Cloud infrastructure is making progress through the public sector, having won some extremely security-conscious customers, like the Central Intelligence Agency. Much smaller nonprofit organizations are also finding out what cloud infrastructure can do for them. A program that makes cloud “grants” is enabling cash-strapped nonprofits to get up and go.

About 22,000 nonprofits now run on Amazon Web Services Inc., according to Doug VanDyke (pictured), director of U.S. federal and nonprofits at Amazon Web Services Inc. AWS wants to enable nonprofits with big ideas — even if they don’t have bank accounts to match.

“The mission of our nonprofit vertical is just to make sure that no nonprofit would fail for lack of infrastructure,” VanDyke said. Through a partnership with TechSoup — a nonprofit network of organizations providing technical support and technological tools to other nonprofits — AWS is granting cloud infrastructure to fledgling NPOs.

VanDyke spoke with John Furrier (@furrier) and Stu Miniman (@stu), co-hosts of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the AWS Public Sector Summit in Washington, D.C. They discussed AWS’ work with nonprofits small and large. (* Disclosure below.)

Free AWS cloud grants

With a TechSoup membership, nonprofits have access to free AWS cloud grants. TechSoup vets nonprofits and coordinates the allocation of the “cloud credits,” according to VanDyke. A lot of these small nonprofits punch above their weight in terms of actual impact, he added.

AWS has also become active in social entrepreneurship programs and initiatives that help startups get up and running with inexpensive cloud infrastructure.

A not-so-small nonprofit — the American Heart Association — built its Precision Medicine Platform on AWS. The platform collects genetic and other types of data to further cardiovascular research. “They have this great mission statement — they want to reduce cardiovascular disease by 20 percent by 2020. And we’re going to help them do that,” VanDyke stated.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the AWS Public Sector Summit. (* Disclosure: Amazon Web Services Inc. sponsored this segment of theCUBE. Neither AWS nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE