Author: AWS Public Sector Blog Team

President Biden’s executive order emphasizes the need to elevate information security as a core tenet of national security, and calls on federal agencies and public sector organizations to work with the private sector to prioritize the data security and privacy of the American people and government. AWS and AWS Partners can help government agencies align with the initiatives in this executive order.

AWS will open a new data centre design facility in Zagreb, Croatia. The new facility is part of AWS’s ongoing commitment to Croatia, which also includes team expansion to support the growing number of customers and Partners. The new centre will support development and operation of AWS Cloud services, with a focus on data centre design, product development, and research.

To solve some of the most pressing water and energy challenges, scientists and engineers need access to robust, reliable data that is often sensitive and protected. Data providers, researchers, and host institutions need to adhere to strict requirements for protecting and securing this data. The Center for Water-Energy Efficiency (CWEE) at the University of California, Davis (UC Davis) used AWS to create a centralized, secure data repository that streamlines data sharing.

At the AWS Summit Online – Americas fireside chat hosted by Max Peterson, vice president of AWS worldwide public sector, three public sector leaders discussed recovery and digital transformation across education and healthcare in the Americas following the COVID-19 pandemic. The fireside chat panelists experienced firsthand the need to scale rapidly due to the pandemic and their stories illustrate the transformational power of the cloud to drive impact in the public sector.

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).