They require storage to house the trillions of data points that internal systems, external sensors and citizens themselves generate. They require computing power to fuel applications for public  servants to do their jobs. And they require networking to connect all the applications and workloads that keep government running.

Although agencies have created these IT infrastructures to move forward in the digital world, it’s unclear if this complex web of systems is really helping government achieve mission success. To gain more insights into whether today’s IT infrastructures are meeting agency needs, we asked 165 government employees to describe the current state of their technology systems, and what they expect from the next generation of IT architectures.

To help synthesize the results of our survey, GovLoop spoke with Kurt Steege, Chief Technology Officer at ThunderCat, and Dale Degen, Director of Product and Solutions Marketing at NetApp. Together, ThunderCat and NetApp deliver an integration-ready, next-generation hyper converged infrastructure (HCI) solution.

Degen and Steege explained how hyper convergence — the software-centric integration of compute, networking and storage into a single commodity hardware — can address many of the challenges that agencies face with their current IT infrastructures. They also shared what the next generation of HCI looks like, and what it can achieve. 

In this research brief, we’ll dive into the results of our survey to examine the current state of government IT and how next-generation HCI can empower agencies to better meet their missions.