Tag: government

Increased digitalization is transforming the payments landscape. Over 85 countries, representing over 90% of global GDP, are researching the possibility of launching a retail central bank digital currency (CBDC). However, as central banks evaluate the pros and cons of CBDCs, they are considering different approaches and designs to address the variety of needs and situations of each country. To advance understanding in this space, AWS worked with the Oliver Wyman Forum on a whitepaper which outlines a framework that can help support policymakers in evaluating the interdependencies between policy and technology choices. In this blog post, we summarize key principles outlined in the framework.

The AWS Secure Environment Accelerator (ASEA) landing zone helps customers deploy and operate a secure multi-account, multi-Region AWS environment. Governments in Canada and others around the world currently use the ASEA, with over 30 deployments to date. Some of these same customers also use VMware Cloud on AWS to integrate on-premises vSphere environments, allowing them to move existing workloads to the cloud more quickly. Integrating your VMware workload with natively managed AWS services can help you reduce your operational overhead and optimize your total cost of ownership (TCO). In this blog post, we review the technical considerations related to integrating your ASEA landing zone with your VMware Cloud on the AWS environment.

AWS announced that the AWS Startup Ramp is now available in Japan to support entrepreneurs delivering modern products and services in government, civic technology, smart cities, healthcare, agriculture, and space technology, as well as disaster prevention and resilience. AWS Startup Ramp provides startup and their teams with training and support, networking, and AWS credits to address challenges in serving public sector customers and accelerate public sector innovation. Now, early-stage startup teams across the Asia-Pacific Region can apply to the first AWS Startup Ramp cohort before applications close April 7, 2022.

To better understand the challenges and opportunities in digital healthcare adoption, think tank ACCESS Health International and the AWS Institute conducted research across 12 countries in the Asia Pacific in order to understand government and industry perspectives on cloud adoption for public healthcare. The findings are presented in the “Overcoming Barriers to Cloud Adoption in Public Healthcare in the Asia-Pacific” report. Read on for a summary of the research’s key findings.

The Brazilian Space Agency and Amazon Web Services (AWS) signed a Statement of Strategic Intent and Cooperation. The initiative, on which the Brazilian Embassy in Washington also collaborated, is the first of its kind for AWS in Latin America, and will support innovation and the continued growth of the country’s space industry.

Governments are increasingly adopting digital ID systems to improve inclusion and accessibility to public services. Based on the experiences shared by governments and by AWS experts who have worked to implement digital ID around the world, six lessons emerge about how to create the right strategic mindset for digital ID creation and implementation.

Disaster recovery is a crucial investment for public sector organizations. However, out-of-date disaster recovery and business continuity planning (BCP) policies prevent organizations from improving in these essential areas—like the assumption that the more distance between data centers, the better. But is there a point where more distance between data centers has diminishing risk mitigation returns? Enter the Goldilocks zone for disaster recovery, in which the distance between data centers is not too close, not too far, but just right.

Public transit can efficiently connect people and places, often saving riders time and money while reducing traffic congestion. To help make taking public transit more simple, Amazon Alexa launched a transit capability where customers can conveniently ask Alexa for directions with transit or status updates for transit lines from over 450 public transportation agencies. Now rolled out across the US, the feature makes it simpler than ever for customers to use Alexa to optimize their daily commute or to explore a new neighborhood by bus or train.

Government departments work hard to meet required security framework controls for cloud services, and obtaining an Authority to Operate (ATO) can sometimes take up to 18 months. To assist with this process, AWS developed the open-source AWS Secure Environment Accelerator (ASEA), a tool designed to help deploy and operate secure multi-account AWS environments. This post describes how government departments can more simply deploy a web application consisting of a single-page application (SPA), backend API, and database within ASEA.

State and local government (SLG) organizations need to reflect and refocus on cyber hygiene and continuous improvement of their security posture. Here are some best practices for SLG chief information security officers (CISOs) and IT professionals to consider in their cloud journey.