Insight By ServiceNow

Agencies must prepare the steady wave of connected devices

The Internet of Things is changing the computing landscape across the government. From mobile and wearable devices to smart sensors in buildings to drones sendi...

Just three years ago, a Brookings Institution review of agency strategic plans found not one mention of the Internet of Things.

Now the Internet of Things is changing the computing landscape across the government. From mobile and wearable devices to smart sensors in buildings to drones sending back a volume and veracity of data like never before.

Almost everything is getting an IP address these days.

From GSA’s use of sensors to better manage costs of heating and cooling buildings to USDA’s efforts to more accurately gauge farm production, the government’s use of connected devices is skyrocketing.

In fact the growth of connected devices is happening around the world. The McKinsey Global Institute estimates 25-to-50 billion devices will be connected to the Internet by 2025 across the globe.

As agencies wade deeper into their IT modernization efforts, these connected devices will play a larger role in how they transform service delivery and meet mission goals.

So what does the broader use of connected devices mean for agencies, particularly as they move more and more applications to the cloud?

How do IoT devices change your approach to acquisition, security and data analytics? What are the policy questions that you still need to be address?

Shape

The Emerging Technologies Landscape

IoT is exploding across the world and impacting federal governments and really all highly regulated industries by causing us to look at how we define the borders of our enterprise differently. Those boundaries are now going to be blurred by the introduction of wearables and implantable devices that we don’t have control over.

Shape

Workflow

The technology, in many cases, is the easy part. It either works or it doesn’t work, for the most part. The two other legs of the stool that are equally important are the people and the process. They all have to be in balance for the overall technical or product or service to work. If they are not in balance, that’s when you get into problems.

Shape

Reexamining Security

Operational technology on this operational side is messier because of the technology that is currently being used. How can you secure and defend an OT system right now? What’s happening is you have a combo system. You don’t have OT by itself anymore. You have an OT and IT combination that you have to work with nowadays, especially with the new aircraft. They are half-and-half so you have to figure out what you have to do with defense.

 

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Panel of experts

  • Frank Konieczny

    Chief Technology Officer, Air Force

  • Phil Klokis

    Associate CIO, Public Buildings Service, GSA

  • Dr. Michael Valivullah

    Chief Technology Officer, National Agricultural Statistics Service, USDA

  • Bob Osborn

    Chief Technology Officer, Federal, ServiceNow

  • Jason Miller

    Executive Editor, Federal News Radio