Amazon Web Services Inc. announced yesterday that it would launch a new business unit to extend cloud technologies into space.

The business segment, which will be led by the former head of the Department of Defense’s Space Force, will focus on using AWS cloud services to process data from space operations. The latest news follows the introduction of AWS Ground Station, a cloud-based system for downloading satellite data, which was officially launched last year.

“The big news out of the keynote, which was really surprising to me, was that Amazon is continuing to double down on their efforts around space within the public sector,” said John Furrier, co-host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio, during a keynote analysis of yesterday’s AWS Public Sector Summit event. “They have a lot of partnerships in aerospace. The cost benefits are there, and this is going to create more agility.”

Furrier spoke with Dave Vellante and Stu Miniman, co-hosts of theCUBE. They discussed the growth of AWS’ public-sector business, how state agencies sought help as COVID-19 demands expanded, meeting cloud expectations for both enterprise and government customers and a potentially more favorable attitude toward the tech community. (* Disclosure below.)

Shining star for AWS

The bold move into space by AWS highlights a potentially overlooked element of the firm’s cloud operations: Its public-sector business is booming.

Amazon.com Inc. does not break out revenue from its public-sector business, according to Vellante, but his analysis of available data reveals a robust picture.

“AWS public sector, based on the data that I see, is significantly outpacing the growth of AWS overall,” Vellante said. “It’s also keeping pace with the growth of Microsoft Azure. It really is a shining star inside of AWS.”

In her keynote address this week, Teresa Carlson, vice president of worldwide public sector at AWS, indicated that the outbreak of COVID-19 had spurred government agencies to migrate operations to the cloud at a record pace. Keynote presentations included representatives from AWS government customers, such as the state of West Virginia, which suddenly had to cope with a steep rise in demand for its services.

“If you talk about one of those government services that is getting heavy usage, it is unemployment,” said Miniman, who described how West Virginia needed to set up a cloud-based contact center immediately. “They literally did that over the weekend, spun it up and pulled people from other organizations. That’s the kind of thing that the cloud was really built for.”

Two-way street

AWS finds itself at the center of a positive development in its public-sector business. With an accelerated embrace of cloud, state and federal government agencies are looking more like the private sector in seeking services and applications to become more agile.

And through risk and authorization programs such as FedRAMP, private enterprises want to sell computing services to the government.

“FedRAMP can cost a million dollars for a company to go through,” Furrier said. “If you onboard with Amazon, you’re instantly on a fast track. It’s significantly less expensive, and the next thing you know you’re selling to the government.”

The ability of AWS to build a viable cloud services business in both the private and public sectors represents a flywheel effect. A successful cloud implementation is no longer a closely held secret. It’s simply how corporate or public-sector business gets done.

“One of the big takeaways from this show has been the ability for cloud to help unlock and get beyond information silos,” Miniman said. “Amazon has done a good job of explaining that you don’t want to have that undifferentiated heavy lifting. Now, when an agency or company finds something that they really like from Amazon, they’re talking to all their peers about it.”

As state and federal agencies have turned to AWS and other compute providers for help during COVID-19, it raised the possibility that public and government antagonism toward large tech firms, known as “techlash,” may shift as well.

“You wonder if that is going to now subside somewhat,” Vellante said. “It is time to look at big tech and ‘tech for good’ and give them some points for that.”

Here’s the complete analysis, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the AWS Public Sector Summit event. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the AWS Public Sector Summit Online event. Neither AWS, the sponsor for theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: AWS