ICT keen on utilising big data analytics

The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Ministry plans to create national analytic processing for big data systems so state agencies can improve their operational efficiency and decision-making as well as transform public services.

Big data, a general term for the massive amount of digital data being collected from all sorts of sources, is too large, raw or unstructured for analysis through conventional relational database techniques.

“Having national big data analytic tools is part of the government’s strategy to advance the country towards a digital economy,” ICT Minister Uttama Savanayana said.

The ICT Ministry’s Electronic Government Agency (EGA) has been assigned to provide the national big data service, he added.

EGA president Sak Segkhoonthod said his agency would introduce the service by next year.

Big data analytics is expected to help the public sector make decisions in real time from fast-growing data from multiple sources as well as reduce IT investment cost, he said.

“Sharing a big data analytics infrastructure among state agencies with a high volume of unstructured and complex data such as the Revenue Department and the Commerce and Interior Ministries can help them to gain insights,” he said.

The EGA’s big data service has already provided two pilot projects — the Highways Department uses closed-circuit video for analytics, while the Agriculture Ministry uses predictive agricultural zoning analytics.

Mr Sak said a government big data service would mark another major step in the use of cloud computing, as the state now has at least 700 cloud systems.

The EGA is waiting for the ICT minister and the National Digital Economy Committee to decide on an execution plan for the creation of national data centres, he said. A public hearing on the draft construction designs for national data centres will be held next month.

Some 30 companies have registered with the EGA after expressing interest in participating in the bidding to build national data centres.

The draft construction standards require bidders to build a data centre with a capacity of at least 2,000 square metres. Each one is expected to cost 1 to 1.5 billion baht.

Mr Sak said half the present 240 government data centres had been in use for more than seven years.

Qualified bidders will be announced by year-end, he said.