Big Data Case Study: Obtaining Smart, Meaningful and Actionable Intelligence via Massive Data Files

Big data is a new term being used to describe the explosive growth of datasets as well as the new architectures that are evolving to address the storage, management and analytic functions. As defense and intelligence agencies seek to use the increasing amount of available data to make mission-critical decisions on the battlefield, there is heavy emphasis on smart data and imagery collection, capture, storage and analysis to drive real-time intelligence. It’s crucial that the information gathered through systems such as from radar, traditional optics, and/or video are accurately and systematically analyzed, integrated and disseminated to those who actually need it – troops and commands on the ground. This reality leads to an inevitable challenge – warfighters are increasingly swimming in sensors, drowning in data. With the millions, if not billions, of sensors in place that provide all-seeing reports of the combat environment, managing and tackling the overload is critical. This session highlights how storage technologies are enabling mission requirements so that it’s easier and faster for warfighters and intelligence officers to obtain smart, meaningful, actionable intelligence.

This session will discuss the emerging requirements for intelligence production from the data and available solutions that apply to Full Motion Video (FMV) and other Rich Media opportunities. The discussion will include an architectural overview on parallel filesystems, Hadoop, Object repositories and Metadata catalogs and their applicability to store, manipulate and disseminate data for FMV use cases.