Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS), an Amazon.com company (NASDAQ:AMZN),
today announced the City on a Cloud Innovation Challenge, a new global
program to recognize local governments and application developers that
are innovating for the benefit of citizens using the AWS Cloud. From May
to June 2014, AWS and a panel of worldwide experts from organizations
driving local government innovation will select seven grand prize
winners from among two award categories: Best Practices and Partners in
Innovation. Today, AWS is opening the call for entries for both the Best
Practices Award and Partners in Innovation Award. Three AWS local
government projects will be awarded the Best Practices Award,
recognizing local governments who have already adopted cloud technology,
each receiving $50,000 in AWS credits. Four application developers will
be awarded the Partners in Innovation Award for individuals or companies
engaged in creating applications that solve local government challenges,
each receiving $25,000 in AWS credits. To learn more about the City on a
Cloud Innovation Challenge, visit http://aws.amazon.com/stateandlocal/cityonacloud/.
Entries for both awards must be received no later than May 12, 2014 and
will be judged based on one or more criteria that include the impact of
the solution, likelihood of long-term success, implementation of AWS
services, and the potential to help other local governments solve
similar challenges. AWS will announce the finalists by the end of May
2014, and the winners of the Best Practices Award and Partners in
Innovation Award will be announced on June 25, 2014 at the AWS
Government, Education, and Nonprofits Symposium in Washington, DC.
“The AWS Cloud is enabling government innovation at all levels. From the
United States to Singapore, Europe to Brazil, and Japan to Australia,
municipal governments and their technology partners are putting their
ideas to work for citizens,” said Teresa Carlson, Vice President
Worldwide Public Sector, AWS. “We’re looking forward to recognizing
pioneering municipalities and partners, as well as seeing the next wave
of ideas and innovations that will further transform what is possible
for local and regional governments through low-cost, highly scalable,
agile cloud computing services.”
“It is an exciting time in government as we are in the very beginning
stages of transformation – the cloud is accelerating innovation at every
level of government around the world,” said Chris Coleman, Mayor of St.
Paul and President, National League of Cities. “Whether it is offering
better service to residents through web sites, mobile applications and
access to data, or driving new levels of operational efficiency, the
City on a Cloud Innovation Challenge makes it possible to dream big.”
All City on a Cloud Innovation Challenge entries must use the cloud
computing solutions offered by AWS. Entries will be reviewed and
considered by a panel of AWS representatives and international experts,
including:
-
Pete Reynolds, Executive Director of Innovation and the Cities Lab,
Future Cities Catapult
-
Scott Case, Founding CEO Startup America; Co-Founder and CEO, Main
Street Genome
-
Mayor Christopher Coleman, Mayor St. Paul, MN and President of
National League of Cities
-
Joe Dignan, Founder, Kintechi Ltd and Former Chief Analyst EMEA Public
Sector, Ovum
-
Ed DeSeve, Former Special Advisor to the President for Recovery
Implementation
-
Elliot Gerson, Executive Vice President, the Aspen Institute
-
Dr. Gerald Gordon, President and CEO, Fairfax County (Virginia)
Economic Development Authority
-
Bill McCluggage, former Chief Information Officer of the Irish
Government
-
Dr. Glenn Ricart, Founder and CTO of US Ignite and member of Internet
Hall of Fame
-
Sonal Shah, Former Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of
the first White House Office of Social Innovation and Civic
Participation
-
Bob Sofman, Co-Executive Director, Code for America
-
Dr. Mark Thompson, Strategy Director, Methods Group, and Senior
Lecturer in Information Systems, Cambridge Judge Business School, UK
For a complete description of prizes and applicable territories, read
the contest official rules at http://aws.amazon.com/stateandlocal/cityonacloud/rules/.
About Amazon Web Services
Launched in 2006, Amazon Web Services, Inc. began exposing key
infrastructure services to businesses in the form of web services -- now
widely known as cloud computing. The ultimate benefit of cloud
computing, and AWS, is the ability to leverage a new business model and
turn capital infrastructure expenses into variable costs. Businesses no
longer need to plan and procure servers and other IT resources weeks or
months in advance. Using AWS, businesses can take advantage of Amazon's
expertise and economies of scale to access resources when their business
needs them, delivering results faster and at a lower cost. Today, Amazon
Web Services provides a highly reliable, scalable, low-cost
infrastructure platform in the cloud that powers hundreds of thousands
of enterprise, government and startup customers businesses in 190
countries around the world. Amazon Web Services offers over 30 different
services, including Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), Amazon
Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) and Amazon Relational Database
Service (Amazon RDS). AWS Cloud services are available to customers from
data center locations in the U.S., Brazil, Europe, Japan, Singapore,
Australia and China.
About Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), a Fortune 500 company based in Seattle,
opened on the World Wide Web in July 1995 and today offers Earth’s
Biggest Selection. Amazon.com, Inc. seeks to be Earth’s most
customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything
they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the
lowest possible prices. Amazon.com and other sellers offer millions of
unique new, refurbished and used items in categories such as Books;
Movies, Music & Games; Digital Downloads; Electronics & Computers; Home
& Garden; Toys, Kids & Baby; Grocery; Apparel, Shoes & Jewelry; Health &
Beauty; Sports & Outdoors; and Tools, Auto & Industrial. Amazon Web
Services provides Amazon’s developer customers with access to
in-the-cloud infrastructure services based on Amazon’s own back-end
technology platform, which developers can use to enable virtually any
type of business. Kindle Paperwhite is the world’s best-selling and most
advanced e-reader. It features new display technology with higher
contrast, the next generation built-in light, a faster processor, the
latest touch technology, and exclusive new features designed from the
ground up for readers. Kindle, the lightest and smallest Kindle,
features improved fonts and faster page turns. The new Kindle Fire HDX
features a stunning exclusive 7” or 8.9” HDX display, a quad-core 2.2
GHz processor, 2x more memory, and 11 hours of battery life, as well as
exclusive new features of Fire OS 3.0 including X-Ray for Music, Second
Screen, Prime Instant Video downloads, and the revolutionary new Mayday
button. The all-new Kindle Fire HD includes an HD display,
high-performance processor and dual speakers at a breakthrough price.
Amazon and its affiliates operate websites, including www.amazon.com,
www.amazon.co.uk,
www.amazon.de,
www.amazon.co.jp,
www.amazon.fr,
www.amazon.ca,
www.amazon.cn,
www.amazon.it,
www.amazon.es,
www.amazon.com.br,
www.amazon.in,
www.amazon.com.mx,
and www.amazon.com.au.
As used herein, “Amazon.com,” “we,” “our” and similar terms include
Amazon.com, Inc., and its subsidiaries, unless the context indicates
otherwise.
Forward-Looking Statements
This announcement contains forward-looking statements within the meaning
of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the
Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Actual results may differ significantly
from management's expectations. These forward-looking statements involve
risks and uncertainties that include, among others, risks related to
competition, management of growth, new products, services and
technologies, potential fluctuations in operating results, international
expansion, outcomes of legal proceedings and claims, fulfillment and
data center optimization, seasonality, commercial agreements,
acquisitions and strategic transactions, foreign exchange rates, system
interruption, inventory, government regulation and taxation, payments
and fraud. More information about factors that potentially could affect
Amazon.com's financial results is included in Amazon.com's filings with
the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its most recent Annual
Report on Form 10-K and subsequent filings.
Copyright Business Wire 2014