AWS Public Sector Blog

The AWS Institute interviewed Natalie Evans Harris, co-founder and CEO of BrightHive and former senior policy advisor to the US Chief Technology Officer in the Obama administration. Harris founded the Data Cabinet, a federal data science community of practice with over 200 active members across more than 40 federal agencies, co-led a cohort of federal, nonprofit, and for-profit organizations to develop data-driven tools through the Opportunity Project, and established the Open Skills Community through the Workforce Data Initiative. She also led an analytics development center for the National Security Agency (NSA) that served as the foundation for NSA’s Enterprise Data Science Development program and became a model for other intelligence community agencies.

The Center for Digital Government surveyed more than 170 state and local government technology professionals to gauge their cloud ambitions and identify sticking points. Based on survey data, government IT leaders perceive four key stumbling blocks around their cloud-adoption efforts.

The climate data factory is a French startup working on making future climate information easily accessible. The team believes that easy access to actionable data of future climate conditions is essential to fight climate change. Read on for the Q&A with Dr. Harilaos Loukos of the climate data factory on how we can best make use of data.

This week, the BBC and other media outlets published inaccurate stories attempting to connect the AWS bid for the US Department of Defense’s Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) Contract to a UK-based investment firm called C5 Capital (C5). To be clear, neither C5 nor any of its subsidiaries are involved in AWS’ JEDI bid. At no time, past or present, has Amazon or AWS ever invested in C5, its private equity fund, or any related portfolio companies. C5 has never been a teaming partner or subcontractor, nor lobbied on behalf of AWS in order for AWS to obtain government contracts. Any suggestion to the contrary is false. Below are simply the facts so people aren’t confused.

When it comes to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), there’s still ambiguity and uncertainy in the industry about how to effectively comply with it and how aggressive enforcement of it will be. Some organizations have made progress towards compliance despite this, while others have taken a “wait and see” approach.

AWS EdStart members are transforming education in every corner of the globe. Read on for more about three of our members – ArcLab, Lightbulb Education, and Yellowdig. Each of these EdTechs rely on AWS to create a more student-centric learning experience.

Developed jointly by Singapore’s five polytechnics, PolyMall is a one-stop portal to access online learning content across multiple sectors and disciplines. In PolyMall, students are able to access high-quality learning resources at their fingertips for an engaging online learning experience. PolyMall provides a common platform for the five polytechnics to share online learning packages among both students and staff.

Data can be a powerful driver in solving social issues. The AWS Cloud Credits for Research Program seeks to remove barriers and enable researchers to do their best work, bringing them closer to the answers. DrivenData and the Data Science for Social Good Fellowship are two entities using research credits to make a difference for society.

Amazon today announced the Amazon Sustainability Data Initiative to promote sustainability research, innovation, and problem solving by making key data easily accessible and even more widely available. The Amazon Sustainability Data Initiative leverages Amazon Web Services’ technology and scalable infrastructure to stage, analyze, and distribute data, and is a joint effort between the AWS Open Data and Amazon Sustainability teams.

From Cape Town, South Africa to Herndon, Virginia, Amazonians hosted over 140 events across the globe with over 1,760 employees volunteering their time to teach an Hour of Code to over 28,000 students from kindergarten to 12th grade. Employees across Amazon volunteered for Hour of Code to help inspire the workforce of tomorrow.