Government agencies looking to leverage innovations from cloud-based solutions will find no lack of potential software and service providers. Often the real challenge is trying to narrow the search and find vendors that understand the unique requirements of government customers.
Like many large organizations in the private sector, government agencies are looking to leverage the cloud to modernize their aging infrastructure, improve the efficiency of their operations and deliver new services.
However, these modernization and transformation efforts must be aligned with a wide range of mandates, compliance programs and mission requirements that are unlike anything faced by most private sector organizations. Further, different communities within the public sector — federal civilian, defense, intelligence, state and local — have their own mandates and directives.
How can agencies find industry partners that know how to drive innovation while also meeting the need for agility, security, compliance and reliability?
That’s the goal of the Amazon Web Service (AWS) Competency program.
A Network of Experts
The AWS Partner Network (APN) includes thousands of AWS Partners covering a wide range of capabilities. As the network has grown, more and more customers have asked AWS to help them identify APN partners with expertise in specific areas. That was the impetus behind the AWS Competency Program.
The AWS Competency program helps customers identify AWS Partners that have proven expertise and customer success in specific solutions, industries and workloads. There are now 26 AWS Competencies, including four focused on the public sector: Government, Education, Non-profits, and the recently launched Public Safety and Disaster Response.
Mission-Critical Ready
The AWS Government Competency launched in 2016 and currently includes 86 highly specialized Partners offering either software or services for Government customers. These Partners have proven their ability to work with government customers to deliver mission-critical workloads and applications on AWS.
Their success reflects both their expertise in technology and their deep understanding of the unique challenges that agencies face, including the pressing need to meet mandates, reduce costs and drive efficiencies.
The program reflects the diverse requirements of the government. Some partners bring expertise in cross-cutting technology areas, such as citizen services, analytics and security, while others focus on specific mission areas, such as national security and defense, citizen services, and transportation and infrastructure management.
In a report released last year, the Alliance for Digital Innovation noted the high cost that agencies pay when they ignore commercial innovation. Agencies often incur unnecessary cost, time and risk to build a custom IT system “when a proven commercial product is already available that meets or exceeds requirements at the same or lower cost,” the report states.
But to take advantage of commercial innovation, agencies need the ability to find industry partners that have proven expertise and experience in addressing their specific requirements. The AWS Government Competency addresses that need.
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