Author: AWS Public Sector Blog Team

A new agreement between Amazon Web Services (AWS) and the UK government will accelerate adoption of cloud computing in the public sector while saving taxpayer money, boosting digital skills across the civil service, and increasing the diversity of suppliers to the government by helping more small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to take part in public sector contracts. The agreement, called the “One Government Value Agreement” (OGVA), is a three-year, Memorandum of Understanding between AWS and the Crown Commercial Service (CCS). By treating participating UK government and public sector organisations as a single client, it offers greater cost savings for cloud deployments, similar to those available to large commercial customers.

At the fifth annual AWS IMAGINE Nonprofit event—the first online—nonprofits from around the world shared stories of how technology came together in support of their mission to impact the communities they serve. The annual event brings together nonprofit leaders, technologists, and innovators to discuss how technology can help drive a positive impact for both people and the planet. Nonprofit speakers shared their journeys to solve for big challenges and how they’ve achieved their desired outcomes. Read on for more on what you missed.

Last month, the AWS Public Sector Blog covered building business resiliency, upskilling the next generation of cloud talent, machine learning in college sports, and more. Check out the latest episode of The Brief to learn more about business resiliency, and check out the other top stories linked below.

In October 2018, the Florida panhandle was hit by Hurricane Michael, a Category 5 storm that set a new record for the strongest hurricane on record to make landfall in the area. Florida State University (FSU) already understood the need for a long-term continuity of operations plan, and the devastation Michael wrought on the surrounding areas solidified how critical a disaster recovery (DR) service is to their overall operations. Disaster-recovery-as-a-service (DRaaS) is the business world’s advanced solution to unexpected disruption. Whether the threat comes from natural disaster, technical failure, human error, or malicious action, the result is still unplanned downtime and the need for recovery. Learn how FSU designed and launched their DRaaS solution on an accelerated timeline while optimizing costs.

If you are a technology professional looking to understand how cloud security adheres to compliance requirements, attend our AWS Compliance Week webinar series on November 2-6. You will learn how to architect compliant, multi-region cloud environments, establish agile governance for regulated workloads, and use new AWS solutions to help accelerate compliance. Hear government and industry perspectives on achieving high compliance from the General Services Administration’s FedRAMP program management office, and customers Maxar, Salesforce, and Coalfire.

Swinburne University, in collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS), announced the creation of Australia’s first cloud degree program. The associate degree of applied technologies – cloud technologies will help undergraduates prepare for in-demand careers in cloud computing. Swinburne created the degree through a collaboration with AWS Educate, Amazon’s global initiative to provide students and educators with resources for building skills in cloud technology.

Halcyon and Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced the launch of an intensive incubator program for early-stage women-founded social enterprise technology startups based in Bahrain. The 2021 Bahrain Women’s Intensive program will help social entrepreneurs scale their ventures and use AWS Cloud technology to help innovate and grow. The program for tech startups is now accepting applications.

At the AWS Public Sector Summit Online, Max Peterson, vice president of international sales for the public sector, spoke about our new reality responding to a global pandemic—and how customers who have taken steps to transform digitally are already benefiting from their progress. Through the lens of customers’ and partners’ experience, Max shared lessons learned and how to apply these lessons to your cloud journey. Those four key lessons? Move fast, have an agile platform, keep innovating, and think big. Read on for more.

The University of Bahrain (UoB), the Kingdom’s largest university with over 28,000 students, is going all-in on Amazon Web Services (AWS). The university is in the final phase of migrating its entire IT infrastructure to AWS. Once finalized, UoB becomes the largest university in the Middle East to migrate its core applications—student information system (SIS), correspondence management system (CMS), homepage portal, and subdomain, and all backend systems—to AWS.

The National Institution for Transforming India (NITI Aayog), a policy think tank of the government of India, and AWS announced the launch of a Frontier Technologies Cloud Innovation Center (CIC). A CIC is a public-private partnership that focus on addressing societal challenges through digital innovation. The CIC program, created by AWS, provides an opportunity for nonprofits, education institutions, and government agencies to collaborate with other public sector organizations on their most pressing challenges, innovate and test new ideas, and access the technology expertise of AWS. The NITI Aayog Frontier Technologies CIC is the first AWS CIC in India.