Public cloud was supposed to be cheap and simple. Now, some may say, it’s neither. On-premises holdouts gloat; their peers counter that its long-term digital transformation that counts. DX — plus elasticity, flywheel effect, scalability — are gaseous marketing terms to naysayers. Are there any solids to point to in cloud to convert them?

There are indeed real payoffs both for public and private organizations who move to cloud, according to Sandy Carter (pictured), vice president of Amazon Web Services Inc. “It’s not just about cost; it’s about agility; it’s about innovation,” she said.

AWS decided to meter real customers to measure their benefits. Its Partner Transformation Program, or PTP, started last year, encourages and charts the acceleration of public and commercial partners.

Carter spoke with John Furrier (@furrier) and Dave Vellante (@dvellante), co-hosts of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the AWS re:Invent event in Las Vegas. They discussed AWS’ growing public-sector business and the outcome of the PTP. (* Disclosure below.)

Hard numbers for the holdouts

The public cloud is increasingly onboarding non-profit customers who want to better serve the public. These include the Mayo Clinic, which recently signed a 10-year deal with Google Cloud Platform. Google will be storing the organization’s health data and helping it apply artificial intelligence to complex problems.

AWS is increasingly working with law-enforcement agencies interested in cloud data analytics and AI. Desiloed data and fast processing can help them catch criminals and rescue victims and keep officers safe. For example, Appriss Safety uses the AWS cloud to enable police officers with real-time data to help fight crime.

The service and product innovations that happen in cloud yield tangible results for public and private organizations, according to Carter. At least those following PTP guidelines can expect actual growth, apparently.

“They’re seeing 70% year-to-year growth versus other [Amazon Partner Network] partners — even though they’re at an advanced layer, they’re only seeing 34% rise. So it’s two X the revenue growth having transformed to the cloud …  you can’t sneeze at that,” Carter concluded. 

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