AWS Public Sector Blog

Category: Government

Fix This episode 15: State & local government

Mission critical cloud: State and local government, on the Fix This podcast

The third episode of the Mission Critical Cloud Fix This podcast mini-series by Teresa Carlson, vice president of the worldwide public sector at Amazon Web Services (AWS), is now live. We dove into how the cloud helps state and local government customers deliver critical services to citizens. Interviews featured in the podcast include the state of West Virginia (WV), Smartronix, and Los Angeles County Internal Services Department (LA County ISD). You can stream all episodes on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, TuneIn, Overcast, iHeartRadio, and via RSS.

AWS Africa (Cape Town) Region

AWS expands to South Africa, deepening roots in public sector

In April, Amazon Web Services (AWS) launched the AWS Africa (Cape Town) Region. AWS has a long history in South Africa and numerous public sector organizations in the region are already spearheading technological innovations in the cloud. From healthcare to education, these four public sector organizations are leading innovation in the public sector in the Region.

Voting booth

Supporting elections through voter education and information access, security and scalability, and absentee voting

Even in uncertain times, election officials and political stakeholders are committed to serving a dynamic electorate in a secure, scalable, and cost-effective way. Cloud-based technologies from Amazon Web Services (AWS) and the AWS Partner Network (APN) can help elections administrators, campaigns, and civic engagement organizations with access to information, security and scalability, and absentee voting workflow solutions.

AWS Cloud Champion

Announcing AWS Cloud Champion: An online, gamified tutorial on working, teaching, and engaging remotely

AWS announced the launch of a preview version of an online gamified tutorial, “AWS Cloud Champion: Virtual Workplace Interactive Challenge,” that highlights cloud capabilities available for online meetings, cloud-based contact centers, and virtual desktops. The tutorial is presented as a 3D, virtual tradeshow experience, which includes kiosks and an AWS avatar that guides you through a self-directed path, explaining applicable AWS services in a concise and engaging format.

COVID-19-Lungs

Helping battle COVID-19 and improve cities: How AWS CICs foster innovation

Technology and the cloud can help address some of the world’s most pressing and immediate challenges, like battling COVID-19 and improving cities. At Amazon Web Services (AWS), we encourage innovation through technology in our AWS Cloud Innovation Centers (CICs). CICs are long-term, strategic collaborations with public sector organizations interested in solving societal problems through digital solutions while providing students a platform to learn by doing. Check out a few of the challenges CICs around the world have worked on so far this year.

AWS Public Sector Summit Online Activities

Choose your journey for the AWS Public Sector Summit Online

On June 30, 2020, you are invited to attend the AWS Public Sector Summit Online. We’ve curated content for this event so that you can learn the tools, have access to resources, and interact with AWS experts, tailored to the stage you and your organization are at in building on AWS — all from the comfort of your home. From our 30-minute breakout sessions to the keynote to our distinguished zones, there is content for everyone. Learn how to build your plan for the AWS Public Sector Summit Online, no matter where you are in your cloud journey.

West Virginia Workforce

Accelerating the response to West Virginia workforce needs through the cloud

In the United States, unemployment insurance claims are rising, with the current insured unemployment rate at 15.7%—the highest since the end of World War II. Many states are struggling with the volume of applications, causing legacy back-office systems to crash. Workforce West Va. identified three actions they could take to improve constituent services; many of these actions were enabled by the cloud.

Food bank food insecurity

Mission: Addressing food insecurity

The topic of food insecurity is personal for so many of us. Both of my parents were school teachers in Pulaski County, Kentucky, a county that has a 21.3 percent food insecurity rate for children—the same rate of childhood hunger as where I live now in Washington, DC. According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), more than 11 million children across the country struggle with hunger and live in food insecure households. Here are ways that AWS technology is helping address this challenging issue.

Photo by person on computer looking COVID-19; Patrick Assalé on Unsplash

Updates and early lessons from our COVID-19 HPC Consortium research partners

The concept of a COVID-19 High Performance Computing (HPC) Consortium emerged from a roundtable discussion at the White House in March and included input from industry, government, and academic leaders. Following the announcement of the consortium, AWS has been collaborating with teams on a growing number of projects to provide cloud computing resources from AWS. I want to share three early learnings and insights into some of the innovative projects on which we are collaborating with the world’s leading researchers.