As the public sector moves into the digital age, Amazon Web Services Inc. has become a cloud services hero, helping the government, educational facilities and non-profits innovate and save money while benefiting mankind, according to Patricia Davis-Muffett (pictured), director of global public sector marketing at AWS.

“One of the things that’s been amazing is the passion that our customers have for our technology. … They get a little taste of it, and they go, ‘Wow, I can’t believe what I can do that. I thought it was impossible!’” said Davis-Muffett.

Davis-Muffett spoke with John Furrier (@furrier), host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, for an exclusive CUBE Conversation at the AWS public sector headquarters in Arlington, Virginia. The discussion focused on AWS public sector clients and initiatives.

AWS chalks up high marks from public service community

Just two of the hundreds of organizations singing AWS’ praise are the United States Central Intelligence Agency and National Aeronautics and Space Administration. According to Davis-Muffett, Tom Soderstrom, information technology chief technology officer at NASA’s California Institute of Technology Jet Propulsion Laboratory, estimated that infrastructure build-out for JPL’s Mars landing was “one one-hundredth of the cost” thanks to AWS’ services.

AWS programs, such as AWS Educate and We Power Tech, offer free computer science training to anyone 14-and-up, regardless of location, sex, race or religion. “Computer science is so critical in so many aspects of life,” Davis-Muffett said. “… So we’ve been really working hard to expand the opportunity for a wide range of people so that any smart person with an idea can be using our technology.”

Davis-Muffett’s favorite project is the City on a Cloud Innovation Challenge, which asks cities what they are doing with AWS’ services and offers grants for innovative projects that will improve citizens’ lives.

“Most of the cities find out that they can do what they want to do with very little money,” Davis-Muffett said. “They think it’s going to be millions of dollars, and then they realize, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s going to be hard for me to spend this $50,000 grant because it doesn’t cost that much!”

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s CUBE Conversations at the AWS public sector headquarters in Arlington, Virginia.

Photo: SiliconANGLE