AWS Public Sector Blog
Category: Federal
Taking COVID in STRIDES: The National Center for Biotechnology Information makes coronavirus genomic data available on AWS
AWS and the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) announced the creation of the Coronavirus Genome Sequence Dataset to support COVID-19 research. The dataset is hosted by the AWS Open Data Sponsorship Program and accessible on the Registry of Open Data on AWS, providing researchers quick and easy access to coronavirus sequence data at no cost for use in their COVID-19 research.
Mission critical cloud: US federal government, on the Fix This podcast
The fourth episode of the Mission Critical Cloud Fix This podcast mini-series by Teresa Carlson, vice president of the worldwide public sector at Amazon Web Services (AWS), is now live. We dove into how two federal government customers—the Smithsonian Institution and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Goddard Space Flight Center—use the cloud to reduce operational costs and find new ways to deliver on their missions.
First step in enterprise modernization: Securely transferring data to the AWS Cloud
One of the most difficult aspects in IT modernization in any industry—especially in highly regulated ones like government, financial services, and healthcare—can be getting data securely from on premises to the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cloud. In capital markets, moving fast while staying secure can determine an organization’s ability to modernize, optimize, and innovate with new technologies such as data lakes, big data analytics, and machine learning.
Additional no-cost foundational cloud education training for government-specific use cases
Are you a U.S. government employee who is interested in learning about cloud computing? The AWS Training and Certification team is launching an another no-cost virtual series of foundational courses to help you better understand the AWS Cloud, relevant products, common solutions, and architectural best practices for the U.S. Government.
Be counted: April 1 is Census Day
April 1 is Census Day 2020: the day everyone in the United States is counted. Household respondents to the U.S. Census are asked to count every individual living in their household as of Census Day. From representation in Congress to funding for local schools, roads, and emergency services, important decisions are made by the government based on census data, impacting those services for the next decade.
Mars Rover 2020 gets its name: Perseverance
Over 28,000 school age children across the United States competed to name the Mars Rover 2020, but only one student’s name persevered. When the Mars Rover 2020 launches in July 2020 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, it will be named Perseverance.
Cloud computing courses for government employees: Register at no cost
Are you a U.S. government employee or contractor who is interested in learning about cloud computing? AWS is now offering the AWS Cloud Practitioner Essentials Day and AWS Technical Essentials Day courses virtually to government workers interested in learning about the cloud. These instructor-led courses will be offered online starting Monday, March 23.
Automating creation of a FedRAMP Integrated Inventory Workbook
Did you know AWS can help deliver an automated solution for creating the FedRAMP Integrated Inventory Workbook? This workbook needs to be updated and submitted to the FedRAMP Project Management Office (PMO) monthly for continuous monitoring. Automating this workbook saves manual work hours. Any customer going through the FedRAMP authorization process can leverage this workbook. Understand how to gather an inventory of AWS resources from AWS Config data to create the FedRAMP Integrated Inventory Workbook.
Preserving artifacts, going to space, and ending homelessness: the Fix This podcast February round up
This month, the Fix This podcast focused on how technology is used to preserve ancient artifacts, develop the pipeline of scientists that fuel our trips to space, and end homelessness. Listen to episodes seven and eight, featuring interviews with Digital Divide Data (DDD), NASA Jet Propulsion Lab (NASA JPL), Community Solutions, and Amazon Web Services (AWS) expert on homelessness, Jessie Metcalf.
Smithsonian releases 2.8 million images through Smithsonian Open Access Initiative
The Smithsonian Institution announced the availability of more than 2.8 million two- and three-dimensional images and files through the Smithsonian Open Access Initiative. With this initiative, anyone with an internet connection has access to high-resolution media files, the accompanying metadata, and research from the Smithsonian Institution’s 19 museums, nine research centers, and zoo. This Smithsonian dataset is the largest museum collection released to date.