AWS Public Sector Blog

Authority to Operate (ATO) on AWS is an AWS Partner Network (APN) program, which provides resources to solution providers running on AWS who need assistance in their pursuit of a compliance authorization. This includes the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP), Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS), Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS), and many other compliance programs.

“The earth is breathing, the earth is speaking, but are we listening?” said Dr. Dava Newman, Apollo Program Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). From the warming of Earth over the decades to the resulting melting of the Greenland ice shelf (which can correspond to a 6-meter rise in sea levels), the Earth’s vital signs are real. “But we need to understand the Earth to save it,” said Lori Garver, CEO of Earthrise Alliance. What can we all do to address these issues?

The Group on Earth Observations (GEO) announced the 21 projects from 17 developing countries that will be awarded $1.5 million USD worth of cloud services, grants, and technical support through the Earth Observation Cloud Credits Programme. Under the Amazon Sustainability Data Initiative (ASDI), this programme will enable Earth observations and applications to support sustainable environmental development including the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.

Cal Poly has announced the Satellite Data Solutions (SDS) Initiative to support the growing opportunity to solve the planets most critical challenges with low earth orbit (LEO) satellite data. The DxHub will work closely with the AWS Ground Station team to test and improve satellite connectivity and improve access to satellite-acquired data to solve problems. Through the DxHub and the SDS Initiative, students and faculty will have access to AWS services, technologies, and technical expertise to experiment with ‘born-in-the-cloud’ solutions that build on, and add to, space-based data analytics.

AWS Competency Partners have the expertise to help you succeed at each stage of your cloud journey. The AWS Competency Program helps you identify and choose top APN Partners that have been vetted, validated, and verified by Amazon Web Services (AWS). Guidance from these partners can provide value-added services and solutions, leading to bigger results that help organizations at any stage of their cloud adoption journey. At the AWS Public Sector Summit, we highlighted the following APN Partners who were recently awarded AWS Government and Education Competency designations.

A record number of attendees will be at this year’s AWS Public Sector Summit in Washington, DC. There are a few key reasons for this – here’s what you should know.

Recreation.gov is your gateway to discover America’s Outdoors and more. From trip planning to information sharing to reservations, the webpage is the one-stop shop to plan your American adventure. As a digital portal to 3,500 federal areas and over 100,000 facilities and activities, the webpage needs the right technology to bring the outdoors to your computer screen. Booz Allen Hamilton designed a new Recreation.gov website that launched in the fall of 2018 that runs completely on AWS. The website personalizes the user experience through data analytics and recommendation engines, while keeping all data secure.

Have you heard who will be at the AWS Public Sector Summit DC? The Summit is only a few days away! Head to the keynote early on Tuesday, June 11, to hear from innovators who are revolutionizing how we work and live.

During a research project at the University of Southampton in the UK, Professor Mike Santer was researching the use of mobile phones in Sub-Saharan Africa. His research led him to wonder how the power of the Internet can be brought to the 3 billion unconnected people in the world? Eventually, his enquiry led him to co-found BluPoint Ltd., a startup with a mission to develop Internet solutions for places where connectivity is either intermittent, non-existent, or cost-prohibitive.

From inside the classroom to inside the human brain, the blog stretched to new heights this past month. Check out five of our best posts from the month of May.