Amazon Web Services Announces Eight Winners of the Global City on a Cloud Innovation Challenge

Amazon Web Services Announces Eight Winners of the Global City on a Cloud Innovation Challenge

New York City Department of Transportation, City of Asheville, London City Airport, and the City and County of San Francisco among more than 800 government agencies, 3,000 education institutions, and 10,000 nonprofits using AWS Cloud services to reduce costs and innovate on behalf of citizens

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun. 25, 2014-- Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS), an Amazon.com company (NASDAQ: AMZN), today announced the winners of the first City on a Cloud Innovation Challenge. The New York City Department of Transportation, City of Asheville, London City Airport, and the City and County of San Francisco Planning Department were each awarded $50,000 in AWS credits, and application developers Azavea, Neptune Technology Group, NuCivic, and Str LLC were each awarded $25,000 in AWS credits. The eight winners were selected by AWS and a panel of worldwide experts based on the impact of their solution, likelihood of long-term success, implementation of AWS services, and the potential to help other local governments solve similar challenges. To learn more about how public sector customers are using AWS and the AWS GovCloud (US) Region, visit http://aws.amazon.com/publicsector/.

Four grand prize winners were selected for the Best Practices Award, recognizing innovative and impactful local government projects running on the AWS Cloud:

New York City Department of Transportation - Mobile and web applications that make real-time transportation information more accessible and useful to residents and visitors, including an interactive map of city parking regulations, a pedestrian city travel planning app, and online maps of construction sites and capital projects.

City of Asheville - Modern, cloud-based disaster recovery system to keep essential city operations up and running in the event of power outages, earthquakes, and major weather events.

London City Airport - Traveler app that brings together real-time data from sensors, airline systems, and airport services to help passengers efficiently navigate the airport.

City and County of San Francisco Planning Department - Website for citizens, businesses, and city employees to access detailed property information for zoning, real estate transactions, and permitting.

Four grand prize winners were selected for the Partners in Innovation Award, recognizing applications that solve local government challenges:

Azavea (HunchLab) - Machine learning application that uses data on crime history, weather, neighborhood businesses, and other real-time information to help police departments employ predictive policing to forecast the likelihood of crime and redirect resources to high-risk areas.

NuCivic (NuCivic DATA) - Open source data management platform that allows governments to make a wide range of open data sets available to the public. Civil servants can use these data sets to benchmark their cities and inform decisions and policies; developers can use them to build services and applications for citizens.

Neptune Technology Group (N_SIGHT IQ) - Cloud-based data mart for local utility companies to leverage water usage data to better manage local resources. Utility companies have used N_SIGHT IQ to reduce local water usage and customer complaints by giving citizens the tools and information to better track and manage their water usage.

Str LLC (ePropertyPlus) - Property inventory management system that helps cities effectively manage community revitalization efforts by aggregating and mapping data on ownership, development grants, and construction plans for vacant and abandoned properties.

We use the cloud to increase the availability and resiliency of our applications and systems, said Cordell Schachter, CTO, New York City Department of Transportation. It helps us provide important transportation information directly to the public and to our staff every day and during critical times.

According to Robert Cheetham, president and CEO of Azavea, We anticipate a world in which geospatial analysis is a broad foundation upon which government, private, and non-profit organizations operate. We use AWS to work toward that vision and we are thrilled that our application, HunchLab, has been recognized through this challenge.

Government Agency Adoption

The AWS City on a Cloud Innovation Challenge winners are among the growing number of partners, government agencies, and nonprofits leveraging AWS for a wide range of applications and initiatives, including the US Department of the Navy, National Institutes of Health, Securities and Exchange Commission, the US Department of Interior, The US Food and Drug Administration, The US Department of Treasury, and the City of Melbourne. With more than 800 government agencies worldwide, AWS and its partners have made it easier than ever for government agencies to procure reliable, secure cloud infrastructure from AWS by adding several contract vehicles over the last 12 months, including US Department of Treasury Public Cloud Web Hosting Services, the Department of Interior Foundation Cloud contract, the Texas Department of Information Resources contract, and the Federal Aviation Administration's eFAST contract.

The US Department of Treasury runs its public web site, Treasury.gov, on AWS, and has made AWS services available for other agencies to purchase through the Department of Treasury Public Cloud Web Hosting Services contract. We know that the cloud is a fantastic opportunity for government agencies to scale without limits - but within their budget constraints, said Tim Womack, Director, Enterprise Business Solutions, US Department of the Treasury. It's very compelling for federal agencies to work with a vendor who is constantly innovating and refreshing its technology without raising pri

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