AWS Public Sector Blog

Happy Birthday! It has been 10 years of our customers running Microsoft Windows Server and SQL Server on AWS. Our government customers are some of the largest users of Windows. As public sector customers are looking to modernize their infrastructure, they have been turning to AWS. They trust their Windows workloads on AWS because of our experience, reliability, security, and performance.

The Canberra Grammar School Code Cadets are a group of students with a passion for technology and applying their knowledge towards interesting projects beyond the classroom. The Code Cadets have been working with AWS technology for many years, being long-time participants in GovHack, which AWS has supported in the past – and are planning to use AWS Educate in their Year 9 and 10 elective software development courses next year.

The second annual AWS Public Sector Summit in Singapore took place on Tuesday, October 2, at the Marina Bay Sands Convention Center in Singapore. More than 1,100 attendees showed up from across the public sector. The event kicked off with the keynote presentation and was followed by 17 sessions that were offered across two tracks. And, for the first time, there was also a student track.

Transportation and traffic management are hot topics when city planners and administrations think about ways to make a city smarter and more livable. Recent statistics tell us that drivers in the U.S. spend an average of 42 hours per year in traffic in cities and lose $1,400 on gas, while idling. In Europe, cities like London and Paris show an average of 74 and 69 hours spent idling per year respectively. Researchers in England found adding an additional 20 minutes of commuting per day has the same negative effect on job satisfaction as receiving a 19% pay cut. These statistics and an increasing desire to be more environment friendly are reasons why city leaders are looking to tackle this problem.

On World Mental Health Day, we are taking a moment to highlight the importance of mental health awareness and access to mental health care for individuals worldwide. As technology impacts mental health in various ways, it also provides an opportunity to scale access to information about mental health issues and deliver support and services to more people than ever before.

Recife, the capital of Brazil’s northeastern state of Pernambuco, is distinguished by its many rivers, bridges, islets, and peninsulas. The municipality of Recife, with an estimated population of 1.62 million, is at the center of a metropolitan region formed by 13 municipalities and around 94 neighborhoods. The cost to maintain such a large metropolis is great, requiring a complex public-cleaning operation with thousands of vehicles and employees, which was consuming nearly 10% of the city’s budget. Before implementing a new technology solution, supervising contractors and controlling the quality of street-cleaning services throughout the city was challenging.

From viewing election results to monitoring stock transactions, government, education, and nonprofits are adopting serverless for increased agility and lower costs. Election night presents a challenge for city and county administrators across America. Voters, party workers, journalists, and constituents converge to a precinct’s website to view election results.

September was monumental for the blog. Thanks to the continuous innovation of our customers, the blog topped 500 posts since launch! Here are the top September stories that helped us get there.

Age UK is the UK’s largest charity dedicated to helping everyone make the most of later life. They have the vision to make the UK a great place to grow older and they work every day to achieve this by providing companionship, advice, and support for older people who need it most. Scalability, cost savings, and security are key in delivering Age UK’s services to more than 7 million people every year. In 2012, Age UK turned to AWS to help revamp their technology to better support the older generation in the UK.

Our second annual AWS Summit in Bahrain took place on Sunday September 30th in Manama, Bahrain. More than 2,000 attendees including the Crown Prince and dignitaries within the Bahraini government joined us to get inspired and gain the technical knowledge needed to get more from the cloud. The event included 15 sessions across three tracks – management, technical, and spotlight. The Summit also featured those in the Middle East who have made impressive use of the cloud to foster a spirit of innovation in the region.