Amazon Web Services Inc. today provided an update on some of the ways in which its public cloud computing platform is being used by customers, including governments, educational institutions and businesses to implement more secure and reliable work-from-home solutions amid the COVID-19 outbreak.

The company has seen a big surge in demand for its cloud computing services during the pandemic. In its most recent first quarter earnings report, it reported that its cloud revenue had risen by 33%, as enterprises increasingly rely on its platform to deliver the tools and services they need to ensure their workers remain productive from home.

In a blog post today, Matt Garman, vice president of sales and marketing at AWS, emphasized the importance of the company’s desktop-as-a-service offering AWS WorkSpaces, which helps companies make their office network and software resources available to remote workers.

Garman said customers are using AWS WorkSpaces to support thousands of remote workers, despite never having implemented work-from-home policies in the past. One example is the financial services provider Enova International, Inc., which used the service to set up a support network for more than 1,200 remote employees in just 24 hours. Another customer, the City of Cagliari, combined AWS WorkSpaces with an encrypted connection to its on-premises data center to enable more than 500 of its employees to work at home while under quarantine.

Amazon’s cloud infrastructure also serves as the information technology foundation for many technology providers. And many of those customers are leveraging Amazon’s cloud to provide free access to services that enable remote collaboration, Garman said.

They include Slack Technologies Inc., which provides a messaging platform that runs entirely on AWS. Since the coronavirus pandemic began its spread, Slack has offered free access to its services for nonprofits and other organizations involved in relief efforts for an initial period of three months.

“Slack recently hit a record of 12.5 million simultaneously connected users, with average active usage exceeding one billion minutes each weekday,” Garman said. “Slack has also seen an average 20% increase in the number of messages sent per day.”

Lots of other AWS services are proving their worth too, Garman said. For example, the Amazon Chime service that enables organizations to meet, chat and place business calls, is being used by the City of Port St. Lucie in Florida to facilitate remote work. Meanwhile, a company called MindBody Inc. is using Amazon Chime to deliver a “virtual wellness platform” for businesses to provide related services to millions of consumers, Garman said.

Companies are also increasingly using Amazon’s cloud contact center service Amazon Connect to set up remote call centers that enable them to continue dealing with customers while maintaining social distancing. They include Shore Plastics, a small plastic fabrication business that supplies aerosol boxes to protect doctors and nurses from infection. Shore Plastics quickly became overwhelmed with the amount of calls it received from customers after a sudden spike in demand for its products, and responded by using Amazon Connect to setup a new contact center in just minutes, Garman said.

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