Public Sector Predictions - 2021 How mission-driven organizations will use cloud and security modernization to accelerate digital transformation ...
←
→
Page content transcription
If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below
Public Sector Predictions 2021 How mission-driven organizations will use cloud and security modernization to accelerate digital transformation
Accelerating
Change in a
Mission-Driven
World
2020 was a year of amazing challenge and opportunity
for public organizations. The COVID-19 pandemic led
to global shutdowns that made many government
services more important than ever, while challenging
those organizations’ ability to deliver those services.
Worldwide, the public sector was called upon to accelerate
their digital transformation — not to steadily improve and
modernize services, but to continue delivering them in a time
of disruptive crisis.
Splunk Public Sector Predictions 2021 | 02“To effectively operate digitally, organizations had to accelerate or translate work to digital processes, and shift from in-person to remote collaboration,” says Suzanne Campbell, Splunk’s area vice president for federal sales engineering. “And it had to happen virtually overnight.” There were some heroics involved. Some breaking of logjams to accelerate modernization to keep serving constituencies through the crisis. Every year, Splunk produces our Predictions report, contemplating the near horizon for data-driven technologies, broken down into an Executive leadership report, and three tech-focused reports: IT Operations, Data Security and Emerging Technologies. The reports are industry-agnostic, which is effective when you’re looking at the rollout of 5G, coming applications of AI/ML or the challenges of leading through unprecedented times. But the public sector is a unique arena, worthy of separate consideration. It is, in fact, several unique arenas, with their own agendas around using technology to ensure mission success.
“Trying to cover the entire public sector perspective is difficult,” notes Juliana Vida,
Splunk’s chief technical advisor for the public sector and a former deputy CIO for
the U.S. Navy. “As across any industry, there’s such a huge range of maturity levels,
of leadership buy-in and prioritization around technology.”
But we do have one blanket prediction for public agencies: 2021 will be a
new era for data in government, says Frank Dimina, Splunk’s vice president of
public sector. Between the disorder and rapid transformation of the pandemic
and a fractious U.S. election year, Dimina predicts continued and heightened
interest in transformative digital technologies and the power of data to
improve government services and citizen experience.
Splunk Public Sector Predictions 2021 | 04“Government is moving with an agility we’ve never seen in peacetime,” Dimina says.
“Just one example: The U.S. Department of Defense moved a million people to remote
work in a month. That sort of thing would normally be a four-year project, but due to
the pandemic, the government is able to work at mission speeds — less debate and
more action. We’re seeing agencies across government react to the pandemic with
that crisis agility, and I think we’ll continue to see more of it in the years ahead.”
Our main reports address the progress of individual
key technologies. Here’s a look at the issues around
leadership and digital transformation that will
guide leaders at public agencies as they
continue their transformative journey.
Splunk Public Sector Predictions 2021 | 05Predictions and Survival
Strategies for 2021
Leadership Predictions Technology Predictions
08 14
Digital transformation will continue to DevOps is here, though you’d be
accelerate — despite familiar headwinds. forgiven for not having noticed.
10 15
Remote work will continue, even after Zero trust will get bigger — fast.
government workers are back in their offices.
16
11 Ransomware attacks will get worse,
The public sector will be a model of successful demanding a broader response.
retraining programs.
17
12 Edge computing will prove itself in the
Digital transformation will redefine public Defense arena.
organizations’ partner networks.
18
AI/ML will also make strides, starting
with Defense.Leadership Predictions
Prediction
Digital transformation will
continue to accelerate —
despite familiar headwinds.
COVID-19 forced (or allowed) many organizations to cut through slow processes,
or allocate funds, to maintain service continuity as the pandemic triggered sudden
shutdowns. And this proved the value of fast action, the importance of digital
resiliency, and the power of government to get things done at speed.
“COVID has dramatically accelerated the discussion around IT “The acceleration is still not as fast as many
modernization,” says Bill Wright, Splunk’s director of federal would like to see, though, because all
government affairs. “I was on a call with a key leader in the organizations can’t approach the cloud
U.S. government whose discussions were around moving the and SaaS collaboration tools with open
government off legacy systems once and for all.” arms,” Vida says. “Legacy technology
debt will continue to hold many of
Juliana Vida agrees, citing cloud, DevOps practices and remote
them back in 2021, even as they
work, just for starters. “It’s a pressurized situation, where people
do their best to modernize.”
and organizations that have been slower to transform have had
to move to a more modern way of doing business.” In 2020, this At the federal level, the
looked like leaving the desktop machine in the office building and pandemic provided a
embracing virtual collaboration tools from your home laptop. It kick in the pants for
probably meant little to no in-person interaction with citizens, cloud adoption.
replacing those interactions with mobile apps or improved
website presence.“COVID-19 drove home the essential nature of keeping citizen But funding is always scarce, and as Vida says, legacy debt is
services up and running,” Wright says. “It underscores the significant for many government organizations. Against those
importance of getting off cumbersome and costly legacy headwinds, transformation will continue — faster than we saw
systems, and there’s more appetite to fund some of those before the pandemic, but never as fast as leaders, and citizens,
transitions as policymakers are recognizing the many benefits might like.
that go beyond cost savings.”
“The good news is that despite the pace of actual outcomes
And he adds that appropriators and authorizers on Capitol and results,” Vida says, “we’re seeing more discussion and
Hill are singularly focused on getting agencies to continue this increased desire by leaders across agencies to modernize. The
effort. “I think there are more than 1,800 federal IT programs pandemic was a real-world proof of concept that cloud and other
that are either migrating or considering migrating to the cloud modernization strategies are now a mission-critical priority.”
in fiscal 2021.”
At the state, local and education (SLED) level, data heroes really
rose to the occasion.
“2020 was an eye-opening experience for SLED, in terms of how
quickly organizations can react to adopting a new technology
or methodology,” says Adnan Hindi, senior director of sales
engineering at Splunk. “As a sector, small and local governments
rallied to get through the red tape, to find the quickest possible
way to ensure effective continuity of services.”
“COVID has driven an unparalleled increase in creativity and
innovation at the state and city level,” Dimina agrees. “States
have made generational leaps forward in their ability to deliver
digital services during COVID. We’ve seen amazing work around
critical citizen services such as delivering unemployment
benefits. But to continue this trend, states need more tools.
They need more funding.”Prediction
Remote work will continue,
even after government workers
are back in their offices.
In general, the public sector has not been at the vanguard of remote work. There
were logistical, cultural and technological reasons keeping most public employees
at their desks. But the pandemic made adaptation essential, and as we prepare
this report, countless numbers of public sector workers are logging in remotely
and getting the job done.
In a year full of challenge and struggle for the public sector, productivity is not a new concept, but government
remote work has been an undeniably good-news story. agencies have been more deliberative about it. As
“Breaking the paradigm that it’s necessary to be in the office with technological modernization, the pandemic has
to do the job has been a giant positive step forward, and will jumpstarted perspectives on productivity and how
be long-lasting,” Vida says. to effectively deliver citizen services.
While there is no doubt that offices will fill up again as This focus on performance over presence will allow
soon as it’s safe to bring people back, this year-plus a worker to, say, log in from home to more easily make
experiment in remote work will have lasting implications. a dentist appointment. It will also make it easier for
For one thing, working remotely will be more common organizations to hire talent from beyond their local
in the public sector. For another, it will change how commuter range. That, Vida says, is exciting.
leaders think about productivity.
“The people who work for government want to be
“We’ve heard more leaders talking about the need to look public servants,” Vida says, “and that can sometimes
at performance and outcomes rather than hours on the be limited by geographic boundaries. I think that
clock,” Vida says. Rethinking how to measure workforce post-COVID, there will be more possibilities.”
Splunk Public Sector Predictions 2021 | 10Prediction
The public sector will be a model of
successful retraining programs.
The Data Age creates new roles and requires new skills. Much has been written about
private sector concerns around workers whose skills are suddenly unnecessary in an
age of automation and machine learning, and businesses that won’t be able to find
employees with the new skills those technologies will demand. One part of the solution
is retraining in the workplace, but there has been some question about how much of
the private sector will welcome that opportunity and responsibility.
By contrast, we expect the public sector to more proactively That work is essential, Vida says, noting that “it’s not just
embrace the need for on-the-job retraining. While specific about teaching specific new skills to individual workers,
technological skills may atrophy quickly in the Data Age, many making a few tweaks or updates. It’s a major cultural
public sector employees carry decades of legacy expertise shift. ... There’s a lot of progress to be made in terms of
about the workings of bureaucracy, legislative requirements data skills and data democratization.”
and the responsibilities of their mission. It’s frankly easier to
Frank Dimina says that agencies should expect their
teach a person with that background how to work with data
private-sector partners to help: “It’s crucial for vendors
technologies than it is to instill all that organizational intelligence
to provide tools that accelerate government workforce
in a tech-savvy newcomer.
adoption and development.”
“Many more jobs will need competency around data — not just
IT, but across government organizations,” says Bill Wright. “The
ability to work with data increasingly drives who gets hired and
promoted, and there’s a lot of reskilling going on to help current
federal employees grow as their agencies modernize.”
Splunk Public Sector Predictions 2021 | 11Prediction
Digital transformation will redefine
public organizations’ partner networks.
The above note on vendor partnership in retraining has greater implications: In the post-COVID
world, the public sector will have to reassess what it expects from its partners in private industry.
To be clear, there is no “back to work” for the many public than tech products, but real insight and assistance in driving
organizations that have had to keep going through the pandemic mission success. This prediction is as much a wake-up call for
without skipping a beat. But the post-pandemic “normal” will the ecosystem around the public sector as for public sector
include a lot of new technology and roles following rapid leaders themselves.
digitization, and new ideas on how to ensure mission success
Post-COVID, Hindi says, public organizations are going to have a
through resilience.
different approach to digitization and to business continuity.
“Once you’ve found the new normal, then what?” asks Adnan
“They are going to be looking for real partners,” he says. “Not just
Hindi. “You have made it through the crisis, but what comes next?
providers of this or that technology, but partners who understand
How do you make sure that your quick response to one crisis
the importance of their mission and can help them maintain
hasn’t left you vulnerable to others?”
operations, modernize and move forward.”
Public sector leaders are not going to need vendors as much
as they’ll need partners — organizations that provide more
Splunk Public Sector Predictions 2021 | 12Technology Predictions
It’s difficult to discuss individual technologies through a public sector lens because
there is no single public sector lens. What 5G means to the U.S. Department of
Defense is very different from its value to a county government in Oklahoma or a
sheriff’s department in Michigan. What the state of California wants from AI will be
very different from the province of Ontario, or a public hospital in Florida, or a state
university in Colorado.
Our main reports on IT Operations, Data Security and Emerging Technologies discuss
broad trends. Our public sector team recommends those reports, and here offers a
handful of specific technology thoughts for the public sector.
Splunk Public Sector Predictions 2021 | 13Prediction
DevOps is here, though you’d be
forgiven for not having noticed.
The pandemic forced the public sector’s ITOps teams to react quickly, think of the end user
or constituent, and implement new metrics to track all the changes. These are elements of
DevOps, the cultural approach to IT delivery that combines people, practices and tools to
accelerate the development and delivery of digital services. It’s a transformative movement
that has been quickly embraced by the built-from-nothing startups of Silicon Valley, but
has found slower traction in large organizations, public and private, that have deep
legacies around technology and process.
“But, thanks to the pandemic, organizations that had a purely “In the SLED space, I’ve seen more
traditional style of IT operations have had to adapt to a more organizations come to us and other
responsive, remote and cloud-based environment,” says Adnan technology companies and say, ‘How do
Hindi, Splunk’s senior director of sales engineering. “And to do you operate?’” Hindi says. “And from those
so, they adopted many measurable micro-metrics associated conversations, they learn about the skill sets,
with DevOps. Public agencies that never used to be DevOps processes and approaches associated with
operations adopted these techniques organically as a way to the DevOps culture.
scale and thrive during the pandemic.”
“IT professionals who don’t think of
While formal, enterprise-wide adoption of DevOps may lag that of themselves as DevOps practitioners may
the private sector, expect standard IT operations to continue to be surprised where they end up. In the
embrace the fluidity and nimbleness of DevOps where it furthers public sector, it’s going to be something
their mission. And that should make it easier to continue to you back into.”
modernize the processes and the culture of pubsec IT.Prediction
Zero trust will get bigger — fast.
In our main Data Security Predictions report, Splunk CISO Yassir Abousselham and former Obama
White House security expert Mick Baccio note that endpoint protection, particularly the zero
trust model, are gaining traction faster thanks to the pandemic’s perimeter-addling effects. From
a public sector perspective, we agree, particularly on this technology topic, that the private sector
doesn’t have a huge head start.
“Public sector organizations are highlighting the importance of There’s been less interest and momentum around
adopting a zero trust approach,” says Suzanne Campbell, Splunk’s the zero trust framework in SLED organizations, says
area vice president for federal sales engineering. “Zero trust was Juliana Vida, Splunk’s chief technical advisor for the
already a priority before the pandemic, but now agencies are public sector. “Even at the federal level, I’m happy to
leaning in with the sustained shift to remote operations this year. see the broad adoption of the zero trust concept
Given the continued importance of security and trusted access, but I haven’t seen enough focus on the essential
zero trust initiatives should have meaningful funding.” underlying element, which is data.”
“Zero trust is definitely more than a buzzword now,” says Bill Still, she says, it’s good to see federal interest
Wright, Splunk’s director of federal government affairs. “There perk up along with the private sector’s
are projects in NIST and several agencies are already planning to adoption. And given the realities of the
implement changes to their existing architecture in line with zero pandemic and the overall focus on resilience,
trust principles. What started out at the Defense Department expect endpoint protection to be a leading IT
has moved beyond DoD to be a government-wide strategy with security initiative in the public sector through
budget requests behind it.” 2021 and beyond.
Splunk Public Sector Predictions 2021 | 15Prediction Ransomware attacks will get worse, demanding a broader response. Ransomware attacks increased in frequency, sophistication and impact in 2020. The targets ranged from private enterprise to national utilities. And the availability of out-of- the-box ransomware software increases the number of malefactors, and a recent paper by Booz Allen Hamilton notes that cybercriminals openly discuss such strategies as venture funding ransomware tool development or offering ransomware as a service. Ransomware is a particular threat to public agencies, especially at a time when the need for many public services, and the ways they’re delivered, are strained by COVID. In the United States, we expect increasing federal support for the state and local entities most often attacked. Because, quite frankly, those smaller entities — cities, counties, election infrastructure, public hospitals, school districts, etc. — need the help. “There’s heightened interest in trying to shore up state and local organizations against ransomware,” Bill Wright says. “There has been a more focused federal effort on that in the United States, and it has been seen as a bipartisan issue.” Wright says that federal funding to the smaller SLED organizations will be essential because existing budgets just won’t let the smaller entities do enough to prevent cyber hijacking.
Prediction
Edge computing will prove itself
in the Defense arena.
Our Emerging Technology Predictions report notes that an essential value to edge
computing is how it brings multiple technologies together. The core idea of moving
information processing out of centralized data centers, whether in the cloud or on
premises, to the “edge” of the network, where the data originates and actions are
taken, is solid. But add 5G connectivity, increasingly sophisticated machine learning
algorithms and more robust automation, and you’ve really got something.
We see this edge potential having value to public agencies. The U.S. Dept.
of Defense is already showing considerable interest.
“Edge computing really lends itself to federal and defense applications,”
says Suzanne Campbell, Splunk’s area vice president for federal sales
engineering. “Solutions at the edge deliver efficiency and options for
mission and tactical needs — on a ship, an aircraft, a remote operation.
Getting data and immediate insights on a platform with reduced capacity,
isolated from the main operating environment, is really important.”
The applications of edge computing in forward military positions
will drive investment. We see further use cases emerging around
emergency management and disaster relief, border patrol and other
law enforcement operations, wildfire mitigation and more. And where
national governments go, expect ripple effects across state and local
agencies and even whole industries.
Splunk Public Sector Predictions 2021 | 17Prediction AI/ML will also make strides, starting with Defense. Artificial intelligence and machine learning are going to be huge in the public sector. In our Emerging Technology report, Splunk Head of Machine Learning Ram Sriharsha discusses the dangers of adversarial attacks — sabotaging AI by sabotaging the data — and the challenges around ethical development of algorithms, as well as the near-term horizon for truly self-learning algorithms. In the public sector, expect Defense to again lead the way. The U.S. Dept. of Defense is actively interested in the applications of AI/ML. Bill Wright notes that the department’s Joint Artificial Intelligence Center FY21 budget request represented a significant increase over the previous year. Along with AI, automation is a hot topic. Wright notes that in the federal government, he’s definitely seeing robotic process automation find traction. “RPA is doing quite well,” he says. “Whether it ultimately gets proper footing has yet to be seen. But I’ve seen a lot of RPA-related contracts going through.”
Forward Thinking Required In 2021 and beyond, the most successful public sector organizations will be those who make the most progress in digital transformation — and peers who have lagged will take notice. “Some organizations are holding onto old strategies, and coping with COVID by investing in legacy hardware,” says Juliana Vida. “It’s hard to change leadership reflexes, especially in a stressful situation when the chips are down. But we’re definitely seeing a deeper understanding of the importance of new technologies and new paradigms.” Frank Dimina says that as organizations get past the immediate crisis, they need to think beyond the technological improvements and explore the larger picture. “For many organizations, digital transformation means moving to cloud,” Dimina says. “That’s important, but it’s not everything. What needs to be transformed is how agencies leverage data to better deliver on their mission and citizen services. I think that as organizations move forward with specific steps like moving to cloud, they’ll be able to take a more data-driven approach to their mission.” One key way to embed a more forward-thinking approach, he adds, is to make the chief digital officer a widespread and meaningful position. Many organizations lack a CDO, and those that have them often bury the role several layers deep, rather than providing a senior level of authority. “CDOs need to be elevated, given budget power and have their roles standardized across agencies,” Dimina says. “They need to provide real leadership around data strategy.”
Contributors
Suzanne Campbell Juliana Vida
Suzanne is Splunk’s area vice president for Juliana is our chief technical advisor for the
federal sales engineering. She has a background public sector. Before joining Splunk, she was a VP
in consulting, and held roles at VMWare, EMC at Gartner, drove ships and flew helicopters for
Corp. and IBM. 24 years in the U.S. Navy, and ultimately held the
role of Navy Deputy CIO in the Pentagon.
Frank Dimina Bill Wright
Frank is Splunk’s vice president of public sector. Bill is Splunk’s director of federal government
His technology career includes leadership affairs. His background in national security,
roles at Symantec, Securicon and Checkpoint counterterrorism and cybersecurity includes key
Software Technologies. roles for U.S. Senate Subcommittees focused
on homeland security and government IT, and
as a senior operations officer at the National
Counterterrorism Center Operations Center.
Adnan Hindi
Adnan is our senior director of sales engineering.
Prior to Splunk, he held roles at McAfee,
FannieMae, Palladian Technology, Microsoft,
ScienceLogic and more.
Splunk Public Sector Predictions 2021 | 20Get the full 2021 Predictions
reports — Executive, Emerging
Technology, ITOps and Data
Security — for more insights.
Get the Reports
Splunk, Splunk>, Data-to-Everything, D2E and Turn Data Into Doing are trademarks and registered trademarks
of Splunk Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other brand names, product names or trademarks
belong to their respective owners. © 2020 Splunk Inc. All rights reserved.
20-15669-SPLK-Public-Sector-Predictions-2021-112You can also read
