Author: AWS Public Sector Blog Team

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the need for both faster digital transformation and urgent development of digital skills in the public sector. A new IDC study, which surveyed 250 health, government, and education organisations in seven countries across Europe, has now revealed the full extent of the IT challenges the public sector faces.

For school systems across the U.S., making sure students have a secure environment to use the internet is not only the right thing to do— it’s the law. When the Kentucky Department of Education switched to 100 percent remote learning, they turned to Amazon Web Services (AWS) Partner Lightspeed Systems to keep students safe and engaged in online learning at home.

College exams are stressful enough without a pandemic. Singapore University of Social Sciences wanted a remote contact center solution to make it easier for students and faculty to get support during remote learning and examinations. They turned to Amazon Connect to create a streamlined, accessible, and equitable solution for their community.

CANImmunize is an end-to-end vaccination enablement system that helps Canadians coast to coast do everything from scheduling their appointment to proving their vaccination status—all in one interface. CANImmunize uses AWS to scale its operations and enable hundreds of thousands of people to get vaccinated and stay on top of their vaccination status.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, educational institutions that operated on in-person model shifted many of their traditionally in-person operations and activities—including grading, assessments and testing, and admissions—to a virtual format, where many had never been before. Educational technology (EdTech) companies around the world used the cloud to help quickly create and scale to meet the needs of these academic institutions while maintaining a consistent and smooth student experience.

Building on our longstanding commitment to supporting small businesses and underrepresented communities, Amazon Web Services (AWS) is investing in Black-owned businesses in collaboration with Hello Alice, a free, multichannel platform that helps small businesses launch and grow. We invited Elizabeth Gore, co-founder and president of Hello Alice, to share how the organization is helping small businesses, and how small business owners can apply for a grant from Amazon’s Black Business Accelerator (BBA).

The surge in cloud-based online learning is “positive disruption,” said Melissa Loble, chief customer experience officer at Instructure, the maker of Canvas. She believes online learning has transformed the classroom on a global scale—in many ways for the better. Read four ways that Canvas and other cloud-based learning platforms have disrupted the educational landscape, both for traditional colleges and universities and global programs.

The Global Data Egress Waiver (GDEW) program helps eligible researchers and academic institutions use AWS cloud storage, computing, and database services by waiving data egress fees. GDEW can be a valuable tool that gives eligible researchers and institutions a more predictable budget, which in turns allows them to have more direct access to the cloud than they might otherwise. Find out if your team is eligible to take advantage of the data egress waiver program.

The new AWS Region in the Middle East brings new infrastructure to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and will consist of three Availability Zones, giving local customers more choice and flexibility to leverage advanced cloud technologies. Learn more about how organizations in the UAE public sector are already innovating with AWS at home and in space.

AWS and Howard University announced an initiative to upskill its students and build pathways to technical careers with cloud computing courses and training resources for educators. Learn more about how the collaboration will prepare students for the workforce with hands-on experiences, how Howard University is launching a master’s program with the support of AWS experts, and more.