The big message at Amazon Web Services Inc.’s re:Invent 2020 event was “Transform or Die.” This usually refers to the pressure on private companies to up the ante in their cloud game. But when it comes to the public sector, it is vulnerable citizens that are table stakes.

Take the Los Angeles department of children and family services. Pre-COVID, its analog child protection helpline answered around 21,000 calls a month in a centralized call-center. Then, the workforce went remote.

“With Amazon Connect, they were able to continue the service, continue the support to help these children and be available 24/7 — and they were able to do it from their homes,” said Kim Majerus (pictured), leader of U.S. education, state and local government at AWS.

Majerus spoke with John Furrier, host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio, during AWS re:Invent. They discussed how AWS is helping the public sector transform rapidly to meet the pressures of the COVID-19 pandemic. (* Disclosure below.)

AWS Connect helps government institutions stay in touch with their citizens

Child and protective services isn’t the only L.A. institution that leveraged the Connect virtual call center to help its citizens.

“Take a look at L.A. Unified School District,” Majerus stated.

In an overnight (literally) transformation from in-person to remote, the District used Connect “not only to support the students, the teachers or the staff, but they took that opportunity to continue educating and continue serving,” Majerus said.

The hotline provided IT help for parents struggling to set up online schooling for their children and gave access to school administration and staff, mental health resources and other support services.

The pandemic created “that moment in time where … whether you are state, local or education, you had to quickly realize that you need to connect with your students and your citizens,” Majerus stated.

The AWS Public Sector is currently working with over 6,500 government agencies and collaborating with them to focus on some of their mission-critical, cloud-based services, according to Majerus. “This is the new normal. They recognize it,” she said.

Taking advantage of the momentum provided by the pandemic, these institutions are changing faster than most would have believed they could.

“They were able to demonstrate that they could do it,” Majerus stated. “What usually took years, literally turned into innovating overnight. Whether it was Department of Labor at Rhode Island, whether it was the state of Kentucky or the state of West Virginia, all those authorities had to deal with that surge, and they were able to do it successfully.”

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 the AWS nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE