Methods and Practices: Introducing the "Tagged Data Authority Engine" Assurance and Data Integrity for Government Agencies and Fusion Centers

This IDC Government Insights report highlights an ongoing problem that is being experienced by the federal government ��� uncontrolled redundancy and long-term accuracy of data as it is shared across multiple agencies and systems. IDC Government Insights has developed the concept of what it calls the "Tagged Data Authority Engine" (TDAE) to help government agencies enhance data quality assurance by establishing a clear authority path of where each piece of data in a given data set or an XML file comes from, including details on who has authority over that piece of data and where the ultimate authoritative copy of that data resides.

"This type of broad cross-agency project can be tackled using existing technologies," said Shawn P. McCarthy, research director for IDC Government Insights. "But such a project must include high-level coordination across all government agencies, with CIO-level buy-in. A server that is dedicated as a government agency's TDAE is one way to accomplish this."