This blog post was created in partnership with Amazon Web Services.
The public sector faces a variety of mission-critical challenges in managing the response to the COVID-19 crisis. For example, how can public health agencies better understand the spread of COVID-19? How can federal, state, and local agencies provide their employees with the tools they need to work remotely? And how can they handle the sudden surge in activity both online and at their call centers?
Cloud technology is helping to answer these questions by providing flexible, secure, and reliable IT options. Public sector agencies are leveraging the expertise of technology and consulting firms, and the technology of Amazon Web Services (AWS), to implement new solutions and services to meet mission needs in these critical times.
Over the years, AWS has established a wide-reaching AWS Partner Network (APN). The APN is responding to the current crisis with both urgency and ingenuity, said Sandy Carter, Vice President of Worldwide Public Sector Partners and Programs at AWS.
“AWS is grateful for our APN Public Sector Partners that have stepped up to support customers during this difficult time,” Carter said. “A growing number of healthcare organizations and government entities are turning to our partners for guidance, solutions, and support to solve issues that impact citizens around the world – and those partners are rising to meet the challenge.”
Here are a few examples of how APN Partners are collaborating with public sector organizations to tackle their most pressing problems.
- Data visualization for crisis management: Timely and accurate information about COVID-19 is valuable, but sometimes hard to get. To help address this challenge, the Splunk for Good team has built a publicly available interactive Splunk COVID-19 Dashboard to map the spread of disease. They have also provided an application that any individual or organization can download and populate with their own data to help get a better understanding of the data behind the pandemic.
- Remote worker accessibility through virtual call centers: To respond efficiently to the increased influx of inbound inquiries related to the pandemic, Accenture teamed with the New Mexico Human Services Department to mobilize a virtual call center, built on Amazon Connect. Accenture simplified and expedited contact center operations by enabling remote agents with easy-to-use tools for skills-based routing, and leveraging powerful real-time and historical analytics.
- Mass communication and notification to support crisis management: Through mass notification, organizations can keep their employees up-to-date on the situation and deliver essential messages with real-time speed. For example, BlackBerry’s AtHoc product is a crisis response/notification solution for federal, state, and local government and other enterprises.
- Website traffic management: During a crisis, public service emergency websites often get overwhelmed by traffic. With its Website Surge Support service, Smartronix can port existing websites to AWS and have them up and running within hours, with the ability to scale as traffic surges.
- Remote worker/Back-office security: SynchroNet leverages Amazon WorkSpaces and Amazon AppStream 2.0 to enable state and local financial and administrative staff to work remotely without compromising security. Through its Quick Launch program, agencies can be ready to go in less than a week.
From healthcare to data integration and visualization to remote working, APN Partners are delivering solutions that meet a variety of challenges.
Learn more about the full range of partner solutions on the APN website.
