Thinking bigger about what’s possible and customer-driven innovation: re:Invent 2022 public sector leadership session with Max Peterson recap

Pictured: Max Peterson, vice president of Amazon Web Services (AWS) worldwide public sector; Dr. Peggy Whitson, astronaut and director of human space flight at Axiom Space; and Matthew C. Fraser, chief technology officer (CTO) of New York City.

As we move into the next stage of normalcy, organizations must adapt and innovate to keep up with the constantly evolving global landscape and the changing needs of end users and constituents. On Tuesday, November 29 at re:Invent 2022 in Las Vegas, Nevada, Max Peterson, vice president of Amazon Web Services (AWS) worldwide public sector, spoke about how the transformative power of the cloud is enabling organizations to move with speed and agility while making sure mission-critical workloads stay secure and protected.

In the public sector leadership session titled, “Building for a better future,” Max spoke with special guests Dr. Peggy Whitson, astronaut and director of human space flight at Axiom Space, and Matthew C. Fraser, chief technology officer (CTO) of New York City, about the rapid digital transformation in the public sector and key trends that can help build a better future. Max also shared news and announcements that can help public sector organizations reimagine what’s possible in how they deliver on their missions.

Read more about the conversations, stories, news, and announcements you missed at the re:Invent 2022 public sector leadership session:

Announcing new Continuity of Government IT on AWS

Citizens expect governments to continue to operate despite floods or heat waves endangering data centers, malicious actions taken against IT infrastructure, or power grid failures. AWS announced the launch of Continuity of Government IT on AWS (CGIT) to help governments protect their digital assets and services in the face of disruption or interference. This solution guide enables governments to retain the integrity of critical datasets, backup applications, and transfer services to run in the cloud to reduce the risk of compromise for continuity of operations.

CGIT helps governments mitigate these risks through a series of engagements that help governments map their continuity goals to an appropriate technology path, followed by assisted delivery of the expected outcomes through AWS Professional Services, ready-made solutions, or the help of more than 100,000 AWS Partners from more than 150 countries. Learn more about Continuity of Government IT on AWS.

Announcing the 2022-2023 IMAGINE Grant winners

AWS believes that technology, when leveraged strategically, is a powerful force multiplier in solving social and environmental challenges. The AWS IMAGINE Grant, started in 2018, funds US-based nonprofits that use cloud technology to solve the world’s most pressing challenges. At re:Invent 2022, AWS announced the 2022 IMAGINE Grant winners—a total of 20 winners.

This year’s winners have a wide range of missions and goals, including: revolutionize child protection globally, advance research and treatment for pediatric AIDS, better understand and prevent veteran suicide, provide legal defense to those in need, help protect our world from pandemic-level threats, and more. Although the selected nonprofits represent diverse mission areas, each is committed to innovating with the cloud, using data to fuel their missions, and scaling access through cloud-enabled, digital tools. Read more about the winners.

Successful run of AWS services on an orbiting satellite

AWS successfully ran compute and machine learning (ML) services on an orbiting satellite in space, in collaboration with AWS Partners D-Orbit and Unibap, for a first-of-its-kind mission. AWS developed this experiment using AWS software integrated with Unibap’s processing hardware and launched it into space onboard a D-Orbit satellite. Over the past 10 months, AWS has been performing timely data analysis onboard and delivering these insights directly to scientists and engineers. Using AWS artificial intelligence (AI) and ML services helps reduce the size of images by up to 42% for increased processing speeds and enables real-time inferences on-orbit. Learn more about this experiment.

Exploring new frontiers: Astronaut Peggy Whitson

Attendees got to hear from astronaut Dr. Peggy Whitson, who joined Max to share stories from her 22 years as a NASA astronaut, and now as an astronaut and director of human spaceflight at Axiom Space. In her time at NASA, Peggy performed 10 space walks, three long-duration missions, commanded the International Space Station twice, and spent 665 days in space—more than any other American astronaut and any female worldwide. She is also the first female and non-military NASA chief astronaut.

In the conversation, Peggy shared her insights and thoughts on topics like how we can use space and technology in new and different ways, how technology is being used in the space industry to respond to disruptive events and prepare for and protect from future events, and her “out of this world” predictions for the future of space and technology.

Connecting one of the biggest cities in the world: NYC CTO Matthew Fraser

Attendees also got to hear from Matthew Fraser, City of New York’s chief technology officer (CTO). He runs the Joint Security Operations Center (JSOC)—a new cybersecurity hub that allows city, state, and federal entities to coordinate efforts against cyberthreats.

In addition to speaking about his experience as CTO, Matt gave his thoughts on how to disrupt the status quo and drive ongoing innovation, leverage the cloud to improve services and increase accessibility to better supports all residents of the city, and cybersecurity and protecting citizens’ data, as well as his own predictions about the future of technology in NYC.

Now available: Space domain awareness on demand through the AWS Marketplace

To help customers get a better understanding of what is happening in space, AWS worked with a coalition of AWS Partners to develop Project ARGUS. This centralized digital platform is now available on AWS Marketplace and allows users to choose multiple data sources, different analytical tools and models, and desired analysis software integration tools to deliver domain awareness on demand. Project ARGUS can collect and analyze past and current space and Earth data, as well as model future conditions – providing decision makers with timely and actionable intelligence for today and helping to identify opportunities still to come. Learn more about Project ARGUS.

Now available: New AWS for Health genomics, medical imaging, and advanced analytics capabilities

AWS also recently launched two new capabilities in Amazon HealthLake. HealthLake Imaging makes it simple to securely store, share, and analyze medical images at petabyte scale, with high availability and access from anywhere. It is designed for sub-second image retrieval and estimated to reduce the total cost of medical imaging storage by up to 40%. HealthLake Analytics makes it simple to query and derive insights from individual or population-level multi-modal health data at scale. With the ability to share data securely across the enterprise and enable advanced analytics and ML in just a few clicks, HealthLake Analytics eliminates months of engineering effort, allowing healthcare organizations to focus on patient care.

Curious to learn more about what you missed at re:Invent? Follow the AWS News Blog for the latest announcements, updates, and more from re:Invent 2022.

Learn more about AWS for the public sector. Watch the session below or on YouTube.

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