Partners play a key role in the Public Sector business for Amazon Web Services Inc. by helping drive innovation and results for the cloud provider’s customers. AWS recently recognized those partner contributions through its 2021 AWS Global Public Sector Partners Awards.

“Every year we like to hone-in on those who leveraged their skills and ability to deliver a great customer solution,” said Sandy Carter (pictured), vice president of worldwide public sector partners and programs at AWS. “They demonstrate Amazon leadership principles like working backwards from the customer and having a bias for action. They’ve engaged with AWS in very unique ways, and they’ve contributed to our customer success, which is so important.”

Carter spoke with John Furrier, host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio, during the opening session keynote for the 2021 Global Public Sector Partner Awards. They discussed companies That were recognized as part of the event, continued growth of a builders’ culture and Amazon’s latest initiative for space exploration. (* Disclosure below.)

Data-led migration

The award categories paralleled Amazon’s Leadership Principles and business objectives based on customer needs. Collibra Inc. and Databricks Inc. were recognized for data-led migration solutions that allowed customers to find meaning in their accumulated information.

“Anybody who can help us with the velocity of migrations is really critical, and 80% of our migrations are led by partners,” Carter noted. “They were recognized because they increase the velocity of migrations, which increases customer satisfaction.”

Pariveda Solutions Inc. won the “Best Energy Solution” award for a one-stop-shop offering to facilitate collaboration and surface critical information for key initiatives in the energy industry.

“They looked at major capital projects that oil companies were doing and worked backward from what the customer needed,” Carter said. “You have to have that mission expertise. We see that as a big secret of success for our public sector partners.”

Building with AI

One of the common themes that AWS has seen over the years in its customer base has been the strong presence of a builder’s culture, according to Carter. Company founders and employees are committed to leveraging technology to build new solutions, and for that they need tools.

To gain a better sense of this, AWS recently surveyed 900 of its partners.

“We asked what they were building with today,” Carter said. “The number one thing was artificial intelligence and machine learning.”

This finding was further confirmed by companies that received recognition as part of this year’s awards. Kablamo Inc. was recognized for creating a cloud platform with enhanced AWS machine learning capabilities.

“They used AI and machine learning to do a risk assessment on bushfires in Australia,” Carter said. “We’re seeing builders everywhere.”

AWS is branching out by expanding its partner ecosystem in areas such as space exploration as well. In a recent blog post from AWS Chief Technology Officer Werner Vogels, the company announced the selection of 10 startups to participate in the first cohort of a space accelerator.

“We decided we needed to so something to help startups accelerate their space mission,” Carter said. “Everybody expected the startups to come from the U.S., and they came from 44 different countries. We’re seeing a lot of small partners that are making an entrance in solving really difficult problems.”

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the 2021 Global Public Sector Partner Awards. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for 2021 Global Public Sector Partner Awards. Neither Amazon Web Services Inc., the sponsor for theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE