| | January 20158CIOReviewin myopinionLike every other organization on the planet, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency has its technology challenges. Many are similar to all organizations, but some are unique to us because of our special mission. Similar challenges include keeping up with the velocity of changing technology, the exponential increases in data, and maintaining legacy capabilities while creating efficiencies to allow resources to be invested for future requirements. Our unique challenges revolve around the environment we execute our mission in, the data we have access to, our customers, the decisions they need to make, and the speed in which they need to make them. For us to be successful, we need to address both the similar and the unique. Technology alone is necessary, but not sufficient. We are narrowing our focus on improving our value proposition--what makes us significant--by investing in our people and transforming how we acquire technology and services. To understand our value proposition it is important to understand what we do. NGA delivers world-class geospatial-intelligence (GEOINT)--the exploitation and analysis of imagery and geospatial information to describe, assess, and visually depict physical features and geographically referenced activities on the earth--to provide a decisive advantage to our customers. Our customers include policymakers, warfighters, other intelligence professionals and first responders. You may rely on NGA if you: sail a ship; fly an aircraft; make a national policy decision; deploy military force; locate a target; respond to a natural disaster; or even navigate with a cell phone.To maintain our value proposition, we can and will do more. The challenge is increasing our Agency's, and then our customers', speed of understanding and response. Every modern local, regional and global challenge--climate change, future energy landscape, and more--has geography at its heart. The rapidly spreading geography of the Internet, as more people carry more handheld devices to more places, and the emerging Internet of Things demonstrates what we have long known--everything, everyplace and everyone is georeferenced in time. The dependence of things on their georeference makes what we do--spatio-temporal analysis--the bridge to the future of commerce, cooperation and security. We can all agree that the world of Technology Challenges: An Intelligence Agency's Plan to Meet ThemBy David Bottom, Director, Information Technology Services Directorate, National Geospatial-Intelligence AgencyDavid Bottom
< Page 7 | Page 9 >