The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) is aiming to increase its data analysis capabilities.
It has formed plans to add to its existing cloud analysis platform with new features including an advanced function for geospatial data, custom dashboarding and a graph database.
The move derives from the FCO’s open source unit’s aim to make more use of open data in policy development, taking in spheres including crisis response, consular services, security and sustainability.
While it has an existing platform, it wishes to give it capabilities such as improving geographical querying and visualisation, and enabling users to create their own visualisations and dashboards.
It has begun a procurement for a three-month project, to begin early next year, to build up the capabilities, and to ensure any changes meet the National Cyber Security Centre’s requirements for official documents.
Architecture in place
The FCO has already carried out initial prototyping and a five-month intensive development phase, which has included putting in place the cloud architecture and making the platform available for some active daily users. In addition, a number of back end components are in place along with a contract with a supplier for basic maintenance.
The upgrade is aimed at collating high value data streams, mining self-hosted data for insights, harnessing live API based data resources, and enabling comparative analysis. All of this is intended to support decision making around strategic objectives.
Image by justgrimes, CC BY-SA 2.0 through flickr
