Analysis of Big Data Obligations by Solution Type

As part of Deltek’s analysis of the federal big data marketplace, the team parses through millions of contract obligations annually to identify spending related to big data goods and services. In the latest set of data, Deltek identified over $14B in federal big data investments from FY 2019 to 2021, which grew nearly 53% in the three-year period.

For a deeper look into the spending, Deltek groups these obligations into the following “solution types” to observe trends and patterns in certain areas of big data:

• Analytics: Software that enables use of data sets, statistical and quantitative analysis and predictive modeling, and delivers output that can be used in decision-making.
• Big Data Systems and Platforms: Systems and platforms that enable the development, deployment, operation and maintenance of big data infrastructure.
• Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning: Solutions that enable the simulation of human intelligence in machines, including learning and problem-solving.
• High Performance Computing: The aggregation of computing power delivering higher performance than traditional desktops/workstations.
• Data Management and Integration: Tools to identify, manage and control data resources, unify siloed data, and prepare and transform data for analysis and machine learning tasks.
• Analysis Support: Subject matter expertise and services required to support the development of big data solutions and the analysis leveraging such solutions.
• Visualization: Software that enables the graphical representation of information and data.
• Storage/Servers: Storage exceeding 1 terabyte and servers purchased explicitly to enable big data infrastructure and processing.

The following depicts the spending direction of each big data solution type from FY 2019 to 2021:

Source: Deltek, FPDS

Observations:

• Analytics led total spending in both Defense and Civilian sectors, with the federal government investing $4.5B from FY 2019-2021
  • Business analytics led in specific analytics type at Defense and Civilian agencies, totaling $302M and $441M, respectively, in the three-year period  
• The decrease in data storage and servers reflects increased cloud adoption across federal agencies
• Growth in AI/ML adoption in the Defense sector outpaces that of Civilian, totaling $1.3B over the three-year period vs. $531M total at Civilian agencies
• Spending on analysis support jumped from FY 2019 to 2021 in both Civilian and Defense sectors. Increased analysis among Civilian agencies was driven by the COVID-19 pandemic in FY 2020, while several DOD components reported specific high-dollar task orders in data analysis in FY 2021
• High Performance Computing spending is sporadic and highly dependent on the operation and maintenance cycles of the systems as well as enormity of the programs requesting compute services
• Spending on data management and integration grew the most at HHS, from $159M in FY 2019 to $230M in FY 2021, and at NASA, from $30M in FY 2019 to $105M in FY 2021
• Carahsoft Technology Corporation led federal spending in visualization from FY 2019-2021 with $51M, followed by Booz Allen Hamilton ($11M) and Parsons Corporation ($11M)

For additional deep dive analysis on historical big data obligations, refer to Deltek’s Federal Big Data Market, 2022-2024 report.