The COVID-19 pandemic has made all levels of government radically change how they operate. From shifting their workforce to telework to delivering government services digitally, Federal, state, and local governments have had to pivot the way they work, while still delivering on their mission.

The Commonwealth of Virginia’s cloud-based data sharing platform is pulling double duty in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, in addition to its original purpose combating the opioid crisis, the state’s chief data office said July 9 during a webinar hosted by AWS and MeriTalk.

After a long day of driving, Iowa’s plow drivers used to have to drive back to a garage to enter their time on a timesheet. The drive could be a considerable number of miles, said the state’s chief data officer (CDO). But not anymore after a move to a cloud-based system.

The State of Maryland Department of Human Services (DHS) is making big strides in a two-year campaign to create an AWS-powered technology environment that will integrate the state’s health and human service applications to more effectively deliver services to state residents.

The U.S. cloud computing economy tripled in size from 2002 to 2017, and added $214 billion to the U.S. gross domestic product in 2017, according to an Internet Association (IA) report released Tuesday.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, the city of Houston made it a priority to embrace technology, taking steps to use cloud, share data, and improve resiliency.

The Tucson, Ariz., Fire Department is using the assistance of cloud technology to study the risks of certain cancers that firefighters can develop.

On Monday, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam issued Executive Order Nineteen, which directs the use of cloud technologies in the Commonwealth’s IT services. The executive order says Virginia must “keep pace with the marketplace” and that the order is designed to ensure the Commonwealth “aggressively incorporates the use of cloud technologies.” The order also stresses that cloud services must be deployed in a way that protects the privacy and security of Commonwealth and citizen data.  

The Howard County, Md., government streamlined its IT operations and cut its contract approval times to a fraction of what they were by building out workflows and bundling business processes on a cloud platform, said Howard County’s Deputy CIO Tom Yeatts.