AWS Public Sector Blog

Tag: open source

US Capitol building; Photo by Joshua Sukoff on Unsplash

Design systems make government better—from Washington to Wellington

Governments around the world want to accelerate their digital transformation to offer simpler access to citizen services online and earn trust with effective solutions. This includes things like being able to send notifications to users, providing a single log-in for government services, or publishing public health information in the wake of a pandemic. The AWS Government Transformation Team is here to help. We highlight available solutions and build new open source solutions that governments can leverage. Before developing new software, establishing a foundation with a sound design system is an important first step so our solutions are consistent, accessible, and simple to use. Read on to learn more about why starting with an open source design system is important and how we selected one for the software we’ve built and will build in the future.

Service Workbench on AWS

Announcing Service Workbench on AWS: A fast and simple solution to create a collaborative research environment

Today, Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced Service Workbench on AWS, a web portal for researchers to deploy domain-specific data and tools on secure IT environments in minutes not months. Customers can accelerate research while promoting repeatability, multi-site collaboration, and cost transparency in the research process. Tailored for researchers, Service Workbench helps quickly and securely stand up research environments for their work, allowing them to focus on the research not the technology.

Sacramento California

California uses open source solutions and the cloud to create a model of models

Governments, like the state government of California, are in the midst of a transition to a new way of delivering vital information, services and programs using technology and the cloud. Government organizations are adopting approaches pioneered in the technology industry, including user-centered design, agile development, data science, modular contracting, and the use of modern technology platforms. Many of these governments, like the state of California, are using Amazon Web Services (AWS) to respond quickly and scale to battle unprecedented challenges, like COVID-19, and help them quickly make decisions about how to protect their constituents.

Photo by Tom Rumble on Unsplash

Bridging data silos to house and serve the homeless

Efforts to prevent and combat homelessness are limited by the lack of comprehensive data about people experiencing homelessness. This makes it difficult for states to identify trends and emerging needs to respond and make data-driven decisions about the effective deployment of resources. The cloud can help bridge information silos. Read on for examples of how states use the cloud to bridge data silos and better serve the homeless.

Social housing

Using the cloud to improve access to social housing, rental assistance, and other social services

Demand for housing continues to increase, with demand outweighing supply. Nonprofits, including social housing organizations, work towards the mission of providing access to safe and affordable housing, rental assistance, and social services to low-income individuals and families in need. These organizations also play a critical role in supporting the elderly and vulnerable. And with homelessness projected to increase by 40-45 percent this year in the United States, these services are more in demand than ever. The cloud can help nonprofits that serve those in need while also driving innovation, saving costs, and speeding delivery of services. Learn how these AWS customers and partners are modernizing the way that mission-driven organizations provide housing assistance.

aerial photo of doctor on laptop at desk with stethescope and chart

Adding an ingress point and data management to your healthcare data lake

Data lakes can help hospitals and healthcare organizations turn data into insights and maintain business continuity, while preserving patient privacy. A data lake is a centralized, curated, and secured repository that stores all your data, both in its original form and prepared for analysis. A data lake enables you to break down data silos and combine different types of analytics to gain insights and guide better business decisions. In my previous post, “Getting started with a healthcare data lake,” I shared how to get started using data lakes in managing healthcare data and what a good “first sprint” architecture might look like. Here, I walk through building your first solution on AWS using a healthcare data lake as our example workload.

Saguaro National Park

A streamlined, mobile-first approach to service delivery for counties and states

The COVID-19 pandemic magnified the health and financial strain in communities across the country. Before the pandemic hit, Wildfire, a state association for Community Action Agencies, was working with Prefix, an AWS Partner Network Technology Partner, to develop a cloud-based solution for utility and rental assistance. When the City of Phoenix requested they support the distribution of $20 million CARES Act funds, they shifted their resources and existing infrastructure and, in a matter of weeks, stood up a repeatable public-facing solution.

government building with columns

How open source helps governments respond to COVID-19 with speed, scale, and agility

Governments are sharing their technology solutions with other governments through open source tools. These tools are helping state, local, and federal governments respond quicker, and at the scale needed, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, one of the challenges governments face is finding out what open source tools are available. To help public sector customers use open source tools better, AWS launched Open Government Solutions, which aggregates open source projects and assets from public sector entities around the globe for governments at all levels to find, adapt, and reuse. During a panel conversation around the launch, government leaders outlined five key reasons why governments are choosing open source technologies to deliver citizen services.

Open Government Solutions

Open source in the fight against COVID-19

As we continue to work with public sector bodies around the world, AWS understands how valuable open source software and development communities are at this time. To accelerate the combined global response to COVID-19, we gathered examples of third-party open code, tools, and standards that reformers in the public sector can immediately use. We’ve included these in a new resource now available in Open Government Solutions.

EHDEN Academy

EHDEN Academy launches no-cost online school for global health studies

The EHDEN Academy is launching a no-cost online e-learning platform to train researchers on the mapping of patient data in the OMOP Common Data Model and the use of Observational Health Data Sciences and Informatics (OHDSI) tools to perform health analysis. The EHDEN Academy is the global educational resource for those working with data to generate real-world evidence and outcomes research. The EHDEN Academy is open to the public to better support the need for technical expertise in Europe and abroad.