Teresa Carlson, the founder and leader of the AWS Worldwide Public Sector, addressed cloud transformation in the public sector in her keynote address at the AWS Public Sector Summit in Washington, DC. The message is that from enabling the workforce to securing data to finding the right tool for the right job, organizations can design for a future of continual innovation.
Carlson provided the following government sector highlights in her address at the summit:
Intelligence Community Solves Complex Problems with the Cloud
In 2013, the Intelligence Community made a decision to invest in a modern information technology system for the community. With the cloud, they were seeking efficiency and looking to better handle big data. “It’s one of the best decisions we made, and it will, I think, be one of the decisions that’s considered a leap forward,” said Sue Gordon, Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence Office of the Director of National Intelligence. “We are faster. We can ask more questions, and the cost to ask those questions is almost nothing. We take on much more complex problems than we did before.”
Get Started on Your Path to an ATO
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. Learn more.
The U.S. Department of Defense Turns to the Cloud for Urgent Change at Significant Scale
In order to support our troops, the US Department of Defense took an inventory of what they had, what they needed, and how they could adapt. The answer: the cloud. “What’s really impressive is we didn’t go and build a cloud. We built a process and a platform to onboard people to commercial cloud instead of build our own cloud,” said Kenny Bowen, CIO, US Department of Defense for Special Programs. “We now have access to the most state of the art cloud we have seen.” Using the cloud for mission-critical solutions allowed the agency to compress time to delivery from years to days.
CloudEndure Migration is Now Available at No Charge
CloudEndure, an AWS company, now offers CloudEndure Migration to move applications from any physical, virtual, or cloud-based infrastructures to AWS at no charge. This offer is available to all AWS customers and partners. Learn more.
Migration Acceleration Program open for business for the public sector
The AWS Migration Acceleration Program (MAP) is designed to help organizations that are committed to a migration journey achieve a range of benefits by migrating existing workloads to AWS. MAP has been created to provide consulting support, training, and services credits to reduce the risk of migrating to the cloud, build a strong operational foundation, and help offset the initial cost of migrations. It includes a migration methodology for executing legacy migrations methodically, as well as a robust set of tools to automate and accelerate common migration scenarios. Learn more.
State of Arizona Uses Modern Technology to Solve Government Problems
Arizona does not have earthquakes, floods or hurricanes, but what they do have is dust. In July 2013, a dust storm lasting multiple days caused an outage of their biggest data center, which shut down critical systems. With the governor challenging government leaders to innovate and transform Arizona’s IT, the state created a bold vision with a cloud-first policy.
When we started, we had no idea how successful we would be, especially as a public sector organization. We aimed to migrate 25-50% to AWS, but after the dust settled, we had moved 75% to AWS,” said Morgan Reed, CIO of the State of Arizona.
More Than 220 New Services and Features in AWS GovCloud (US)
Since announcing the opening of the second AWS GovCloud (US) Region last year, we have continued to focus on driving innovation and access to new services and infrastructure. This year, we launched over 220 services and features in the AWS GovCloud (US) Regions. At the Summit, we announced four new services available in AWS GovCloud (US) Regions:
- AWS CodeBuild
- AWS DataSync
- AWS Serverless Application Repository
- AWS Secrets Manager
NIH Uses the Cloud to Accelerate Cures
From genomic data to electronic health records to Fitbit data, the data deluge is strong within healthcare. One of the missions of National Institutes of Health (NIH) is to sustain high-value research, while securing medical data. “If we are to speed advances, we need to transform how we conduct research, share results, and insert these discoveries into patient care,” said Andrea Norris, Director for the Center for Information Technology and the Chief Information Officer, NIH. “And we are at the moment of science where our knowledge, science, and dedicated and coordinated efforts can generate a leap forward.” The NIH is working on many initiatives including Kids First, the Brain Initiative, and the All of Us Research Program.
Read the full article on the AWS blog.
Also, AWS CEO Andy Jassy spoke with Carlson in a fireside chat. The conversation spanned a variety of topics including how AWS is helping public sector customers accelerate their pace of innovation, how organizations can leverage machine learning and artificial intelligence, the unwavering support of AWS for our defense and national security customers and the critical nature of moving fast to solve public sector challenges.
Watch the chat: