“Digital transformation is continuous”: Mexico City Public Sector Summit recap

For the first-ever Amazon Web Services (AWS) Public Sector Summit in Mexico City, more than 1,400 people from government, education, and nonprofits registered for the event to discuss digital transformation in Latin America through investment in innovation, infrastructure, and talent. AWS leaders and customers shared their news and success stories with the group. What’d you miss?

From innovation to security to cost savings, customers are experiencing the benefits of the cloud. Across Latin America, our customers are turning to the cloud to fuel research, accelerate learning, and better deliver citizen services. For example, Chile’s Data Observatory project is using the cloud to bring together disparate datasets to help solve complex challenges, like climate change. Similarly, governments are using AWS to bring better insights into their data to create innovative solutions that help prevent crimes, create transparency, and more.

New Amazon office opening in Mexico this spring

This spring, AWS and Amazon are moving to a new office in Mexico City to accommodate workforce growth in the country. Amazon opened its first office in Latin America in Costa Rica in 2008 and has since added offices in Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, and Chile, and of course, Mexico.

AWS will also continue to grow physical infrastructure in the Region as well, including data centers.

Expanding cloud executive education

AWS is expanding two important programs, AWS DigiGov and AWS Government Executive Education, in Latin America to help executives see the possibilities opened through digital transformation.

Last year, AWS collaborated with Universidad Distrital in Colombia to launch AWS DigiGov. This two-day pilot program is designed for government employees to learn about cloud computing and understand the cloud value proposition, use cases, and the different services offered by AWS. In 2020, AWS plans to expand AWS DigiGov to Mexico in May, Chile in June, and Argentina in July.

The AWS Government Executive Education, a three-day education course for senior government officials who want to learn best practices for moving to cloud is also expanding in Latin America. AWS will hold courses in Colombia in April and Mexico in Q2 2020.

Building a cloud talent pipeline

AWS is investing to teach the next generation of technologists and inventors in Latin America through programs like AWS Academy and AWS Educate.

Hundreds of thousands of students have joined AWS Educate since its launch, and tens of thousands of educators are program members. Some of our participating Latin American universities include: Universidad Distrital Francisco Jose de Caldas (Colombia), Universidad Dr. José Matías Delgado (El Salvador), Universidad del Valle de Mexico (Mexico), Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (Peru), Universidad Francisco Marroquin (Guatemala), and el Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (Mexico).

All of AWS Educate training modules and AWS Cloud Practitioner Essentials certification are available in Spanish and Portuguese. In addition to the complimentary online courses, instructor-led training is available in 14 countries in Latin America.

Additionally, we designed the AWS Educate Cloud Ambassador Program to give selected educators a chance to share their knowledge and experience in teaching cloud computing with other educators at their institutions, in their communities, and around the world. We are accepting applications now until March 13 for educators in this program.

Fireside chat with Mexico’s Secretary of Labor

Customer innovation can drive transformation across industries, workforces, and entire economies. One such opportunity is a collaboration between AWS and the Government of Mexico. Jovenes Construyendo el Futuro (Youth Building the Future) is a program that seeks to help thousands of young people between the ages of 18 and 29 access training and work.

This group represents a quarter of the Mexican population, and half of them live in poverty. Luisa María Alcalde Luján, Mexico’s Secretary of Labor, joined to discuss the importance of economic development in Mexico.

Earning trust of citizens through the security of the cloud at Instituto Nacional Electoral

To help with stability during the critical 2018 election year, the Instituto Nacional Electoral (INE) used AWS and Amazon CloudWatch. Jorge Humberto Torres Atuñano, General Coordinator of Information Technology (IT) Services for INE, shared how INE used AWS to achieve their goal to accurately publish preliminary results for the election—an important part of the organization’s mission and essential for earning the trust of citizens and increasing voter engagement by making information public quickly.

AWS exceeds all of the Mexico government’s privacy rules and regulations.

Fueling insights through machine learning at Tecnológico de Monterrey

The largest private university in Mexico uses AWS to fuel its data insights. Founded in 1943, Tecnológico de Monterrey is a private, nonprofit, independent institution with over 20 campuses across Mexico.

Using Amazon Pinpoint, Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), and Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), in addition to other AWS services, Tecnológico de Monterrey has the flexibility to deploy new services quickly and to gain valuable insights from its data. Daniel Carlos Perez Uriol, head of digital experience at Tecnológico de Monterrey, outlined his initiative to build a personalized approach to education for students, inclusive of machine learning.

AWS will join with Tecnológico de Monterrey to provide its students, teachers, and staff with access to AWS Educate and AWS Academy for AWS training, curriculum, and AWS Promotional Credit.

Learn more about AWS in the public sector in Mexico, AWS in Latin America, and AWS in the public sector. Check out what else you missed at the AWS Public Sector Summit in Mexico City.