Category: Government

Whether you’re beginning to think about migrating to the AWS Cloud or already planning your migration, you probably have questions such as how much migrating to the cloud will cost. Determining total cost of ownership (TCO) for a cloud migration project can be challenging when evaluating what-if scenarios, over-provisioning, outdated servers, legacy applications, or spreadsheets of stale data. Learn about some AWS TCO tools and best practices.

In February 2020, the AWS Public Sector Blog covered stories on the value of Earth observation data, the Smithsonian Open Access Initiative, and more. Watch The Brief, hosted by Sarah Worley from We Power Tech, to learn more, and scroll down for links to these stories.

For the first-ever Amazon Web Services (AWS) Public Sector Summit in Mexico City, more than 1,400 people from government, education, and nonprofits registered for the event to discuss digital transformation in Latin America through investment in innovation, infrastructure, and talent. With content in both Spanish and English, AWS leaders and customers shared their news and success stories with the group. What’d you miss?

While moving to the cloud saves cost when compared to on-premises IT models, it is important to inspect possible mistakes that could lead to unplanned cloud costs. Based on customer cost optimization consultations with AWS, some organizations have seen up to 33% reduction in cloud spending waste. Here we provide some tips and resources to recognize cloud cost optimization. What are some other common oversights customers make that can drive up their cloud spend? Avoid the following missteps.

For climate change adaptation and resilience, it is important to assess the risks associated with the impacts of climate change and then understand and take action to mitigate those risks. Since 1980, the U.S. has experienced 258 weather and climate disasters where the overall damage costs reached or exceeded $1 billion. As floods become more frequent and costly and natural hazards and climate change impact physical building assets, business continuity, and asset values, big data and analytical technology can be used to create high-tech risk assessments and economic loss estimations.

This month, the Fix This podcast focused on how technology is used to preserve ancient artifacts, develop the pipeline of scientists that fuel our trips to space, and end homelessness. Listen to episodes seven and eight, featuring interviews with Digital Divide Data (DDD), NASA Jet Propulsion Lab (NASA JPL), Community Solutions, and Amazon Web Services (AWS) expert on homelessness, Jessie Metcalf.

The Smithsonian Institution announced the availability of more than 2.8 million two- and three-dimensional images and files through the Smithsonian Open Access Initiative. With this initiative, anyone with an internet connection has access to high-resolution media files, the accompanying metadata, and research from the Smithsonian Institution’s 19 museums, nine research centers, and zoo. This Smithsonian dataset is the largest museum collection released to date.

Cloud-based technologies allow organizations like governments to build a new application on existing services on the internet that offers open and documented APIs to deliver reliable data. These services have an authentication model so that new users verify their identity before accessing, even if it’s offered at no cost. There are three components in this scenario: a service provider, an end user, and an application that needs to access user data. The key technology here is OAuth. OAuth is a standard that enables access delegation.

Maybe you’ve never thought about hackathons before. Or maybe you have a vague idea as to what they are. Or perhaps you are the champion of hundreds of hackathons. Either way, read on to learn why you should consider hackathons in a new way.

I grew up in a farming community in Kentucky, and understand how critical agriculture is to the development of a thriving and robust economy. So what can technology do to make farming and agriculture more sustainable and climate-resilient? How can we make sure crops are high quality and high yield? How do we make sure that we get them to market when they are fresh? How can we improve the way farmers interact with each other? Our customers are helping to answer these questions.