Some people’s careers rise and fall. Some rise to a stable level and stay there. Others chart a career course that seems destined for the stratosphere. Amazon Web Services Inc. Vice President Sandy Carter (pictured) is the latter.

When Carter was first featured in theCUBE’s Women in Tech column in April 2017, she was chief executive officer of software company Silicon Blitz. Her resume glowed with awards and accolades: She was one of CNN’s Top 10 most powerful women in tech, a Forbes digital influencer, and Biz.com had named her a “top growth hacker.” As a Fortune 500 leader, international speaker, and successful author, she had already accomplished more than most people do in a lifetime.

This week, theCUBE (once again) spotlights Sandy Carter in our Women in Tech feature.

Joining 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, Carter discussed AWS’ Public Sector Partner (PSP) Program that helps entrepreneurs develop #technologyforgood. (* Disclosure below.)

“It’s fun helping customers make money, and we still do that,” Carter said. “But it’s really better when you can help them make money and do great things.”

AWS opens doors to further career growth

Self-described as the “Energizer Bunny” for her upbeat personality, Carter is passionate about technology and about helping others. In AWS, she found a company where her networking skills and multi-disciplinary experience could be used to their full advantage.

“My first service I launched at AWS, I personally talked to 141 customers and another 100 partners,” Carter said. “At most large companies as a senior executive you only spend about 20% of your time with customers; I spend about 80% of my time here [at AWS] with customers and partners. And that’s a big difference.”

AWS supports public sector transformation

“The public sector is probably the most transformative market, because they are modernizing at a record pace,” Furrier stated. “It’s just not inefficiencies that you can solve; there’s multiple win-win-win benefits.”

Carter agreed: “We are seeing these governments education, start-ups, non-profits, all moving to the cloud and taking their own legacy systems to Linux, to Aurora, and moving very rapidly.” AWS is the best option for the public sector, according to Carter. Not only is AWS known for its best-in-class security; data from 2018 showed that it had significantly better uptime statistics than its closest cloud rival, Carter added.

One of AWS’ most successful programs is the Partner Transformation Program. This is a 100-day transformation program to the cloud that has amazing results, according to Carter. Program participants are reporting 70% year-to-year growth, while other APN partners have only reported 34% growth, she added.

“It’s not just about cost. It’s about agility; it’s about innovation; it’s about that revenue growth,” Carter stated. “I mean 2x, 70% growth; you can’t sneeze at that. That’s pretty impactful.”

It’s not just the public sector transforming. One big trend Carter sees is that public organizations and private companies are coming together to leverage data to help others. She cites the example of AWS partner Avis Rent A Car System LLC. “What they’re doing is … your car can now talk to you,” Carter said. “And that data is now being given to local state officials, local city officials; they can use it for emergency response systems.”

This touches on a theme both Carter and theCUBE team are passionate about: shaping technology for good. Amazon invited 112 underrepresented minorities and women to re:Invent this year. Carter met one of these attendees who was at re:Invent to enhance his coding skills. “You don’t realize when I go back to my country, you will have changed my life,” the attendee told Carter.

“Don’t you get goosebumps from that?” she asked. “It’s great to change a company, and we want to do that, but it’s really great when you can impact people.”

Smart notification ring could save lives

Mentoring women and minority entrepreneurs is part of the mission of the AWS Partner Program. Holding her hand up to display a stylish ring, Carter explained how it was actually an IoT device created by one of the program’s female entrepreneurs, Anina Net, founder of the 360fashion Network LLC.

“If I touch it, it will call the police for me,” Carter said. “If I’m being assaulted or if I’m having an emergency, I can touch it and have an ambulance come for me.”

Attractive in its own right as a piece of statement jewelry, the ring’s secret is its programmable smart gemstone, created by Chinese technology company MetaGem. The device was designed by first determining what the need was, then working backwards to a solution, Carter explained.

“How are most people assaulted? And if you have an emergency and you fall, what’s the best way to get a hold of someone? It’s not your phone, because you don’t always carry it. It’s a device like this,” 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. For more news on #techforgood, follow Carter on Twitter: @sandy_carter. (* 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