Since the beginning of the pandemic, the acceleration toward digital transformation in the public sector has skyrocketed in organizations ranging from education to military agencies. So as the public sector begins to really tackle digital transformation, Amazon Web Services Inc. is focusing on the public sector through its New Services Inception Team.

“The New Services Inception Team — its goal is to really be the connection point and the feedback loop for partners with our AWS service teams, our service go-to-market teams and our worldwide public sector teams,” explained Lorraine Bassett (pictured), chief of staff and business advisor at AWS. “We really want to make that transition and that cycle as easy as possible.”

Bassett spoke with John Furrier, host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio, during AWS re:Invent. They discussed the New Services Inception Team, the AWS Public Sector Partner Program, and how both are helping the public sector in its digital transformation. (* Disclosure below.)

New Services Inception Team targets public sector

AWS has released a lot of new services, especially as 2020 ramped up the demand, and its partners need to have visibility into these services early — especially in the public sector, according to Bassett.

“There’s also been a lot of change and new demand that we hadn’t seen before,” Bassett said. “What this team is aiming to do is really formalize that process and the program to ensure that we’re really maximizing participation from public sector partners.”

There are a lot of good benefits to becoming a public sector partner in the AWS Public Sector Partner Program, according to Bassett. First, being part of a formal program enables a faster go-to-market transition. Second, it then leads to market differentiation on launch for the public sector, and there’s also an ability to influence the roadmap early on through AWS’ feedback cycle, Bassett added.

“This early release and early visibility and early position is really critical … to our partners. It’s in our culture to be customer obsessed. So really, it’s key to listen to our partners and customers to help us build what that successful model would look like,” Bassett 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: The AWS Public Sector sponsored this segment of theCUBE. Neither AWS nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE