The urban population continues to rise, as 1.3 million people move to a city each week, taking its toll on infrastructure and the quality of life. The U.S. government is investing in smart cities across America to improve transportation, communication, socialization and economics within these communities.

Amazon Web Services Inc. is a driving force in moving the enterprise to the public cloud; and, the company is also proving that the public sector is ripe for change, according to John Stephenson, senior manager of AWS public policy, at Amazon Web Services Inc. Last week the company held its AWS Public Sector Summit in Washington, D.C., and the interest of adopting smart city technology is evident in places across the country.

“If you look at Internet of Things technologies alone — one of the enablers of smart cities — as many as 53 percent of state and local governments, according to NACIO [The National Association of County Information Officers], are  looking at these technologies or deploying them,” Stephenson said.  

Discussing the impact of technology of local and state governments, Stephenson joined John Furrier (@furrier) and John Walls (@JohnWalls21), co-hosts of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile live streaming studio, during the Summit to offer insight into the part AWS is playing in building smart cities. (* Disclosure below.)

Overcoming data privacy concerns

Most constituents don’t deal with the federal government on a regular basis. Local government handles most essential services that people consume. Rrom healthcare to trash removal, state and city government touches people’s lives on a daily basis, and with those touchpoints comes voluminous amounts of data, Stephenson pointed out.

“Suddenly, local government can move with speed and agility of a startup, which has made Amazon very innovative. … Local governments are seeing that they want to be more like us and others in the industry that are using the cloud to deliver new products and services to be better at their job,” Stephenson said.

When it comes to the concept of smart cities, Amazon is offering the potential for cities to evolve government services by improving service delivery and improving constituent fulfillment. Giving customers what they want resonates with Amazon because it is “all about customer fulfillment and delighting customers,” according to Stephenson.

AWS is talking to government agencies around the world to educate them on how the cloud allows them to be more agile while reaping the economic and security benefits of the AWS Cloud, he added.

When it comes to public cloud, the concern for many industries and government alike is security. To address this issue, AWS has multiple compliance frameworks, from everything from the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996) to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act to the Criminal Jury Instructions.

“We are zealous guardians of security and our customer’s privacy. We have very strong safeguards. That’s why if you look at the customer base of Amazon, from banks to government agencies to healthcare companies … we’re hearing it from customer after customer that they feel more safe and more secure with their data in the cloud offered by AWS,” Stephenson said.

AWS security and compliance framework exceeds requirements, and the company helped write the standard for its compliance framework, Stephenson  added. As such, it shows policy makers and local officials that the cloud offers a far superior security posture than what they can do on their own.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s independent editorial coverage of the AWS Public Sector Summit. (* Disclosure: Amazon Web Services Inc. sponsored this AWS Public Sector Summit segment on SiliconANGLE Media’s theCUBE. Neither AWS nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE