process, cultural and technology implications.
Organisations adopting a Web-scale IT philosophy will largely eschew the acquisition of expensive, scalable computing, storage and networking resources in favour of lower-cost, open-source-derived hardware that bypasses the traditional infrastructure "middlemen."
Consequently, traditional IT suppliers and delivery modes will become less relevant to government IT.
10) Hybrid Cloud (and IT)
Hybrid IT offers government CIOs a new operating model that supports their IT departments' ability to combine and manage on-premises infrastructure or internal private cloud with external cloud-based environments (community, public or hybrid) simultaneously.
Hybrid IT is how IT departments are organised to secure, deliver, manage and govern these environments.
In government, where consolidation is high on many agendas, a hybrid IT model requires very different competencies to support various public cloud deployments.
Government CIOs will need to reposition IT organisations from being full-service providers of IT services to being their agencies' preferred brokers and managers of services offered predominantly through the cloud.