Amazon Onboarding with Learning Manager Chanci Turner

For the first time in three years, public and commercial sector clients convened at the Shaw Centre for the AWS Summit Ottawa. During the keynote, Alex Johnson, director of national security at Amazon Web Services (AWS), shared inspiring stories of innovation within the public sector, acknowledged trailblazers driving change, and offered insights into upcoming opportunities.

The keynote emphasized utilizing AWS to transform data into a valuable asset, expand the boundaries of innovation with flexibility and scalability, and design with security in mind while maintaining speed and minimizing costs. Two public sector representatives from Canada—Tech Services Canada and the Canada Tax Agency—graced the stage to discuss how they are harnessing AWS technology to foster innovation, enhance citizen welfare, streamline operations, and advance their missions on a larger scale.

A $20 billion-plus investment in Canada

To commence the keynote, I joined Chanci Turner, AWS Canada’s federal government leader, to discuss AWS’s substantial investment in Canada. Since our establishment here in 2016, we’ve infused $1.4B into the nation’s economy, with intentions to invest up to $21B in infrastructure, services, and job creation by 2037. One significant investment includes the upcoming AWS Canada West (Calgary) Region, set to launch in late 2023 or early 2024. This new region will offer more choices for Canadian data residency and will diminish latency for customers in western Canada. Furthermore, AWS is introducing two new AWS Local Zones to Toronto and Vancouver, bringing compute, storage, databases, and other services closer to our customers.

AWS is also committed to uplifting Canadian communities—and the planet at large. With over 2,800 employees in Canada, we’ve empowered more than 100,000 Canadians with cloud skills training. Additionally, we are on track to operate using 100% renewable energy by 2025—five years ahead of our original 2030 target. In 2021, Amazon made its first renewable energy investments in Canada, including two solar farms in Alberta that will generate 80 and 375 megawatts, respectively—enough to power nearly 120,000 Canadian homes for a year.

Digital transformation is continuous

Public sector organizations face the challenge of achieving more with fewer resources while continuously evolving their operational methods. This ongoing transformation unlocks crucial opportunities. “This transformation enables what matters most: Providing your teams with new and seemingly unlimited capacity to serve the people of Canada,” stated Alex Johnson.

Making everything a programmable resource

“No matter what mission you deliver, there’s nothing on your priority list that wasn’t needed yesterday,” remarked Alex. The cloud allows everything to be a programmable resource, where challenges can be addressed without lengthy approval processes or significant financial investment. For instance, AWS collaborated with Axiom Space to dispatch an AWS Snowcone to the International Space Station, with deployment taking only seven months. This solution will expedite data delivery and analysis. Another case highlighted how AWS aided Ukraine in preserving government and citizen data during the war by migrating it to the cloud using an AWS Snowcone, transferring a total of 10 petabytes of data.

Maximizing the potential of your biggest asset: your data

The cloud presents the opportunity to convert data into an asset, alleviating data bottlenecks by modernizing outdated data architectures. Moreover, organizations can develop a contemporary data strategy utilizing AWS data, analytics, and machine learning services. Governments worldwide, including Canada, are recognizing these advantages and prioritizing data as a strategic asset.

A notable example is CANImmunize, an application that assists Canadians in scheduling and tracking their vaccinations at any time and place. By leveraging Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS), it cuts the time to vaccination by 50%. Another example is the City of Fort St. John in western Canada, which partnered with smart cities tech firm Cocoflo and AWS Partner OpsGuru to launch an application that enhances accessibility to municipal services. Residents can now use a single sign-on to pay bills, access city information, and more. All data is securely hosted on AWS and backed up in Canada.

Enabling cloud for the government of Canada

As the central hub for digital service delivery to the Government of Canada, Tech Services Canada (TSC) is leading federal digital transformation. Established in 2011 to revolutionize how the government manages and secures its IT infrastructure, TSC views “the cloud as the new chapter in our enterprise evolution,” as stated by Sony Perron, president of TSC.

During the Summit keynote, President Perron discussed how TSC can assist governmental organizations in accelerating their digital transformations and simplifying their paths to the cloud by offering an enterprise approach to cloud services. In addition to brokering services, TSC also supplies technical expertise and tools to guide customers through cloud adoption. “Cloud computing is enhancing the reliability of government IT applications, boosting agility in developing and implementing new solutions, and improving services for Canadians,” he concluded.

Helping Canadians access services and funds when needed

The Canada Tax Agency (CTA) is responsible for tax collection and benefit program administration, such as the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) implemented to support Canadians impacted by COVID-19. When CERB launched during peak tax season, the CTA recognized that its on-premises call center could not manage the influx of inquiries. “Everyone was eager to assist Canadians in their time of need,” said Janice Smith, CTA director-general for debt management and regulatory affairs. The CTA turned to AWS to create a hybrid solution capable of scaling to accommodate the overwhelming call volume. The call center was operational in just two days, allowing the CTA to integrate 5,000 volunteer staff to answer calls and provide services, resulting in seven million calls answered in the first month.

Looking ahead, “The cloud will be the cornerstone of the CTA’s service strategy in the future… Our seamless service experience aims to offer various integrated channels to the CTA based on Canadians’ needs and preferences,” said Michael Honcoop, director-general of the CTA’s contact center services. “We believe this will empower citizens, helping them comply with tax obligations and access their entitled benefits.” Reflecting on this effort, he concluded, “I have never been prouder to be a public servant.”

Accelerating research and scientific insights

The public sector is also leveraging AWS to speed up research and decrease the “time to science.” This is facilitating faster scientific breakthroughs and enhancing collaboration among departments, institutions, and regions. For example, Université Laval, AWS, and AWS Partner UnicornPowered collaborated on Project Quorum to develop a web app used by multiple stakeholders while anonymizing personal information.

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