Category: Government

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.

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.

Many government customers use AWS GovCloud (US) because it provides an environment for sensitive data and regulated workloads by addressing a number of U.S. government security and compliance requirements. In many cases, customers have a number of AWS GovCloud (US) accounts and managing authentication and authorization can require a lot of work. These customers may also use Microsoft Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) for identity management, single sign-on (SSO), and multi-factor authentication (MFA). This post builds on features and functionality announced earlier by demonstrating the necessary steps to configure Azure AD, AWS SSO, and the AWS GovCloud (US)-specific identity provider centrally for ease of management.

Driven by the need for greater productivity, lower costs, and more recently being able to scale a remote workforce, organizations around the world are moving their IT workloads to the cloud. Planning a move to the cloud requires upfront pre-migration planning; this is as important as the implementation itself. But it can be daunting to know where to start or what needs to be in place for a successful migration. The Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cloud Adoption Readiness Tool (CART) can help provide insight into your level of readiness and what you can do to improve it.

State and local governments and health and human services (HHS) agencies provide key services to the nation’s most vulnerable and at risk populations such as healthcare, nutrition, economic, and other social support programs. HHS organizations were among the first to feel the impact of COVID-19 and its effects continue to linger and test aging infrastructure and limited technology systems. State and local government agencies made mission critical decisions to address those immediate needs and are preparing for resiliency moving forward. For this, they turned to the cloud. To help organizations discover how the cloud can help, Amazon Web Services (AWS) created the Health and Human Services Cloud Pavilion, an online, interactive learning environment.

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.

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 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.

AWS releases over a hundred new features and services each year. But do you know how those services can impact your cloud operations? No matter your knowledge, join a team of peers, jam out, and play to win in the AWS Jam Lounge at the AWS Public Sector Summit Online.

Developers, IT specialists, and decision makers working in government, education, nonprofit, and healthcare organizations can learn about cloud computing by playing a new online gamified tutorial called the AWS Cloud Champion: Cloud 101 Challenge. The recently launched game teaches participants cloud basics through a brief self-paced learning experience presented as a virtual showcase.