eWay Corp The AWS Cloud Infrastructure, such as AWS Government Cloud is the most secure, vast, and reliable cloud platform, offering more than 200 featured services from global data centers. AWS provides the necessary infrastructure for deploying any application workloads globally or developing and deploying specific applications close to end-users with minimal latency.
In fact, AWS can provide the necessary infrastructure, such as the AWS for Government, anywhere and in any manner one needs it.
Millions of customers are choosing AWS for hosting their cloud-based infrastructure and for realizing the scalability, security, reliability, and performance of cloud computing technology. Just like business enterprises and startups, even public sector organizations such as national governments are already relying on the power of cloud computing or AWS for Government.
There is no denying that more than hundreds and thousands of government agencies are using AWS for Government. AWS fully understands that US government agencies need to balance economy and agility with proper security and reliability while ensuring compliance. Hence, AWS through AWS Government Cloud has been providing efforts to solve all types of government compliance challenges related to cloud computing.
Moreover, AWS is committed to helping customers sail through the procurement and policy issues associated with cloud computing adoption. The best part about AWS for Government is that it offers commercial cloud capabilities across various levels, such as Unclassified, Secret, Sensitive, and Top Secret for the US government.
AWS for Government: Allowing Government Institutions to Adopt the Cloud
Amazon Web Services has a long-standing history of providing support for driving digital transformation all throughout the globe. In fact, AWS first established its presence in the US and then made its presence in other countries and regions.
For instance, AWS first made its presence felt in India in 2011 by opening an office in Delhi. With the passage of time, AWS launched AWS Asia Pacific Regions. They produced two AWS Asia Pacific Regions in India. One is in the Mumbai Region and the other one is in the Hyderabad Region.
Similarly, in the US, AWS launched its AWS US Region i.e., in the US East and US West. By opening regions, AWS is making it easier for enterprises, public sector organizations, startups, and SMBs to access public cloud infrastructure technology.
In this regard, it can be said that government sectors from all over the world are leveraging the power of the AWS for Government platform to offer better services to their citizens.
Public Sector Organizations are Relying on AWS
Presently, the AWS Cloud covers 96 Availability Zones within different geographical regions of the globe. They have plans to launch around 15 more Availability Zones and 5 more AWS Regions.
The launch of AWS Regions will offer customers access to modern technologies, which include security, data analytics, etc.
Any government can improve its choice of running applications and serving end-users through AWS Government Cloud.
Not only do developers, startups, enterprises, and entrepreneurs’ benefit, but AWS can also allow governments to improve their e-Governance operations and serve the citizens in a better way. Switching to AWS for Government is an investment for the future that increases agility and offers the road for innovation.
1. AWS Changed IT Infrastructure
However, this was not the same scenario even a few years ago. Going back ten years, one will get to see that the federal government was slowly adapting to cloud computing services.
Rather, during those days they were not only concerned about the cost of the AWS Cloud, but also about the security of the cloud services. The loss of such sensitive data meant a serious threat to the government.
These were the days when AWS mostly focused on the public sector, especially on the US federal government. Although few people had a clear idea about the cloud, AWS still paid heed to the customer demands and worked on their needs.
So, depending on the requirements, any government of a country can run their workloads in the AWS for Government regions and utilize the unique capabilities of the AWS Region.
What AWS Learned
AWS learned that the main concern of their customers was cost and security. In fact, AWS understood that they needed to build a secure and compliant infrastructure for it. For this reason, AWS produced AWS Government Cloud or AWS GovCloud (US) in 2011.
Similarly, in India, Amazon launched its second Amazon Web Services (AWS) Asia Pacific Region (Hyderabad). The AWS–Hyderabad will support over 48000 full–time jobs on average annually. This is going to be achieved through planned investment in India by 2030.
AWS Government Cloud is an isolated cloud infrastructure and services, which is subject to the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP), Department of Defense (DoD), and Cloud Computing Security Requirements Guidelines (SRG) Levels 4-5.
1. The Broader Picture
Additionally, government agencies dealing with data that are subjected to regulatory requirements, like International Trade and Arms Regulation, needed a cloud environment that will be physically located in the US and can be easily accessible by US personnel.
AWS launched the AWS Government Cloud (AWS GovCloud), which is specifically designed to meet the US government’s security and compliance needs. This makes AWS the first cloud provider to offer a cloud infrastructure that meets these needs.
With the passage of time, AWS is continuing to offer new capabilities through AWS Government Cloud. For instance, a second AWS Government Cloud or AWS GovCloud infrastructure has been launched in the US, AWS GovCloud (US – East).
AWS is continuously innovating its infrastructure so that it can stay at par with the new regulatory requirements. for instance, Compliant Framework for Federal and DoD Workloads in AWS GovCloud was introduced in 2020.
This is a new AWS Solutions Implementation that helps customers speed up their Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification, as well as DoD SRG compliance that will reduce technical effort, cost, and risk.
How Cloud Is Driving Economic Development
There is no denying that government agencies look forward to promoting modern technologies to ensure efficiency and save costs. So, when the public sector starts to adopt the AWS for Government or the cloud, they go through internal transformation. for instance, cloud usage within an organization can drive improved accessibility of data and better information sharing. This, in turn, increases work productivity and improves resource allocation.
On the other hand, the external benefit of using the cloud is that government agencies can use the saved time to serve the citizens. Also, it allows the government to allot certain public services, such as occupational skills training, to pave the way toward a more productive workforce. Also, proper training can ensure quick and effective service delivery.
Now, let us investigate the ways any enterprise level can benefit from cloud computing.
1. Sharing More Data and Information
On an enterprise level, the benefit of the cloud is that it puts emphasis on data and information sharing. With the cloud’s data-sharing tools, the staff of an organization can store information within a central location, adding improved visibility within the workplace.
A collaborative environment leads to improved communication and idea-sharing within agencies and teams, which might have otherwise operated alone. This is not only applicable to federal, regional, and local governments, but also to entrepreneurs and businesses.
Studies have shown that Data and IoT (Internet of Things) solutions are known for addressing any developmental changes. For instance, Nexleaf Analytics harnesses the power of data for tackling global development issues. The mission of this organization is to protect the planet and preserve human life using sensor technologies and data analytics. Also, AWS for Government advocates for data-driven solutions.
In fact, Nexleaf Analytics developed IoT platforms ColdTrace and StoveTrace which help the government to determine the potency of life-saving vaccines and ease the adoption of clean cookstoves.
The solution offered by Nexleaf is powered by Amazon Web Services (AWS), so that it can aggregate the crucial data which leads to responsive interventions. Also, by collaborating with NGOs and governments in 10 nations across Asia and Africa, Nexleaf makes sure that their solutions adhere to the local country’s laws and preferences. Plus, it identifies the tools that can benefit the constituents.
1.1. Data Helps with Community Collaboration and Innovation
Similarly, the cloud encourages partnership and collaboration within communities. As a matter of fact, the cloud can help local governments smoothen relationships within small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
According to a report published by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) report, not only do SMEs constitute 95% of firms but also generate 60-70% of employment. Additionally, the AWS Public Datasets Program makes it easy to analyze data and even build complementary services with the help of computing and data analytics tools. The AWS for Government cloud consists of fractured data from a wide range of sources, improving the access of users and allowing more time for analysis.
2. Increasing Productivity
Constant reliability and lack of physical infrastructure will drive productivity gains for organizations using the cloud. Due to large-scale AWS migration, workforce productivity can greatly increase.
Moreover, AWS offers more than 90 solutions that help organizations gain quick access to services that would have otherwise been built and maintained by organizations.
Government organizations from all over the world have understood that productivity increases when they shift to AWS for Government cloud. It not only benefits their operations, but also benefits the citizens.
In fact, productivity gains are helping institutions deliver their mission. For instance, the Agentschap Weken & Verkeer (AWV) can deploy new maintenance capabilities eight times faster. This has been possible because of the automation of services and databases through the AWS Cloud.
As a matter of fact, the agency manages 6970 kilometers (about 4330.96 mi) of roads and 7668 kilometers (about 4764.67 mi) of cycle lanes in Belgium. Also, a team of 250 road inspectors are responsible for the safety of citizens. In the likelihood of a pothole, the team will use an app for logging information related to the issue and thereby prioritize the repair work.
3. Preparing Citizens for The Workforce & Building Skills
Skill development and education programs are important for the economic development of a nation. In accordance with the United Nations’ 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (education and skill-building for the youth, cloud technology, and education), we can all reach learners living in any part of the world.
To break the poverty cycle and reduce gender inequality – inclusive and relevant education is the key factor. There is no denying that expanding the boundaries of a physical classroom or technology can help to increase access to various courses. Also, it creates a fair situation for the learners irrespective of their geographical and socio-economic background.
For educators and for schools, the cloud is not only providing agility and reduced costs but also offering the opportunity to create breakthroughs within educational models and student engagement.
4. Reaching Diverse Job Seekers
To build skills, AWS is reaching out to diverse job seekers irrespective of their location. In this regard, Digital Divide Data (DDD) is a non-profit enterprise that makes use of AWS for supporting the development of the regional workforce.
Their goal is to create sustainable tech jobs for the youth with the help of the Impact Sourcing model. The model intends to offer economically marginalized youth with training and jobs on upcoming technologies, such as machine learning, cloud computing, cyber security, and data analytics.
4.1. Driving Local Development
To drive local development, it is extremely important to retain local talent. This task is challenging for some cities. Also, a concentration of innovative businesses and startups is a headstrong sign of economic development.
Cloud technology offers new businesses the required boost in demand generation, forecasting, and innovation. Often, Amazon Web Services speeds up this process via AWS Activate.
5. AWS Activate
AWS Activate is a program designed to provide startups with available resources and required credits to help them start with the cloud. This is possible by accessing tools like Amazon LightSail that offer technology at a minimal cost, such as virtual private servers of any size to enterprises.
5.1. Allocating Resources More Effectively
Cloud technology allows the government to reconsider its critical processes. This, in turn, helps to build new efficiencies covering security, compliance, procurement, and even data protection. Additionally, cloud computing, being cost-effective, allows agencies to use the saved resources on delivering their mission.
In other words, it allows the agencies to gain access to improved citizen services that can easily meet the high standards of living. Also, it holds the ability to draw new inhabitants to a region or city.
Does the US Government use AWS?
There is no doubt that the US government makes use of Amazon Web Services (AWS). Why? AWS, being a leading cloud platform, helps various government sectors by offering a wide range of services, such as storage, networking, and even computing.
AWS is used by several government agencies, such as the Intelligence Community of the US Defense. It is also widely used by the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Defense (DoD), the Central Intelligence Agency, and many more sectors. The reason for using AWS might vary from one agency to another. For instance, AWS can be used for meeting computing needs and for data storage.
AWS allows the DoD to save money by using its resources in an efficient way. Also, it allows the Department to access data easily from any other part of the world. In fact, the DoD makes significant use of AWS because it is a cloud-based application.
Just like the DoD, the Department of Homeland Security also makes use of AWS for meeting its data storage and computing needs. With Amazon Web Services, the Department of Homeland Security also gets to save money as it uses the resources in an efficient manner.
Likewise, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) uses AWS for meeting its data storage and computing needs. In fact, AWS also allows the CIA to save money in an efficient manner.
Also, one should not forget about the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which also makes use of AWS for its investigative endeavors.
Understanding How Each Sector Works with AWS Cloud Computing
AWS GovCloud is used by a lot of government sectors, such as the US Federal Cloud, the Intelligence Community, and by the Department of Defense. To know how different government sectors are leveraging the power of cloud computing to achieve their mission, follow this blog post.
1. AWS for Government: Federal Government
The AWS Cloud is rightly regarded as a secure, scalable, and cost-efficient solution that easily meets the requirements of the US Federal Government. Cloud services can easily meet the required mandates of the government while reducing costs and driving efficiency.
Cloud computing is a pay-as-you-go model and offers access to up-to-date technology resources which are usually handled by experts. The best thing about AWS for Government services is that they can be accessed over the net without making any sort of investment. Only one needs to pay for the computing resources used.
1.1. How AWS for Government Helps
Let us investigate the ways through which AWS helps the government.
1.1.1. Driving Innovation in Support of Citizens and Warfighters
There is no denying that AWS offers a greater number of services than other cloud providers. As a matter of fact, it has around 200 featured services for a wide range of technologies.
Most importantly, AWS comes with the broadest Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) services that help businesses.
1.1.2. Ensuring Security and Compliance
AWS Government is designed and configured with extensive security capabilities in order to fulfill the highly demanding requirements of information security. This cloud computing offers cloud capabilities across different classification levels, such as Secret, Top Secret, Sensitive, and Unclassified.
The AWS Cloud supports a variety of security controls, certifications, and auditing, including compliance with CJIS, FedRAMP, FERPA, and other regulations.
1.1.3. Supporting Critical Missions
AWS remains committed to helping US Government customers and their partners in the most critical missions.
2. AWS Cloud Computing for U.S Defense
AWS offers a global infrastructure and secure, scalable, and mission-focused solutions that help the DoD meet its mission, drive efficiencies, increase innovation, and secure important workloads.
TAWS is properly positioned to offer scalable solutions to DoD customers. This is done either through tactical edge solutions, artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML), DevSecOps, or high-performance computing (HPC). Most often DoD customers work with the AWS Partner Network (APN) for building solutions.
The APN can offer a community of partner companies that provide solutions for areas, like developer tools, software, and even consulting expertise to deploy and handle mission-critical workloads within the AWS Cloud.
2.1. How AWS for Government can Help in DoD’s Mission
Let us investigate the ways through which AWS helps the DoD.
2.1.1. Rapid and secure mission delivery and cybersecurity
To outrun any opponents, war mercenaries need modern kinds of software. Also, they need to remain updated with the latest innovations that can easily adapt to the changing environmental needs and meet battlefield priorities securely and rapidly. At the same time, the software needs to work in a reliable manner. However, it should not be vulnerable to cyberattacks.
2.1.2. Evolve Command and Control with the Cloud
It is a known fact that the U.S. Military is moving forward to embrace the Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2), and AWS is also ready to deliver cloud capability in a reliable manner. in fact, AWS is going to support each service under the JADC2 initiative, which includes participating in testing the edge computing capabilities of the Advances Battle Management System (ABMS) led by the Air Force.
3. AWS for the U.S. Intelligence Community
Amazon Web Services offers support to meet the unique needs of the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) via increased mission impact and improved security.
AWS can help intelligence agencies by offering a vast range of secure cloud services and products. Also, with a secured cloud service, organizations can explore all sorts of capabilities and execute emerging technologies, such as AI and ML for improving the success of any mission.
3.1. How AWS for Government can Help IC’s Mission
Know how AWS for Government is helping the U.S. Intelligence Community to meet its mission.
3.1.1. Drives Innovation, security, and mission success
In order to ensure one’s nation is in a technologically advanced place, adapting to cloud computing technology is vital. With AWS Cloud offering a secure and saleable solution, it is easy to drive toward the mission’s success.
Moreover, AWS Cloud is designed in a way that it offers the most secure cloud computing environment. In fact, AWS is the first commercial cloud provider that launched several regions particularly dedicated to the US government.
It will not be wrong to say that AWS for Government is helping the US Government’s attempt to protect as well as support their country.
3.2.1. Securing one’s mission
AWS recently launched the Top-Secret Region – AWS Top Secret-West. The AWS Top Secret-West is officially recognized to operate workloads falling under the level of Top-Secret U.S. security classification.
With the addition of this new region, one gets multiple Availability Zones that are geographically separated from AWS Top Secret East. With two Top Secret Regions, customers in the U.S. intelligence, defense, and national security communities can dispose of multi-Region architectures for increased resiliency and availability.
For example, the CIA depends on commercial cloud technology to deliver its mission.
4. AWS Cloud for the State and Local Government
There is no denying that the state and local governments are making a stark difference with cost-effective, secure, scalable, and flexible AWS Cloud infrastructure. The best part about AWS for Government is that even big organizations can greatly benefit from the latest innovation, the broadest functionality, and from the secured computing environment.
4.1. How AWS for Government is Helping
Check out how AWS for Government is aiding the state and local government of a country.
4.1.1. Quickly Transforming data into actionable insights
With the most-comprehensive data management platform and over 100+ partner solutions, Amazon Web Services can easily optimize the data lifecycle while curtailing costs. Some of the advanced capabilities offered by AWS Cloud are:
- Real-time streaming and analytics support
- Data collection, processing, short-time storage
- Analytics, warehousing, and archiving
- Business intelligence and machine learning tools
4.1.2. Modernize open-source and Microsoft applications
Customers have been running Windows and Linux-based IT workloads on AWS for more than a decade. The reason to pick AWS for Government infrastructure over other cloud infrastructure providers are:
- High-performance
- High reliability and capability
- A greater level of security
- Complete migration support
- Lower the cost of ownership
- Flexible licensing options
4.1.3. Engage citizens with Amazon-built and tested technology
Amazon-created technology is going to engage customers in a dynamic and personal way through email or mobile messaging. This means that professionals working for state and local governments can utilize the same technology for creating the best kind of experience. This is possible through:
- Accessing new IT resources within minutes
- Increasing organization’s agility by reducing the cost and time
- Creating new user experience with the help of machine learning and voice recognition
Benefits of AWS for Government
Wondering how government sectors benefit through AWS Cloud Computing infrastructure or through AWS GovCloud? Read on.
This blog post will guide you through the benefits of availing cloud computing infrastructure like AWS for Government.
1. Cloud Security
The use of AWS can offer better control and confidence to run any business securely within the most flexible cloud computing environment. Businesses as AWS customers can benefit from the AWS data centers and from networks designed to protect identities, information, applications, and devices.
With Amazon Web Services, businesses can greatly improve their capability to meet compliance and core security needs, like data locality, confidentiality, and protection within the extensive services and features of AWS.
So, with AWS, manual security tasks can be automated. This will allow shifting the focus to scaling and bringing innovation to the business. Also, one gets to pay only for the services that are used.
In fact, customers can greatly benefit from AWS as it is one of the commercial clouds that has service offerings.
2. Compliance
AWS allows obtaining the most complete compliance controls. It is known to support more security standards and compliance certifications than any other cloud computing platform. Amazon Web Services offers support for FedRAMP, PCI-DSS, HIPAA/HITECH, FIPS 140-2, GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), AND NIST 800 -171, helping customers please compliance requirements for every regulatory agency from all over the world virtually.
AWS achieves third-party validation for hundreds and thousands of global compliance needs. In fact, the compliance requirements are monitored daily so that from finance to retail and healthcare to government, agencies can easily meet the security and compliance standards.
3. Security Controls with Compliance
By inheriting the latest security controls, AWS can easily strengthen its compliance and certification programs. Plus, AWS can also get access to various tools that can reduce the time and cost of running any specific security assurance needs
AWS compliance offers on-demand access to over 2500 security controls. This is possible by using AWS Artifact, which is an automated compliance reporting tool of AWS. This tool is available in the Amazon Web Service Management Console.
It is true that traditional methods of assurance are becoming more challenging with scalability. It is now easy to cut down the risk and prepare the scale by making use of activity monitoring services. This service helps find any kind of configuration changes and incorporates AWS services within the existing solutions.
4. Hybrid Cloud Solutions
It is easy to extend the AWS infrastructure and its associated services on the premises and edge.
AWS hybrid cloud service offers persistent Amazon Web Services experience whenever one needs it. It might be right from the cloud, on the premise, or on the edge.
Users can pick from a wide set of computing, storage, networking, security, identity, data integration, monitoring, operations, and more for building a hybrid architecture that easily meets the requirements of use cases.
Hence, the benefits obtained through a hybrid cloud service are accelerating digital transformation. This means that bringing the cloud services and infrastructure anywhere one needs will aid any digital transformation projects to run faster. So, businesses that are running in any specific location can manage their applications with AWS.
The hybrid cloud service can easily improve the productivity of any business while reducing costs. In other words, the AWS hybrid cloud offers developers a common platform for developing, deploying, and even managing applications. Similarly, IT professionals can use the same service, hardware, and even tools for operating any infrastructure across the cloud or on-premises.
5. Availability
AWS is known for its high network availability. Each of the AWS Regions is completely isolated and consists of Availability Zones (AZs) that are again secluded from the main infrastructure. For better secluding any issues and to attain an important level of availability, applications across the AZs can be easily partitioned.
In other words, when running an application on AWS for Government, the application can be easily partitioned. Moreover, it is easy to dispense the AWS control planes as well as the AWS management console across regions. Also, the API (Application Programming Interface) endpoints can easily operate for around 24 hours when secluded from the global control plane functions.
This signifies customers will not need to access the endpoints of the AWS infrastructure.
Taking Professional Help
Are you looking forward to storing your data securely in the cloud? Yes! AWS for Government or AWS GovCloud is simply perfect for storing any data in the cloud in a secure manner. U.S Government sectors are leveraging the power of AWS U.S. Region for storing data under various categories.
So, if you are a government agency or an institution from India or from any part of the globe, you can also take full advantage of the AWS Government Cloud. Just consult the eWay Corp professionals and we will help you to take full advantage of the various technologies offered by AWS, like data analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence, and so on.
eWay Corp, is fully committed to digital transformation. Thus, we will always look forward to helping our customers to accelerate innovation.
Final Thoughts
AWS’s industry-focused approach and expertise solutions can easily meet the various needs of diverse industry verticals. With AWS’s specifically designed services, it can help government agencies to meet mandates while reducing costs and driving efficiency. Services like AWS for Government offer a paradigm shift from the traditional IT infrastructure to the cloud, which organizations can use to modernize and transform their work processes.
