Smart city transformation made simple with the globally available AWS Smart City Competency Program

The city of the future is “smart.” Many governments around the globe are racing to infuse technology into just about every aspect of city operations. The World Bank says over 50% of the population lives in urban areas. By 2045, the world’s urban population will increase by 1.5 times to 6 billion. As technologists, we need to consider how we can help build efficient, innovative, inclusive, and sustainable cities for the future.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) recently announced the global launch of the AWS Smart City Competency Program. Today, as governments and city leaders look to shape cities of the future, they are actively looking to meet citizen needs for smarter and more innovative urban services. However, city governments and developers have not had a platform to explore partners and solutions that have been validated and implemented with demonstrable success.

The new AWS Smart City Competency Program will deliver proven partner recommendations to AWS customers and partner community to help them build and deploy innovative smart city solutions. As cities explore ways to digitally transform, there are a few key things to consider.

1. What challenges does your city have?

To improve the quality of life for citizens by making cities more livable, sustainable, and resilient, cities need to start by addressing the everyday challenges citizens face in cities. Governments should prioritize those challenges and look for available solutions. Cities around the world use AWS, with the help of AWS Partners, to provide a wide range of solutions for their citizens.

In Indonesia, the West Java Government wanted to improve support to citizens during the COVID-19 pandemic. West Java worked with Elitery, an AWS Partner based in Indonesia, who helped them create a chatbot to provide real-time answers to pandemic-related queries. Elitery’s solution helped West Java save about 90% of the time and resources it would have taken to set up and run a traditional call center.

Headquartered in Canada, AWS Partner Miovision has helped 17,000 municipalities in 50 countries reduce congestion and improve road safety. Deployed at intersections and along roadways, Miovision’s solutions, hardware, analytics, and services turn physical infrastructure into data assets. These solutions help cities manage traffic infrastructure in real time, alert traffic engineers and emergency-response teams when problems are detected, and automatically change traffic signals to get emergency personnel to accident scenes faster.

In the United States, the City of Harrisonburg, Virginia wanted to improve their waste management program. The city implemented AWS Partner Rubicon’s RUBICONSmartCity solution to become more sustainable. Rubicon helped the City of Harrisonburg optimize its waste pick-up route, improve vehicle maintenance, and increase driver safety. The solution has helped Harrisonburg reduce 61 minutes per route for waste pick up drivers, save more than $194,000 annually, and avoid about 230,000 pounds of CO₂ emissions.

The City of Coral Gables, Florida, wanted to use their data to run their city more efficiently and effectively. They worked with AWS Partner Quantela, based in the United States, which uses artificial intelligence (AI) and internet of things (IoT) to offer a single dashboard view that supports data-driven decisions. Quantela’s solution helped the City of Coral Gables reduce operating costs, drive local business revenue, and improve service provision for citizens.

2. What technology do you need to solve your city’s challenge?

AWS validates solutions from technology partners to certify that their services are well-architected, optimized, and able to help solve challenges for customers. AWS Partners who earn competencies must also have proven success, so city government can confidently adopt and scale them in their cities.

For example, in India, AWS Partner Kalkitech developed Kalki.io Utility Data Hub that collects meter data from proprietary field devices, be it for power, water or gas. This includes Metering Headend for remote acquisition of data and Kalki.io Neon, a multi tenant solution, to roll out Kalki.io immediately without dedicating a data center. The Kalki.io solution helps cities enhance visibility into energy consumption and accounting, thereby improving operational efficiency and optimizing energy usage.

In France, Vianova developed Vianova Mobility Analytics, a geo-analytics platform for making insightful and data-driven decisions. The platform, based on a powerful query engine, offers a digital layer between cities and operators to foster collaboration, and enables modal shift toward more sustainable and accessible modes of transport.

In the United States, Rekor Systems offers a roadway monitoring and response platform, which is a full-scale cross-agency incident management solution that provides stakeholders with vital information to rapidly identify, manage, and recover from incidents.

3. How do you find the right partner?

Finding a qualified, trusted and proven partner might be the biggest hurdle for governments as they start their smart city transformation. Through the new Smart City Competency Program, city governments can confidently and quickly identify highly specialized AWS Partners with a demonstrated track record of success helping customers solve strategic, mission-focused challenges.

Use the AWS Partner Solution Finder platform to find partners with the Smart City Competency. The platform categorizes partners by their core verticals, such as water, transport, or citizen services.

Read more case studies about AWS Partners who help support governments build smart city solutions. Reach out to the AWS Smart City Competency Program with questions or comments today.

AWS Public Sector Blog

Smart city transformation made simple with the globally available AWS Smart City Competency Program

1. What challenges does your city have?

2. What technology do you need to solve your city’s challenge?

3. How do you find the right partner?

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