In case you missed it: March 2020 top blog posts round up

In March 2020, the AWS Public Sector Blog covered stories on tools that support remote learning and teaching, cloud cost optimization, and achieving five nines in justice and public safety. Check out the top five blog posts of the month below.

For more blog highlights from this month, you can also check out The Brief, hosted this month by Brad Keppler. Featured stories on this month’s The Brief, in addition to the below, include: Customers can now connect AWS Outposts to AWS GovCloud (US) Regions, Automating creation of a FedRAMP Integrated Inventory Workbook, Escape unfriendly licensing practices by migrating Windows workloads to Linux.

AWS expands access to tools that support remote learning and teaching as part of COVID-19 response

As part of our response to COVID-19, AWS is providing tools to support remote learning and teaching. This includes providing customers in the most affected regions with technical support, offerings, and AWS Promotional Credit, which help cover costs while enabling organizations to quickly stand up and scale their infrastructure and tools to meet demand, to help our educational technology providers and educators around the world quickly deploy or extend learning into the home. Read this story, and learn more about remote working and learning.

TCO and cost optimization: Best practices for managing usage on AWS

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. Read this story, and check out more stories on total cost of ownership.

Cloud computing courses for government employees: Register at no cost

Are you a U.S. government employee or contractor who is interested in learning about cloud computing? AWS is now offering the AWS Cloud Practitioner Essentials Day and AWS Technical Essentials Day courses virtually to government workers interested in learning about the cloud. Read this story.

Earth observation using AWS Ground Station: A how to guide

Over the past decade, a crop of new companies focused on Earth observation (EO) have made valuable EO data more accessible to a broad audience than before. As a result, we are seeing a dramatic increase in EO science. The value of EO data is the ability to monitor change. Recently, new instrumentation aboard satellites such as radar now allow us to “see” through clouds, allowing observation of any part of the Earth. The reliable, repeatable, and accurate data now flowing from satellites is opening up the reality of operational services powered by satellite imagery. Learn how to get started with EO data using AWS Ground Station. Read this story, and check out February’s story “The true value of Earth Observation data…now.”

Achieving “five nines” in the cloud for justice and public safety

Every hour of every day, our nation’s first responders and 9-1-1 personnel rely on a patchwork of telecommunications and public safety applications to protect their residents and save lives. Whether it’s a 9-1-1 answering point, a computer aided dispatch (CAD) system, a records management (RMS) system, or a mobile communications network, emergency response systems must be available and operational at all times. The accepted availability standard for emergency response systems is 99.999% or “five nines” – or about five minutes and 15 seconds of downtime per year. Read this story.

Check out what you missed on the blog in January and February, and stay updated on the latest AWS news for the public sector by reading the AWS Public Sector Blog.