Summary Bullets:

• Amazon Web Services (AWS) earmarked $40 million over the next three years to support organizations working to advance healthcare equity over the next three years via AWS credits and technical support

• This is a follow on to a program AWS launched in 2020 to improve health diagnostics in which it has so far assisted 87 organizations in 17 countries

AWS is flexing a fairly mighty philanthropic muscle with a new program dedicated to advancing global healthcare equity and improving medical outcomes. By offering qualified non-profits, research institutions, and other organizations computing credits, technology, and other supports, AWS is hoping to advance an agenda to better support underserved and underrepresented communities. The program is directed to organizations developing cloud-based healthcare solutions.

The AWS program is targeted at organizations that are addressing any of three major imperatives: Expanding access to health services; lessening disproportionate negative health outcomes in underrepresented communities by addressing root causes of disease and illness; and tapping into larger data sets to promote equitable care systems.

Summary Bullets:

• With 872 million students relying on some form of virtual learning this academic year, lack of access to reliable technology for some is translating into an academic disaster for millions.
• While the pandemic drags on, observers are urging a concerted effort to fill in technology gaps to support all students as schools work to find a safe path back to physical school.

COVID-19 sent billions of students into a new virtual reality as schools in 192 countries closed their doors. At the pandemic’s peak, 1.6 billion students were impacted. Even the most well-funded school systems struggled to adjust, with technology platforms that faltered. In poorer systems, the lack of technology and connectivity meant many students’ education for the year effectively ended in March. Continue reading “COVID-19: The Digital Divide Drives Inequities in Virtual Learning” →

Summary Bullets:

• After a multiple-month JEDI contract re-evaluation process, the Pentagon reached the same decision it had 11 months ago and awarded Microsoft the deal.
• AWS immediately re-sounded the alarm that the procurement process was inherently inequitable, filing a new protest with the court.

The JEDI battle lines are still as tightly drawn as when Microsoft was declared the winner in October 2019. Amazon didn’t waste any time to raise its continued objections after the Department of Defense (DoD) disclosed it was once again awarding the sought-after multi-billion Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) contract to Microsoft. Posting a blog titled “JEDI: Why we will continue to protect this politically corrupted contract award,” AWS outlined some of the issues with both the initial award and the re-evaluation processes. Continue reading “AWS Continues Its JEDI Protest After the Pentagon Declares Microsoft the Winner (Again)” →

Summary Bullets:

• Hyperscale cloud providers report a surge in demand for both their on-demand infrastructure services and productivity and collaboration services

• Past experience is so far helping guide capacity planning but there are still some limitations that are impacting performance as some users and applications involved in critical healthcare and emergency services get priority

The COVID-19 pandemic is driving businesses in virtually every field to deploy a remote workforce model overnight. This shift comes with immediate need for cloud-based productivity and collaboration applications. Organizations are also looking to virtualize other elements of their infrastructures, and thus requiring more cloud capacity to support these changes. Continue reading “COVID-19: Hyperscalers Ramp Up, Clamp Down to Meet Soaring Demand” →