Category: Public Sector

Since the launch of the AWS Canada (Central) Region in December 2016, many organizations have begun using AWS to transform Canadian healthcare infrastructure and services. The entities use AWS to help lower the cost of IT services, provide more focus on patients, improve data security and compliance, improve healthcare clinician and staff productivity, and begin resolving major health problems impacting the general population. From data center migration to machine learning, healthcare authorities, hospitals, and service providers have been focused on the following key trends.

The rapidly changing job market and declining enrollment rates are forcing higher education leaders to rethink strategies for attracting students and helping them find jobs. At a private Amazon Web Services (AWS) Institute roundtable, 22 university and community college leaders agreed that they must adopt new models for success – including close collaboration with large employers, innovating beyond degrees with new certifications, and using technology to enhance students’ learning experiences.

Timed with the 2018 back-to-school season, nearly 600 students, educators, university presidents, college administrators, superintendents, and business leaders from 14 different countries met in Seattle, Washington, to discuss how the cloud can address challenges and opportunities facing education. The conference revolved around three core themes: innovation and transformation, the role of machine learning in education, and building the workforce of tomorrow.

IMAGINE: A Better World, a Global Nonprofit Conference, brought together hundreds of nonprofits from around the world for a unique, interactive learning experience. Attendees got a look at innovative ideas and proven approaches, delivered across a variety of tracks and topic areas. Check out five takeaways from the event below.

The California Cloud Workforce Project (“CA Cloud”), a consortium of 19 LA County community colleges and their sister high schools, today announced they will offer a Cloud Computing Certificate beginning in the fall of 2018. The CA Cloud curriculum was designed collaboratively by faculty at Santa Monica College (SMC) and AWS Educate, with the support of subject matter experts from AWS and other LA-based tech companies to equip students with cloud skills needed for careers in the tech industry.

Saint Louis University (SLU) will become the first university to bring virtual personal assistants into every student residence on its campus and to equip them with a private, SLU-specific skill through Alexa for Business. This fall, SLU plans to place more than 2,300 Amazon Echo Dots in residence hall rooms and student apartments.

AWS Educate members now have access to expanded features provided by educational cloud-lab environment provider, Vocareum. The new features provide simple, secure, and no-cost learning environments for educators and students to leverage AWS on projects, assignments, and other classroom environments without needing a credit card.

The AWS Competency Program highlights top AWS Partner Network (APN) partners who have demonstrated technical proficiency and customer success in specialized solution or industry areas. Within the public sector, we have Education Competency Partners and Government Competency Partners. Today, we are adding a third competency: the Nonprofit Competency.

Many nonprofits are called upon in mission-critical situations, when they don’t have time to waste on IT because lives may be on the line. The new AWS Disaster Response Program enables disaster response organizations access to cloud services at the edge, even in the harshest conditions.

Are you a nonprofit organization using technology as a mission-critical component of your projects? Are you looking for support to pursue your technology-driven goals? The AWS Imagine Grant is a public grant opportunity open to registered 501(c) nonprofit organizations in the United States, who are using technology to solve the world’s most pressing challenges. As part of the program, we are seeking proposals for pilot projects, proof of concepts, strategic technology planning, or existing programs that utilize technology in a new or expanded way.