AWS Public Sector Blog

Category: Public Sector

Announcing the AWS Well-Architected Operational Readiness Review lens

AWS announced the release of the Operational Readiness Review (ORR) program as a custom lens for the AWS Well-Architected Tool, which is designed to help you review the state of your applications and workloads against architectural best practices, identify opportunities for improvement, and track progress over time. Creating a custom lens for the Well-Architected Tool with the ORR program can help supplement Well-Architected reviews by including lessons learned that are specific to your business, culture, tools, and governance rules. Learn how to set up the ORR as a custom lens in this walkthrough.

Investing in continuous learning to grow your organization’s future

Many organizations invest in infrastructure for future needs but may overlook needed technical training and cloud modernization skills for people within the organization. The AWS Cloud Adoption Framework (AWS CAF) provides guidance outlined in six different perspectives for an organization’s cloud transformation journey. One of these perspectives, People perspective: culture and change, addresses how to develop capabilities for the growth of people within an organization. Learn how developing key capabilities within the People perspective of the AWS CAF can support long-term mission success.

4 steps to build a data strategy for managing performance in the public sector

In the public sector, civic leaders must make sure that a wide variety of citizen services are delivered efficiently, responsibly, and successfully. To identify high performing operations and support those in need of improvement, decision-makers need real-time data in formats that are simple to interpret and understand. In my 25 years of experience serving the public sector, I’ve found that there are four foundational considerations for implementing a comprehensive public sector data analytics and performance management strategy.

The top 3 innovation drivers in higher education in 2023

At AWS, we work with K12 schools, higher education institutions, and education technology (EdTech) and learning companies to support teaching and learning, research innovation, and to build lasting institutions that positively impact their communities. We asked our higher education customers what’s top of mind for them in 2023, capturing insights from AWS education subject matter experts and global education experts. Learn the main priorities that they shared with us, and what their future roadmap is for teaching, learning, and research.

How cities can use transport data to reduce pollution and increase safety

The AWS Institute invited Rikesh Shah, outgoing head of open innovation at Transport for London, to discuss how London’s transport authority uses data sharing principles to solve city-wide challenges like air quality and safety. Shah shares his experiences of working as head of open innovation at Transport for London (TfL), which adopted an innovative approach to working with private sector organizations to make journeys simper and faster, reducing both pollution and accident levels.

Modernizing tax systems with AWS

Globally, tax agencies are increasingly looking to the cloud to address pressing needs, from aging and costly infrastructure, technology debt, poor disaster recovery (DR), and siloed data to challenges integrating with third party systems. In this blog post, learn how tax agencies and their tax solution providers can adopt a progressive approach to modernizing tax systems with AWS to enable more efficient and effective tax administration.

What you missed at the 2023 IMAGINE: Nonprofit conference

The 2023 IMAGINE: Nonprofit conference brought together hundreds of nonprofit leaders, technologists, and innovators to learn and share how AWS Cloud technology can drive a positive impact for people and the planet. Chelsea Clinton, author, advocate, and vice chair of the Clinton Foundation and the Clinton Health Access Initiative, spoke with Francessca Vasquez, AWS vice president of technology and customer solutions, about their passions for data and leadership during a fireside chat. Plus, AWS announced new initiatives to support nonprofits with funding and more. Discover some of the top moments from IMAGINE: Nonprofit.

A deeper look into the 2022 ASDI Global Hackathon’s first place winner

In 2022, Amazon Web Services (AWS) launched the Amazon Sustainability Data Initiative (ASDI) Global Hackathon, part of a new collaboration with the International Research Centre in Artificial Intelligence, under the auspices of UNESCO. Participants were asked to use their creativity, intelligence, and technical skills to build sustainability solutions using data from ASDI on any AWS Cloud services to build solutions that support one or more of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) from the United Nations (UN). We connected with Jeff McWhirter, the first place winner, to learn more about his winning project, the Repository for Archiving and MAnaging Diverse Data (RAMADDA).

AWS Imagine Grant 2021

AWS announces the 2023 AWS IMAGINE Grant funding cycle for nonprofits

Today at the IMAGINE: Nonprofit conference, AWS launched the 2023 AWS IMAGINE Grant cycle. Each year, the grant program provides a holistic package of resources, including unrestricted funding, to nonprofit organizations pursuing cloud technology projects for mission impact. Through the IMAGINE Grant, AWS discovers nonprofits that are bringing high-impact technology projects to life. New this year, nonprofits applying for the Momentum to Modernize award may now receive up to $50,000 in funding towards their foundational cloud projects. Learn how to apply now.

Analyzing vehicle fleet location data from a data lake with AWS

At AWS, many public sector customers operate fleets of vehicles (e.g. emergency response, public transportation) that generate location data, which is ultimately stored in a data lake. These customers frequently ask how they can quickly visualize this data and extract insights that can help them optimize how they operate their vehicle fleets. In this post, learn how to use Amazon Athena and Amazon Location Service to perform ad hoc reverse geocoding on a notional dataset of vehicle location history, and visualize the results on an Amazon QuickSight map.