In a little over a decade since its 2006 launch, Amazon Web Services Inc. has upended the information technology industry with its ability to scale cloud computing products, ushering in a new era for pay-as-you-go, self-serve business solutions. Even as other IT support leaders have embraced cloud and delivered solutions, AWS maintains its lead in the market with a share larger than all of its competitors combined.

AWS now looks to opportunities in niche public sector markets that stand to benefit from the platform’s scalable agility. Despite historical opposition to the security risks of virtualization, an optimized, protected AWS cloud is an increasingly attractive option for state and local governments in desperate need of overhaul.

“One of the big changes I’ve seen in the last 18 months is state and local government. [They’re] really looking at applications and solutions that can change citizen services engagement,” said Teresa Carlson (pictured), vice president of the worldwide public sector at Amazon Web Services Inc.

As AWS continues its physical expansions worldwide, the company is also growing its impact beyond commercial entities and into modernization of the public sphere. Since joining in 2010 to launch AWS Public Sector, Carlson has not only provided public organizations with powerful commercial level cloud tools and services — she’s become one of the most prominent figures in the global digital revolution.

Carlson spoke with John Furrier (@furrier) and Dave Vellante (@dvellante), co-hosts of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during AWS re:Invent in Las Vegas. (* Disclosure below.)

This week, theCUBE spotlights Teresa Carlson in our Women in Tech feature.

Closing the cloud gap

Public sector cloud opinion reached a turning point in 2013 with the AWS and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) partnership, Commercial Cloud Services, or C2S. The $600-million deal decreased the agency’s single server provisioning time from 180 days to mere minutes through the development of an AWS cloud region on CIA premises.

In addition to improved delivery times, the project also showed the market at large that AWS could provide the security necessary for sensitive, heavily regulated public sector data. “That was a pivotal deal. Now we’re seeing so many government customers. We have customers in 174 countries, and I have teams on the ground in 28 countries, so we’re seeing a global move,” Carlson said.

Since the CIA deal, AWS prominence has grown in both commercial and public markets seeking modernization. For government entities operating on limited budgets, cloud enables more cost-efficient and agile operations than the outdated technologies currently in place.

“California, Arizona, New York, Ohio, Virginia. We’re starting to see those states really make big moves,” Carlson said.

As anxieties around security are relatively assuaged, new incoming government leaders are increasingly open to cloud integrations. With enthusiastic approval from the Arizona state governor and chief intelligence officer, AWS recently announced the Arizona State University Smart City Cloud Innovation Center, an initiative intended to drive modernization and greater data utilization in the Phoenix metropolitan area.

Arizona isn’t alone in its fervor for AWS. The company supports nonprofit organizations like the American Heart Association through optimized cloud operations for improvements in life-saving research. A partnership with nonprofit network TechSoup Global allows AWS to provide free tech tools and support to other charitable organizations, and AWS plays an active role in improving accessibility in education by taking on the costs of cloud storage used for research with its Public Dataset Program.

With Carlson at the helm, AWS public sector cloud powers 22,000 social good projects in addition to its state and local government initiatives. Programs like AWS Educate and We Power Tech provide free access to content, cloud services, and computer science training for teens who may not otherwise have the opportunity to engage in transformative education.

“They’re using [internet-of-things] everywhere, and all of that runs on AWS. They’re doing all the analytics for efficiency but also to protect their students and citizens and make them safer through the knowledge of data,” Carlson stated.

Digital transformation at the federal level

The distance between public sector and commercial markets is closing thanks to new accessibility in the cloud, and government entities are beginning to make unprecedented leaps in virtualization. Despite the upfront costs and daunting scale of re-architecture, programs like AWS Authority to Operate simplify the journey to cloud through templates, training tools, and compliance support for independent software vendors that require rapid authorization from FedRAMP and other compliance programs.

“The authority to operate is a big deal, and it costs a lot of money, long time in processes. We’ve been working with companies like Smartsheet, which we helped them [in] less than 90 days to get in GovCloud,” Carlson said.

The strategy has resulted in 185 percent year-over-year growth of AWS’ private government cloud GovCloud Region West, which opened in 2011, as well as the recent launch of GovCloud East, according to Carlson. Both hubs provide three separate availability zones to process mission-critical applications in their respective regions and reduce the risk of operational catastrophe should an event impact the data center.

Having that level of availability allows agencies like the Federal Bureau of Investigation to identify critical events and share information faster to improve crisis response times. The FBI is currently using AWS tools to expedite intelligence analysis across multiple databases in its Sandcastle project.

“The FBI [is] a perfect example of us helping them move faster to do their mission. Time to catch the bad guys. Time to share that data with other groups so they could quickly disseminate and get to the heart of the matter,” Carlson stated.

These groundbreaking initiatives in government cloud have landed AWS a spot on the shortlist for the Department of Defense Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure project. A lack of a coordinated cloud strategy currently limits DOD leaders in making real-time data-driven decisions, and the organization is seeking a single cloud vendor to reduce complexities and enable cost-efficient agility in a consistent environment. While the DOD is still vetting cloud vendors, AWS is considered by many to be a frontrunner.

“What’s going to be key for them is a platform they can consistently develop and launch new mission applications rapidly to take advantage of cloud computing for those war fighters out in the field that we can help every day,” Carlson said.

The virtual advantage

Through all its work in the public sector, AWS delivers best practices honed in the commercial space to cumbersome legacy entities that enable large-scale modernization at unprecedented affordability. The accelerated transformation enabled by cloud tools does come at a cost, but one well worth the benefits of a streamlined, future-proofed infrastructure.

“They may have to re-architect and design, but they get all the benefits of cloud. New types of storage, databases, data analytics, IoT, machine learning. In the old model, they’re stagnated with where they were,” Carlson said.

Disrupting that stagnated model is paramount for Carlson, who’s making her legacy in tech with a mission of revolutionizing the outdated bureaucratic infrastructures in countries around the world. Applying AWS cloud learnings and technology in the public sector is transforming public policy at its core and removing the barrier between tech and accessible utilization.

With its current momentum, Carlson and AWS are clearly just getting started. The company has also partnered with Lockheed Martin Space Corp. to enable more cost-efficient use of satellite technologies for both private companies and government entities.

“We’re taking a really hard problem with satellites and making it almost as a service. We’re going to bring that all together for a mission that is so critical at every level of government, research, [and] commercial entities,” Carlson stated.

Ultimately, the benefits seen by a more productive public sector translate to better outcomes for citizens, taxpayers, and private agencies operating within a system transformed by the cloud.

“It’s definitely becoming the new normal in governments. 2018 was a year that I saw big moves to cloud. And it’s going to help them move fast,” Carlson concluded.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of AWS re:Invent. (* 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