Turning Optimism into Reality: How Big Data Is Transforming Government: “The proliferation of Big Data has forced agencies to consider its great potential to revolutionize federal operations. The White House’s Big Data Initiative has invested $200 million in new research and development projects to use Big Data, and the use of Big Data in various agency activities ranging from performance tracking to budgeting has begun to take hold. As a result, many agencies are trying to train and/or hire a workforce to leverage Big Data, but in the current budget climate, new hires and investing in training courses is proving to be difficult or impossible. In order to evaluate agency efforts to leverage Big Data and provide insight on how agencies can best capitalize on the opportunities provided by Big Data given the current budget climate, the Government Business Council, with sponsorship from Booz Allen Hamilton, undertook a comprehensive research project that surveyed federal managers.”