AWS Government, Education, & Nonprofits Blog

Category: government

AWS Signs CJIS Agreement with the State of Utah

AWS has signed a Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) agreement with the State of Utah, adding to the growing list of jurisdictions across the United States that are working with AWS to leverage the benefits AWS GovCloud (US), which includes the highest levels of information security for state and local law enforcement agencies.

With the ongoing digital transformation of justice and public safety, AWS is committed to securely enabling innovation through our services, features, and our broad partner ecosystem. At the same time, we adhere to strict security requirements for protecting the sources, transmission, storage, and generation of Criminal Justice Information (CJI).

As we continue to sign CJIS agreements across the country, we are seeing police departments adopt innovative tools that help officers serve their communities, such as body cameras, real-time gunshot notifications, and data analytics.

To learn more about AWS’s capabilities and resources to address this community’s unique IT needs, read about Justice and Public Safety with AWS.

Contact us to get your agency started with the AWS Cloud.

AWS Public Sector Month in Review – November

As AWS re:Invent 2016 wraps up, check out the AWS Public Sector Month in Review for November featuring the recent content published for the education, government, and nonprofit communities.

Read on to see what happened this past month:

All – Government, Education, & Nonprofits

Education

Government

Nonprofits

New Customer Success Stories

Check out all of our public sector customer stories here.

Latest YouTube Videos

Upcoming Events

Attend one of the events happening in December listed below and meet with AWS experts to get all of your questions answered.

Follow along on Twitter for all of the latest AWS news for government and education.

New Office in Bahrain Opening to Build an Ecosystem to Jumpstart Cloud Capabilities

A post by Teresa Carlson, Vice President Worldwide Public Sector, Amazon Web Services

I’m pleased to announce that AWS plans to open an office in Bahrain. The office will open on January 1st in Manama and will support organizations of all sizes, from start-ups to government institutions, as they make the transition to the AWS Cloud.

Major opportunities exist for tech entrepreneurship in the Middle East. Middle Eastern organizations were among the earliest adopters of cloud services when AWS launched in 2006. The decision to open one of the first AWS offices in the Middle East, in Bahrain, speaks to the creativity, innovation, and forward thinking we see across all of the Bahrain economy from start-ups through to government institutions. We are excited to bring our team to Bahrain to help the country to grow its economy.

Khalid Al Rumaihi, Chief Executive at the Bahrain Economic Development Board (EDB) said of the news, “The Bahrain EDB is committed to helping drive forward the development of a strong and supportive environment for innovation and entrepreneurship in the Kingdom. This encompasses a number of areas, including access to finance, education initiatives and regulatory developments, but having the world’s leading cloud computing provider open an office in Bahrain will play a vital role. The AWS team will provide invaluable support to all Bahraini organizations as they move to the cloud.”

One of the goals of the office is to expand AWS Cloud Training and Global Certification programs, and upskill citizens on the opportunity that AWS technology brings. Organizations in Bahrain are already seeing the benefit of AWS to rapidly grow and serve customers around the world. Cloud 10 Scalerator, part of technology investment firm C5, is one organization that is working with new start-ups in Bahrain to help scale up their businesses by using AWS.

Andre Pienaar, Founder, C5 said, “With Cloud 10 we are creating a platform, powered by AWS, for the businesses of tomorrow to flourish. We see huge amounts of innovation coming from young, creative entrepreneurs in the MENA region and the cloud is key to fueling their growth. Having the AWS team based in Manama will help us to grow the companies we work with as well as helping to transform the region into one of the fastest growing start-up hubs in the world.”

Amazon will continue its investment in, and expansion, across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. In 2015, Amazon created over 10,000 new jobs in that region. For talented individuals looking to join the team in Bahrain, or any of Amazon’s businesses around the world, visit www.amazon.jobs.

أمازون: افتتاح مكتب جديد في البحرين بهدف بناء بيئة جديدة تدفع بقدرات الحوسبة السحابية

يسرني أن أعلن قرب افتتاح مكتب جديد لـ “أمازون لخدمات الإنترنت” في البحرين بحلول الأول من يناير القادم في مدينة المنامة، والذي سيكون قادراً على دعم كل أنواع الشركات من رواد الأعمال إلى القطاع الحكومي الذين بدؤوا في استخدام الخدمات السحابية من أمازون”.

نجد الكثير من الفرص لرواد الأعمال والمؤسسات التكنولوجية في الشرق الأوسط، فقد كانوا من أوائل من بادر باعتماد خدماتنا السحابية عند إنطلاقها في العام 2006. وجاء اختيار البحرين لتستضيف أول مكاتبنا، لما نراه من تميز في الإبداع والابتكار لدى رواد الأعمال والهيئات الحكومية هناك، وهو ما يجعلنا نتطلع إلى بدء العمل والمساعدة في نهضة اقتصادها.

وقال خالد الرميحي، الرئيس التنفيذي لمجلس التنمية الاقتصادية: “نلتزم في مجلس التنمية الاقتصادية بمواصلة التطور من طريق الدعم الكامل للابتكارات وريادة الأعمال في المملكة، ويشمل هذا طرق عدة مثل التمويل والمبادرات التعليمية والتنمية التنظيمية”، مضيفاً “وبافتتاح المزود الرائد لخدمات الحوسبة السحابية عالمياً مكتباً له في البحرين سيجعله يلعب دورا كبيراً في هذه المسيرة، لما سيوفره فريق أمازون لخدمات الإنترنت من دعم كامل للمؤسسات البحرينية”.

ومن أهداف مكتب “أمازون لخدمات الإنترنت” الجديد، توسيع نطاق برنامج “شهادة أمازون للحوسبة السحابية” العالمي، بالإضافة إلى رفع كفاءة المواطنين بالتدريب على تقنيات “أمازون لخدمات الإنترنت”.

وبدأت المؤسسات البحرينية بالفعل في رؤية نتائج استخدام التقنيات السحابية من أمازون، بعدما شهدت تحسن في النمو وخدمة العملاء.

وهو ما تقدمه شركة كلاود 10 سكاليراتور إحدى شركات مجموعة ، والتي تقدم خدمات أمازون السحابية للشركات الناشئة بهدف تحسين أداءها.

وقال أندري بيينار، مؤسس شركة “سي 5”: “طورنا منصة في كلاود 10 بدعم من أمازون لخدمات الإنترنت، لتقديم الخدمات السحابية للشركات الناشئة لمساعدتها على الازدهار، لما نراه من مستقبل ملئ بالابتكارات على يد النشأ والشباب من رواد الأعمال في الشرق الأوسط وشمال أفريقيا، وستعمل الخدمات السحابية على ضمان هذا الازدهار والنمو”، متابعاً “وجود فريق أمازون لخدمات الإنترنت في المنامة سيجعلنا أكثر قدرة على مساعدة الشركات التي نعمل معها وضمان نموها الدائم، بالإضافة إلى جعل المنطقة واحدة من أكبر الأماكن التي يعمل بها شركات ناشئة في العالم”.

يذكر أن أمازون وفرت أكثر من 10 آلاف فرصة عمل في العام 2015، وستمضي في رحلة التوسع وزيادة استثماراتها في أوروبا والشرق الأوسط وأفريقيا.

إذا أردت أن تكون واحدا من فريق أمازون في البحرين أو أي من شركاتها حول العالم، قم بزيارة www.amazon.jobs.

تيريزا كارلسون، رئيس قسم القطاع العام العالمي، أمازون لخدمات الإنترنت

Today’s Toy is Tomorrow’s Tool: NASA’s Cloud Journey to Mars and Beyond

Sometimes we get to hear truly inspiring stories about customers who are using the cloud to make the impossible possible. One example of this is NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

JPL is approaching cloud computing with an “80-year-old start up” perspective. From its beginnings in 1936 when engineers were unintentionally blowing things up with rocketry during their self-described “Suicide Squad” era to advance space exploration, NASA JPL is constantly reshaping its thinking and requirements.

In recent years, this has meant turning to the cloud. IT infrastructure was not going to keep them grounded, so they became an innovation engine, turning today’s toy into tomorrow’s tool.

Center of the Universe

JPL has more than two dozen spacecraft and major instruments located throughout the solar system and beyond; they need to see and hear all of them and distribute this information. For example, Voyager, which launched 38 years ago, is currently 15 billion kilometers away, and they talk to it every day – truly an amazing accomplishment.

JPL pushed the envelope further, looked at disruptors, and wondered if they could burst out and process more workloads in the cloud. The answer: Yes, through AWS they could.

Can this change cloud computing?

JPL was given the task to land a 2,000-pound rover on Mars, and have it completely automated. The pressure was on, because the world was watching. NASA JPL worked with AWS to process and share images from Mars.  All of the raw images that came in went straight to AWS.  People everywhere could see them on their smart devices. NASA JPL was able to stream 150 TB of data in just a few hours, garnering 80,000 requests per second. This was far beyond what they could have handled using traditional infrastructure.

Beyond simply sharing the rover’s photos with the world, JPL began to innovate with big data analytics on Mars and on Earth. They received 200 million data points from Curiosity and were able to use data analytics to assist in course correction. Using analytics, they could achieve 40% more drive time on the next rover. Open source tools are now used on every mission. Key to all of this was their use of AWS GovCloud (US) because their data is ITAR (International Traffic in Arms Regulations) safe. With AWS GovCloud (US), they do not have to compromise security for collaboration.

Enterprises learning from startups

From a case study perspective, AWS GovCloud (US) became not just a tool, but an innovation center for JPL.  This type of innovation is not just about space; it is about reinventing the enterprise and the advantages the cloud brings.

As you can imagine, space exploration is not cheap. But the cloud helps make the unaffordable affordable. For example, with earth science, algorithms change and people can make mistakes. And this can be costly. It could cost $20,000 dollars over a span of 100 days to test an idea. But how do startups do it? Instead, using AWS, the same project could cost $7,000 and take just six days.

In JPL’s case, no longer did it only have access to ten of their own processors, JPL had the ability to leverage 100,000 AWS processors using the spot market and reserved instances.

Using tools connected to the Internet of Things, AWS database services (AWS Lambda or Amazon DynamoDB), or immersive analytics (analytics using your senses), JPL is able to notice patterns and actually begin to change its enterprise with a startup mentality – meeting its mission more cost effectively and quickly.  This is one example of how a government-industry partnership can serve U.S. citizens by providing a higher return on their investment in space exploration.

Mission in the cloud

Will we find life on Europa (the moon of Jupiter with an environment most likely to host life)? Can we redirect an asteroid? Can we find Earth 2.0?

The cloud helps agencies like NASA to rethink everything. As JPL’s data and space explorers might say: Start with the toys to experience the future today and gain astronomical improvements. Experiment with new user interfaces and control planes, convert it, combine it, and act on it.

Hear Tom Soderstrom talk about how NASA JPL is answering cosmic questions in new ways using AWS in this AWS re:Invent 2016 recorded session here (go to 54:10 for Tom’s talk).

The AWS Public Sector Partner Program – Quickly and Easily Find Partners

The AWS Public Sector Partner Program (PSP) recognizes partners with solutions and experience in helping government, education, and nonprofit organizations around the world achieve their missions.

AWS has developed strong relationships with partners that deliver public sector specific solutions, and we’re thrilled to provide our customers with access to this network. At launch, the AWS PSP recognizes almost 400 APN Partners with experience and readiness to support government, education, and nonprofit customers.

What does this mean for public sector organizations?

Whether you are a K-12 school, a nonprofit focused on the environment, or a justice and public safety organization – ask for an authorized public sector partner and we will help connect you with the right partner for your needs. Qualified partners will be vetted within categories, including government, education, and nonprofits.

“Participation in the AWS Public Sector Partner Program will take one of our most important strategic relationships to the next level,” said Jeff Ray, President and CEO of Ellucian. “AWS cloud infrastructure helps our solutions reach their full potential with the security, extensibility, scalability, and availability that colleges and universities demand. Through our close work together, Ellucian and AWS are changing the way higher education achieves student success – and we look forward to accelerating and building on the tremendous impact we are having on campuses the world over.”

“We take pride in supporting a diverse set of clients, especially those with such unique missions as our government, education, and nonprofit clients,” said Hemant Datta, co-founder and COO of JHC. “We do not take it lightly that such organizations are trusting a portion of their innovation and enterprise strategy to JHC for implementation. The recognition as a launch partner for the Public Sector Partner Program will continue to drive our key strategic relationship with industry-leading AWS.”

What does this mean for APN Partners?

Joining this program helps APN partners build and accelerate their AWS public sector business. We enable partners to accelerate their business growth on AWS through alignment with our public sector sales, marketing, partner, and bid teams. Through the program, partners receive a designation as a public sector partner in our APN Partner Solutions Finder and eligibility for further benefits.

“Participation in the AWS Partner Network has expanded our business potential, enabling success with government clients such as the Department of the Interior, the State of Washington and the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau – as well as a new contract for cloud services with the National Association of State Procurement Officials,” said Mark Forman, head of global public sector at Unisys. “Working with AWS, we are providing cloud-based, mission-critical solutions to these and other government clients around the world. We are proud to have been named as a member of the AWS Public Sector Partner Program, continued recognition of Unisys’ approach to delivering more efficient and cost-saving cloud services to government.”

Interested in reaching government, education, and nonprofit customers around the world? Learn more about how to join the AWS Partner Network in the APN blog here.

Prepare for re:Invent 2016: What Every Public Sector Attendee Needs to Know

With AWS re:Invent 2016 in less than a week, we are sharing what every public sector attendee needs to know before touching down in Las Vegas for the week of November 28 – December 2, 2016.

As the largest gathering of the global Amazon Web Services community, there’s a lot to navigate!

Mark your calendar for some of the public sector highlights throughout the week.

Monday, November 28, 2016

1:00 – 6:00 PM PT: Public Sector Pre-Day Track – This four-session track will feature sessions focused on topics important to customers with sensitive workloads, such as governance strategies, compliance regulations, and AWS GovCloud (US). Hear directly from public sector customers on how they use the cloud to tackle complex compliance and security requirements, such as HIPAA, FERPA, and CJIS. And attend a panel on modernizing government in the cloud featuring the three largest federal agencies – Veterans Affairs, Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Defense. See agenda here. We will also be repeating some of these sessions on Tuesday.

Tuesday, November 29, 2016

4:00 – 5:00 PM PT: Women of the Cloud Cocktail Hour – Calling all women! You are invited to join the AWS Public Sector team for cocktails on Tuesday, November 29 from 4:00 – 5:30 PM PT at the RockHouse Bar at the Venetian. This social event is intended to help you connect and build a network of women at re:Invent. Whether you are an engineer from a non-profit, a technician from the government, a marketer from a large company, or anything in between – join us! We look forward to seeing you there.

Wednesday, November 30

6:30 – 7: 30 AM PT: Public Sector Breakfast – [NOTE THE TIME CHANGE] – Our AWS Worldwide Public Sector Breakfast will feature Teresa Carlson, Vice President of AWS Worldwide Public Sector, to share important public sector updates alongside the Defense Digital Service, American Heart Association, and Ellucian. These public sector leaders at the forefront of innovation will each take the stage to discuss the impact they are making with the cloud in the government, education, and nonprofit communities. Changing the world is no easy task. From tackling heart disease to running national security systems to removing barriers to achieve student success – all these missions have something in common: the cloud is propelling them to results they did not think possible. Join us for this hour-long breakfast dedicated to the unique challenges, needs, and successes of the public sector around the world.

6:30 – 9:00 PM PT: Public Sector Reception – You won’t want to miss our reception at Drai’s Nightclub at the Cromwell, Wednesday, November 30 from 6:30 PM – 9:00 PM with a full dance floor and private use of the pool and pool bar. The theme is the ’80s! Bring your legwarmers and Members Only jackets!

Thursday, December 1

11:30 AM – 12:30 PM: Diversify Tech: Building the Future IT Workforce – In this session, learn about efforts to diversify IT, from programs in high schools all the way up to diversity among top-level executives. Regardless of where you are in your career, this session will share stories of the changing tech landscape. By sharing successes and failures, speakers candidly discuss how everyone can help in changing the ratio to attract a more diverse workforce and create a culture of inclusion. Bring your questions, network with peers, and be inspired by both women and men making an impact in nonprofit, enterprise and government sectors.

Other important events and activities during the week:

  • Find Public Sector sessions listed in the session catalog which is frequently updated with the latest sessions available
  • Public Sector “Lounge”: space open where public sector attendees can find each other – Palazzo suite – 3rd floor – Monday through Wednesday.
  • If you are looking for more opportunities to network, check out some of our additional activities here:
    • LATAM Networking Breakfast – 7:00 AM– 8:30 AM PT – Galileo 902
    • EMEA Networking Lunch – 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM PT- Galileo 902
    • LGBTQ & Diversity Reception – 7:00 PM– 8:00 PM PT Hall G at the Venetian

Follow along at @AWS_Gov and @AWS_Edu for an inside look into the public sector sessions.

Watch this video on what’s happening where on the re:Invent campus.

Not All or Nothing: How to Make Progress without Breaking the Bank

The implementation of highly scalable, easy-to-deploy technology is transforming the public sector, but it’s not a one-size-fits-all approach. Organizations begin their cloud adoption journeys in many ways. Some start with pilot projects and others jump into mission-critical programs, but they are all starting with an existing infrastructure. Adopting cloud doesn’t mean scrapping it all and starting over.

First, let’s define hybrid IT architecture. A hybrid IT architecture allows organizations to simplify the migration and management of applications by integrating on-premises environments with a commercial cloud. This means that a move to the cloud does not necessarily mean ripping everything out – it doesn’t have to be all or nothing. Customers may choose to implement hybrid operations with AWS in order to be secure, scale, and take advantage of the breadth of services and the depth of features available in AWS.

At our 2016 AWS Public Sector Summit, we hosted a panel that explored how organizations are using cloud while building on their existing technology and lessons they’ve learned along the way. Check out some of the advice straight from our government customers, James Graham, Director Enterprise Content Management (ECM) & Enterprise Data Management (EDM), U.S. Department of Treasury and Dan Thomas, Chief Engineer, DC Health Benefit Exchange Authority, as well as key APN partners on how to begin your path to a hybrid IT architecture.

  • Determine key drivers. For most organizations, you should determine what your key drivers are. Does cost matter most? Agility? Security? Speed? These drivers will decide what makes sense for your organization and whether you invest in physical hardware or make the decision to go to the cloud.
  • Be pragmatic. Figure out what you want based on your key drivers. If speed is your goal, then pinpoint where you want to move fast and where you don’t need that speed. If you are operating on premises, it may make sense to continue running in your own data center for awhile, but if you want the self-service agility benefits of the cloud, then it may be time to start moving applications.
  • Don’t be afraid to experiment. The cloud can give you the extra agility to experiment, even in a highly regulated industry. A hybrid approach allows you to make changes to interfaces and product offerings, and iterate more quickly. Cloud can give you the extra agility you may not have on premises.
  • Look at capacity and capability. If you need to burst capacity, going to the cloud may be the best way to burst, especially if you have a seasonal or one-time demand. And when you have new requirements, you can see if that capability can come from the AWS Marketplace instead of requiring a home-grown application.

Watch more of our session videos from the AWS Public Sector Summit here. And watch the AWS Public Sector Summit Highlights video below.

If you are interested in simplifying the migration and management of applications by integrating your on-premises environments with the AWS Cloud, please visit our “Hybrid Cloud Architectures with AWS” page for more details.

And if you will be attending re:Invent, then make sure to check out the hybrid sessions below:

 

 

AWS Customers Saving Lives with Mobile and IoT Technology

Technological innovation can often save lives or enable rapid intervention in situations where lives are threatened. From responding to gun shots  informing and mobilizing responders on school campuses, to fighting child trafficking, organizations have been able to move rapidly to address pressing societal problems.

The AWS Cloud has allowed teams to be agile and focus more on their missions rather than IT, giving them more time to focus on saving lives. Check out some of our customers who save lives with mobile and Internet of Things (IoT) technology.

ShotSpotter – Detect, Locate, and Alert on Gunfire in Under a Minute

ShotSpotter delivers real-time gunshot notifications to law enforcement so they can dispatch to the precise location of the gunshot, engage with the community, look for evidence and occasionally help victims and make arrests. Their goal is to help drive down illegal gun use.

The ShotSpotter solution is an excellent example of the AWS Cloud enabling next generation technology for the public safety community. ShotSpotter turned to AWS because they needed to cover a broad range of technologies, spanning sensor hardware design and embedded software development, classification of gunshots through machine learning, development of algorithms for precisely locating gunshots in a challenging acoustic environment, sensor network management, API development, and front-end technologies for delivering gunshot notifications and analysis.

Hear from Paul Ames, SVP, Products and Technology, at ShotSpotter alongside Kristin Boorse, Senior Product Manager, at Thorn at re:Invent 2016 in this session.

Thorn – Digital Defenders of Children Dedicated to Driving Technology Innovation

Thorn: Digital Defenders of Children is a nonprofit organization dedicated to driving technology innovation. Thorn maintains a vast global network of professionals on the front lines of this issue. They invest in research to better understand emerging trends. Then, they explore new strategies to identify victims, deter predators and disrupt platforms through the innovation lab, hackathons and partnerships. They try things that haven’t been done before, and will risk failure to achieve greater impact from success. When they identify a new approach that has impactful results, they will invest to scale that tool and put it in the hands of those who can deploy it across the country and internationally for broadest reach.

LiveSafe – Mission to Make the World a Safer Place through Crowdsourced Intelligence

LiveSafe, a mobile safety communications platform for crowdsourced intelligence, was born from a spirit of triumph over tragedy and the desire to make the world a safer place. After the mass shootings at Virginia Tech, the founding team saw an opportunity to mobilize and connect people through technology. LiveSafe is putting safety in everyone’s hands to prevent incidents and directly connect people to the help they need. Via the mobile safety app installed on individuals’ smartphones, every submission via text, photo or video is collected with location data to facilitate two-way communication between students and campus security and providing actionable responses from real-time information. Data can also be submitted anonymously, protecting an individual’s identity while still providing critical information to relevant officials.

When considering the technology needed to run mobile apps, LiveSafe looked for scalability, reliability, security, user engagement, and  low cost. Learn more about how the AWS Cloud helps them to scale rapidly during times of instances, like a security threat on campus or at a stadium in this past blog post.

Sri Elaprolu, Global Public Sector IoT Lead at AWS, will lead the “AWS Customers Saving Lives with Mobile and IoT Technology” session with Thorn and ShotSpotter at re:Invent. Sign up for this session here!

 

Sensitive Data can be Shared Across Organizations While Supporting Compliance with Privacy Laws

In the social service and public health sectors, providers rely on data collected by many different institutions to provide the best care to their clients.  But data management and analysis can cause challenges for the social service and public health sectors.

In order to take an integrated approach, case workers must have the capacity to share and access vital information about the client, not only within their own agency but also with partner agencies involved in the client’s care. The challenge has been that each agency traditionally uses its own system of data collection, and these systems are not designed for cross-collaboration. Furthermore, U.S. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), and other mandates require that sensitive data must be managed securely and in compliance with the law.

VerticalChange, an APN partner, recognized a need for more flexible, affordable, and easy-to-use tools for data collection and reporting. VerticalChange provides a range of security features including SSL encryption for all communication within the application, as well as role-based permissions and logging related to access of all client data. These and other features enable organizations to maintain compliance with relevant security privacy regulations including HIPAA.

VerticalChange uses the cloud to provide access to your data wherever you are, quickly and securely. The application can scale to meet your needs whether you have 5 or 5000 users, and the utility pricing of the cloud allows them to provide a cost effective pay-as-you-go service with full support.

“Previously, service providers and case workers have been limited to an offering of niche products that lack sophistication and flexibility. But because VerticalChange runs on AWS and is distinctively agile, we were able to provide continuous live deployment in a robust architecture that is constantly improving. And we are able to do this across a range of service domains. This has all been possible because of AWS,” said Jonathan Humfrey, CEO of VerticalChange.

Connected Data: The County of Santa Barbara, CA

For example, in early childhood education, data is often fragmented and does not connect across systems. The County of Santa Barbara uses VerticalChange to collect, manage, and share critical programmatic data for its Early Childhood Education initiatives with its 20+ nonprofit and government agency partners. As systems connect with school districts and other providers, they can determine if kids who had access to certain services are on a trajectory to do better in specific areas, such as third grade reading and math scores. The Santa Barbara Foundation and a number of other foundations have supported research and development related to the project through grants to nonprofit partners.

Based on the success of the first proof of concept, VerticalChange iterated on this idea and the latest solution now:

  • has import/export functionality;
  • can be integrated across different systems;
  • can bring data from multiple systems into a single VerticalChange account where it can be combined with other data;
  • And, another component allows for the integration by API with an assessment tool for mental health.

VerticalChange has evolved into a powerful tool for programs and initiatives that include multiple service providing agencies. Learning from the lessons of the County of Santa Barbara, the Research Department at Child Care Resource Center is now using VerticalChange for projects in San Bernardino, Los Angeles, and Riverside counties, including two federally funded demonstration projects.

VerticalChange is able to help its clients manage and utilize their data more effectively, giving them time back to spend helping people.

Learn how to use AWS to meet requirements for HIPAA, FERPA, and CJIS in this presentation here.

Attending AWS re:Invent 2016? Don’t miss the “Using AWS to Meet Requirements for Education, Healthcare and Public Safety (HIPAA, FERPA, and CJIS)” session during the Public Sector Pre-Day on Monday, November 28, 2016.

 

Move Fast AND Stay Secure: A CyCon Recap

Our customers around the world are both “thinking big” and “going big” – driving transformative change through the cloud. Before the cloud, government agencies spent a lot of time and resources managing their own data centers and co-location facilities, which meant time they were not spending on their core organizational missions. With the cloud, organizations, such as government agencies can function more like startups that move at the speed of ideas.

We believe in innovating on behalf of our customers and we see the cloud as a true mission enabler. And innovation can help private and public sector organizations stay ahead of cyber threats.

At CyCon, The International Conference on Cyber Conflict, Teresa Carlson, VP of AWS Worldwide Public Sector, shared three things that we can do together to improve cybersecurity:

  1. Policy – The public and private sectors need to work collaboratively to ensure that the right policies are in place to enable business in the cloud.
  2. Security – Let’s work together to ensure that we have all of the leading compliance standards and security processes in place to build a more secure world.
  3. Education – Let’s commit to creating the right environment for mentorship, both at the individual level and business-to-business. Together, we can bring the right tools, technology, and training to close the cyber skills gap.

In the past, organizations had to choose between moving fast OR staying secure. With the cloud, it’s possible to move fast AND stay secure. Below are examples of how governments – both local and federal – use the cloud to continue to innovate quickly, while staying secure.

Innovation in the City

Let’s take one of our City on a Cloud Innovation Challenge winners – the City of Los Angeles.

The City of Los Angeles is one of the largest targets for cyber attacks in the nation. Due to the size of the city’s operations — 35,000 employees distributed across 37 different departments — on an average day, the city records more than 130 million security messages from more than 120,000 connected devices.

The city needed a better way to ingest this data, process it, and identify security events to better monitor potential security incidents and coordinate their incident response teams. To do this, the City of Los Angeles leveraged the AWS Cloud to provide storage and compute power for its custom-developed security information and event management (SIEM) system, which supports their integrated Security Operations Center (SOC).

As a result, the five cybersecurity teams that support the entire city have been able to more effectively manage their security operations and process security events across departments faster, resulting in faster response times.

Partnership in Cyber

Protecting U.S. cyber assets has become a top-level priority for government and the private sector – and through that, we are seeing new partnerships emerge. The Department of Defense (DoD) has been fighting adversaries who have harnessed technology to attack the U.S. To defend the DoD’s information networks, cyber analysts must comb through the vast, unstructured volume of DoD cyber defense data to detect, assess, and mitigate cyber threats and act quickly.

To support this mission, APN partner, Enlighten IT Consulting, developed and deployed the Big Data Platform (BDP) for one of their DoD customers. The platform, which runs in the AWS Cloud, is used by mission partners across the DoD. The BDP is a robust and scalable architecture capable of ingesting, storing, and visualizing multiple petabytes of cyber data. Its distributed data structures and streaming ingest capabilities provide storage and retrieval rates in the millions of records per second. EITC also developed and deployed a suite of cyber situational awareness analytics to the BDP, giving analysts tools for accelerated attack detection, diagnosis, and threat mitigation. When hosted in our AWS GovCloud region, the components of the BDP and the cloud mesh to create a secure platform accredited for use across the DoD.

Cloud security at AWS is the highest priority. Learn how, as an AWS customer, you will benefit from a modern cloud computing architecture built to meet the security requirements of the world’s most security-sensitive organizations.