How agencies can use data to maximize services while teleworking

As government workforces continue to operate away from the office, agency decision-makers need to leverage their data to help maximize services, employee productivity and security, according to a new white paper from Splunk.

“Splunk Solutions for COVID-19 Response” calls on agencies to take advantage of data management solutions to improve how government is responding to the coronavirus pandemic, as well as position themselves for success in a post-pandemic world.

Read the full report.

“Splunk is helping organizations leverage their data during this crisis so they can respond in ways that can help them thwart the pandemic’s ill effects,” the white paper reads. “As a trusted provider of security, IT monitoring and mission analytics, our solutions are ideally suited to aggregate disparate data from any source, regardless of structure, in real-time and at scale.”

Through the use of the Splunk “Data-to-Everything” platform, agencies can gain real-time insights on a large variety of their data, including network availability and uptime, VPN connections and usage, and time-to-resolution for service requests.

As agencies deal with a continuing surge in remote work, leadership also needs to identify how to facilitate productivity among personnel. And beyond that productivity, agencies need to ensure the communication and work being done remotely is happening in a secure environment.

The report details a curated list of data management solutions that to help facilitate that shift such as:

• Remote Work Insights Autobahn – to deliver real-time analysis of connected devices and remote systems
• VictorOps – an automated incident response management tool
• Phantom – and orchestration and automation platform

This suite of solutions will help agencies onboard key data sources to monitor performance indicators, identify emerging issues and perform deep root cause analysis.

Agency leaders need to streamline their security posture, mitigate risk and expose hidden security and operational gaps that can make systems vulnerable. Splunk Security Essentials is a free app aimed at making security simpler, allowing users to validate data sources, capabilities, as well as to test and implement detections mapped to cybersecurity frameworks.

Going forward, to make these efforts successful, migration to a secure cloud environment is going to be key, the white paper says.

“[Cloud] is purpose-built to endorse flexibility and deliver secure access,” the white paper says. “As agencies migrate to cloud and hybrid locales, end-to-end operational visibility is essential before, during and after the transition to maintain insights into performance and address concerns related to infrastructure and application visibility.”

Using those data-driven insights into service effectiveness and employee productivity, agencies can map out how their initiatives will deliver on intended outcomes even beyond the current response to the coronavirus pandemic. In addition, using that data, leaders are able to make confident decisions while managing risk long-term.

Learn more about how your agency can gain additional insights into data and improve response in times of crisis.

This article was produced by FedScoop and StateScoop for, and sponsored by, Splunk.