Bringing Cloud to Federal
Watch our virtual discussion with Dave Levy, Vice President of Amazon Web Services. Learn about how his experience working with the government has evolved from his time at Apple to now at AWS and how emerging tech companies and the U.S. government can get better at working together.
Nathan:
Okay. Well, I think we’re going to get started here. I’d like to just begin by introducing myself, and then I’ll give a little intro to Dcode and what we’re doing here, and then of course, glad to introduce our honored guest here today, Dave. So first, myself, Nathan Ruiz, I head partnerships for Dcode. We’re excited to really be driving the use of dual-use technology in government and connecting good commercial tech with what the government needs are. We’ve worked with hundreds of tech companies, government organizations, and partners to lead new implementations of commercial technology in government. Over 500 government leaders, DOD flag officers, and general officers, have been trained by Dcode on innovative acquisitions and how to engage with emerging technologies effectively.
As a result, more than 100 active MVPs are in DoD today, improving government processes and missions. In fact, we’re launching a new training for government leaders and acquisitions professionals called Dcode Procure, which focuses on, no surprise, innovative procurement. Our first course kicked off today with two different Air Force bases and it’s already going great. So keep an eye on that and get engaged if you have folks in procurement. So Dcode Virtual, we’ve been hosting these virtual sessions, and many of you may have attended some of those before. We’ve had some awesome leaders from the Dcode community addressing topics that are at the forefront of everyone’s minds. This discussion and all of our discussions will be available on our website at dcode.co/virtual. We’ll take questions in the chat today. Please provide any questions you have along the way and we’ll log those and make sure we get to those as we talk today.
Today I’m happy to be joined by a very special guest; it’s an honor to introduce Dave Levy. Dave leads AWS’s US government business where he helps governments, enterprise and nonprofit customers realize the potential of technology to transform their organizations and fulfill their missions. For more than 20 years, Dave has passionately focused on the intersection of technology and organizational change. Prior to joining AWS, he was with Apple for 12 years and led the team that helped government usher in the age of mobile technology. So, Dave, it’s a pleasure to have you here today. Thanks for joining us.
Dave:
Yeah, thanks for having me. This is really a great opportunity. I’m looking forward to the discussion and hopefully, we’ll have a lot of fun and we’ll learn a few things.
Nathan:
Let’s do it. So we’ll jump right in. I think one of the best questions to start out with would just be, how has your experience working with government evolved from the years that you spent with Apple to now in your position with AWS?
Dave:
Sure. Well, I’ve certainly seen the government go through big transformative changes and we can be tough on our government customers sometimes; things do move slowly at times, but that’s because there are a lot of concerns around making change. But I’ve certainly seen in my time the government start to embrace emerging technologies, embracing solving problems in a way that they probably hadn’t done in the previous 20 years. And I think a lot of that is a result of really the cost of technology, the cost of adopting newer technologies coming down. At my time at Apple, it was really interesting, it really was, I really had the privilege to be there during really the beginning of the mobile phone revolution, if you want to call it that. And so it was just an incredible opportunity as that process went from consumerism to the enterprise type application where a device could now be at your fingertips, where you could get access to enterprise capabilities, enterprise development and you could do that and start to move things in a mobile way.
And so I saw the government coming around to those ideas pretty early, but then trying to figure out, A, how are we going to do that? How are we going to start? How are we going to acquire this sorts of technology? And the government really did start to come around, of course; today, you can’t really imagine operating in your enterprise without at least having contact, calendar, and email on a device. And once the security, the compliance, and the implementation got really good, it wasn’t a question of when a customer in the federal government was going to do it. It was a matter of when.
I mean, it wasn’t a question of if; it was a matter of when. So I’ve really seen the government come around on that. And in my transition to AWS a few years ago, I think cloud has accelerated that because again, it’s brought down the cost of computing, it’s brought down the cost of storage, it’s created so much more agility to be innovative, and creative. You can deploy SaaS solutions even faster. And so the government has seen that this new world where first mobile technology got democratized and now at scale enterprise can be done and they can experiment and innovate. So it’s been really exciting to see.
Nathan:
That’s great. Well, I think that really I think leads into the question around on-prem versus cloud-native solutions. I think there are still a few agencies that are debating on-prem versus cloud. If you had to outline maybe a few real advantages of deploying cloud-native solutions, I know you hinted at a few right there, but what would they be and what would your counsel be to those agencies that are still having that debate?
Dave:
Well, I’ll start with cloud-native. I think if you’re building something net new today, then you have to look at a cloud-native build first. It is probably the best way to be secure. You’re just much more secure in an API-driven environment in cloud-native environments. You get a lot of security benefits that you wouldn’t otherwise get and visibility into what you’re doing. You can experiment to some degree. And that notion of experimentation and even, I’ll use the word failure, is not a bad thing anymore with respect to the cloud because you can try things out at a much lower cost point and keep iterating until you get it the way that you want it. So I would say for net new projects and things that you’re thinking about building, building in the cloud is a really good first choice.
As far as things on-prem, I think conventional wisdom would say that there are things that are always going to be on-prem. And that may be true, I think that there is some truth to that, but I think the vast majority of what’s on-prem today can move to the cloud and will eventually move to the cloud. The cloud providers, us included, may not be there with all the tools, there are still a lot of mainframe-type applications out there and things and there are still a lot of systems that are in the regulatory realm that remain on-prem and some of those could stay on-prem.
But I would say there are plenty of opportunities for the vast majority of customers and their enterprise actually to move off-prem and into cloud. And then I would say the last area is there are plenty of processes today that just aren’t digital. And there’s, I think, a tremendous opportunity across the federal government to think about how to do these processes in the digital realm and digital transformation. And there are plenty of great partners that we have and providers, and Nathan; you and your team at Dcode are doing just really great work at helping the federal government community understand how to take advantage of things like that.
Nathan:
Thanks, Dave. We really do believe that legacy and incumbent organizations that partner with emerging tech are going to come out on top. And we do feel like driving real innovation and bringing in some of the latest and greatest from commercial and non-traditional tech is a part of it, of course, in the Amazon environment in a lot of cases. How do you feel on that topic with emerging tech companies? What are some tips for how emerging tech companies and the US government can get better at working together? I know you’ve seen a lot in your time at Apple and now with AWS.
Dave:
Yeah. I think now more than ever, our government customers are listening to emerging tech. I mean, you could just pick any area, whether it’s machine learning, artificial intelligence, analytics, edge computing, IOT, all things edge, all things IOT. In the cyber realm, there are a lot of emerging capabilities. And so I think more so now than ever, federal government customers are listening to these sorts of ideas and conversations and they’re really hungry for it. And I would say two things. It also goes beyond just the traditional IT organization. There are a lot of folks in the mission areas, leaders in the mission areas who are looking for ways to either run their operation better, to deliver on their mission better, and emerging technologies can solve those problems.
I would say the key on the emerging tech side is you really got to translate your tech into what the mission is doing. You really got to find a way to communicate that in a way and in a language that they can understand, both technical architecture and business architecture. And I think that will help start to facilitate the discussion because once they see that this technology can solve their underlying mission problems or answer mission, I think you’ll have a really receptive audience. I’ll say one more thing, which is I do think the pandemic has accelerated these discussions. We’ve had the opportunity to be involved in the White House Consortium on high-performance computing. We’ve also been involved in some initiatives around the pandemic and the response to the pandemic.
And I have seen the collaboration between government and private sector work in a way that I really haven’t, I guess at a speed that I haven’t seen at work before. So in some of these constructs, the government has played the convener of bringing together researchers and industry like AWS together to solve problems. And I think that’s a really good model. And I think those of us at some of the larger organizations are going to work to encourage customers to continue to do that, to bring together industry and emerging tech and government together to solve problems and do it quickly and then maybe get out of the way and let things happen. So I’m really encouraged by what I see going on.
Nathan:
That’s good to hear. I think we often at Dcode talk about how tech scouting is a little bit easier said than done, especially the vetting around finding the right technology. And some of what I think enables that good cooperation you were just talking about is making sure that when a program like Dcode takes a company and puts that technology through, we want to make sure they’re really ready to scale in federal and ready to make those business case and technology discussions really fruitful with government and actually get on contract. I think some of that de-risking is really where we’ve seen the government’s more willing to engage when they have a technology that is de-risked and looks like it’s ready to roll. If you could, what would be some examples of where you’ve seen AWS, partners, and federal agencies coming together, and maybe some success stories on bringing some emerging tech in or just cooperation across those organizations?
Dave:
Sure. Well, one I’ll point to, which is one maybe that’s pretty familiar to everybody is the US Census. And there was a whole host of partners involved in the census; we were just a part of it. But this was really the first digital effort by the US Census Bureau and the Internet Self-Response app and all the technologies around that. And there were a lot of technologies and a lot of partners. And so your comment, Nathan, about de-risking is really important because that is probably one of the higher-risk environments that you can be in and this is in the constitution and the president’s got to sign it, so it’s got to work. But I think combined with all of the emerging tech, all of the testing, all of the preparation for this kind of, what I would call, really sensitive production mission workload is a great example of industry and government coming together and adopting these technologies.
And on our end, the Internet Self-Response app ran on top of AWS and so we felt an enormous responsibility around working with every technology, around security, around compliance, around getting an ATO. And so it certainly was a very large effort of a number of partners and it’s a good example I think of where government took some risk, but the risk was measured and it was vetted. And I think that really gave them a lot of confidence. Certainly, we’ve been working on this for a number of years. It turns out that unfortunately the pandemic hit and I’m really glad that we were a part of it; I’m really glad that the government took this opportunity because it allowed them to operate in a way that they wouldn’t otherwise be operating and allowed them to really, I think, scale a huge program. And frankly, keep the enumerators, the folks that go out into the field, keep them safer longer since this had the ability to have respondents come in online and put their data in.
So I think that’s one example. I would point to another example, one that’s maybe back of house. The Navy just recently moved a big ERP into AWS and I think that’s another example of an organization that is really starting to think about how to leverage technologies for their mission, both onshore and offshore and even in their administrative functions. To see it from my vantage point, I see government really starting to think about emerging tech; they’re thinking about data and analytics. They’re thinking about how to take all their data and get some really good use out of it. And so I really see that starting to accelerate and it’s an exciting time.
Nathan:
I mean, speaking of data, I think one of the hottest topics right now, Dave, in government is AI and how that can be implemented effectively. Obviously having good quality data is table stakes when it comes to good complex AI solutions. Do you see any concerted effort from agencies right now to consolidate, and normalize their data in the cloud?
Dave:
Yeah, I see a lot of efforts going on. I mean, I think one of the things that I’m really excited about is this notion to have a chief data officer inside of agencies, inside of their enterprises because I think that’s a great first step. What it says is that they’ve got a single-threaded leader or owner for a data strategy. So having a data and data management strategy is step number one. And then thinking about how to build the right kind of capability across a lot of different constituents and stakeholders and make that strategy effective so you so can actually get the benefit of AI, which is…
You’ve got to train your models, you’ve got to do all that, but at the end of the day, what you really want are the insights, the predictions, and the nuggets, the real organizational value or the business value that you’re after. And so I see agencies doing it; it’s a huge opportunity for them. I do see them starting to think about, now, that being said, is there still a lot of data in pockets and hiding under people’s desks here and there? Sure. In some respects, it’s a daunting task to go and collect all that data, normalize it, make it healthy, and make it useful. But I do see agencies realizing the power of it.
Nathan:
That’s great. At Dcode, we run a couple of different accelerators every year because of the demand, and we finished up with 12 companies a few months ago for AI and big data. No surprise it was a huge success in the companies. You can see them on our website to those viewing, but a lot of them actually were in that same business, Dave, of cleaning and getting data ready for government usage. Besides AI, if you had to name a few other use cases or technologies that you’re hearing federal agency leaders ask for at the CTO or CIO level, what are their top priorities right now? What are you hearing them discuss in addition to AI and data?
Dave:
Yeah. Well, that’s certainly the top one. I think cyber is probably right there too. Cybersecurity is a close second there. And then I would say being on the domain, you hear a lot about edge. And when I think of edge, I don’t think of just maybe edge computing, I really think about IoT and edge together because I do hear agencies starting to think, they’re thinking five and 10 years out, and there’s going to be a day where really what you’re managing is this vast array of sensors and devices. I mean, you already have cameras that proliferate, but you’re going to have sensors in your smoke detectors, you’re going to have sensors, you’re going to have IOT devices.
And those edge products have microcontrollers in them, so they’re not big, thick clients like our iPhone. So I don’t want to say that the day of the iPhone is gone. But they have microcontrollers in them and really that’s going to be a cloud-based environment where you can start to do all sorts of things in your enterprise with these edge devices that are connected in your cloud and the data that you’re going to take in from a sensing perspective, the things that you can deploy out to that edge.
So I hear a lot of agencies and a lot of customers, frankly, starting to think about that strategy, how they’re going to do it, how they’re going to integrate it, how they’re going to manage it, frankly, in this new environment. Because if you think about it, they’re going to be managing their cloud, they’re going to be managing all these devices, they’re going to be managing their on-prem environment and so it’s going to be a lot to contend with. I think there are huge opportunities for technologies that help them do that. I think there are huge opportunities for the connected tissue between those devices and those edge products. And so I think that’s a really big theme coming in the next few years.
Nathan:
That’s really interesting. I think hopefully once we power through this COVID dominated environment, we get back to talking the five, 10 year case without having to worry about the current pandemic. But I know you mentioned a few of the ways that AWS has engaged in the COVID fight. Anything else you’d like to highlight or speak to in terms of what AWS has been a part of?
Dave:
Well, with respect to the government, I think the thing we jump in immediately is on the high performance computing consortium. And we’re part of a group with a lot of other industry partners and we’re really proud of that. We provide COVID-19 researchers all over the world with access to our high performance computing resources, so they can really move fast. I mean, that’s what it’s about. Move fast along the scientific discovery to help fight the virus, stop the virus.
And they submit their research proposals to the consortium portal and then they get matched up with a provider like us. And we’re doing a couple of other things. I mean, we’ve got an initiative we launched with one of our nonprofit partners, Volunteer Surge, their goal is to recruit and train 1 million volunteer health workers. We announced the AWS Diagnostic Initiative, it’s an initial $20 million to accelerate research on rapid, accurate and detection testing of COVID-19. So we’re jumping in, we’re helping customers with remote learning, remote work, remote education and we’re trying to leverage the power of AWS, the agility, the scale to help during the pandemic, for sure.
Nathan:
That’s awesome. Well, we want to transition to some questions from the audience. So if you are dialed in here… Oh, I already see some coming in. Go ahead and keep dropping those in the chat and we’ll start off with some questions here that we actually had come in during registration as well. So Dave, the first question here was, “How is AWS overcoming the challenge of a limited pool of technical or cleared talent?”
Dave:
Yeah. We are challenged, just like everybody else, I mean, every company out there that’s in this business is really hungry for talent and in particular, clear talent. I think what we are doing, we’re doing a couple of things. One, we’ve got a few initiatives internally in the company. We’ve got a former military and government hiring initiative. We’ve got a couple of programs. We’ve got an apprenticeship program that we’re doing with Northern Virginia Community College that we’re bringing in former military, former government. We bring them into one of our technical organizations while they’re still working at the community college and getting ready.
The other thing is we’re increasingly doing our college campus recruiting. We’ve got early technical programs that we’re getting folks in to build up our pipeline of folks that will ultimately be clearable. And we’re training more people too on AWS, through our programs like AWS Educate and some of our other cloud training programs. And then we get them in and if they’re not already cleared, hopefully we can get them through the clearance process.
Nathan:
That’s great.
Dave:
But it’s a tall task and we have to compete out there for talent just like every other company. And we hope that-
Nathan:
Absolutely. Well, as former Air Force member myself, I in particular appreciate your efforts there with DOD and former members. That’s awesome. With veterans. Another question we had come in, Dave, was essentially Amazon is the standard now in Gov Cloud contracts, and maybe just more of a reaction from you to that. I know Amazon was really first to market in a lot of these areas, but if you’d like to comment on that.
Dave:
Yeah. Look, we’re really super proud of what we’ve done with respect to Gov Cloud and all of the capabilities. We look at it and we say it’s a privilege to really work with the government and have this opportunity. I think for us, it really starts with what customers want. I mean, the leadership principles that Amazon are pretty well known, you can Google them. But the customer obsession part is a very real thing and we really start with working backwards from what customers want.
And the way that Gov Cloud came about was really driven by customers telling us that they needed an ITAR capability. I’m not so sure all of us knew what that meant and I think a few folks were actually Googling it when we were told that. So it really started with customer requirement and that hasn’t stopped. I mean, we are still wanting to listen to customers in the federal government, understand what it is that they’re trying to accomplish and what they need. And we try to either invent with them or invent on their behalf. And I think we are willing to do things that will help them better their mission and move faster. Gov Cloud’s a good example of that.
Nathan:
Right. Very good. Well, we did have a couple questions come in. Please do go ahead and drop them in the chat if you do have a question for Dave, great opportunity obviously to ask directly. We’ve got one here that is asking, “When will AWS and/or industry have the security to gain DOD’s acceptance of OCONUS clouds?” So maybe if you could comment on just the challenge around OCONUS clouds.
Dave:
Yeah. Well, I don’t know when. I don’t want to handicap it because there’s a lot involved in operating for the DOD and any of our customers, frankly, whether it’s our federal government customers or our commercial customers outside of the continental United States. So I don’t want to handicap when, but I will say that we certainly have recognized that there are needs and capabilities that our customers have and we want to understand what those requirements are and we want to be able to put ourselves in a position to build something that both meets their operational needs, but it’s also secure.
It’s also secure, it’s fast and it also gives them an experience of commercial cloud. And so we’ll want to balance that with their requirements and what they’re asking for. And I think all of those things are starting to come together, all of those capabilities are starting to come together, but I don’t know when, I wouldn’t want to put a date or a time on it. But we are certainly very aware and it’s an exciting opportunity too, for those customers to operate in those theaters in that way potentially. I think it’s a very big operational opportunity for them.
Nathan:
Right. We do have another question here, Dave, asking, “What does AWS do for teaming with smaller but higher growth private sector tech companies?”
Dave:
Teaming in terms of? Look, we have a lot of programs, especially we have our startup program, we have our venture capital programs both on the commercial side, we have our own program on the government side. So happy to make sure that everybody gets connected to that. But we do a number of things, we have a program that provides credits, we have programs that help companies, especially smaller companies that are working in, for example, the markets that I work in and the government, help them sell, help them with FedRAMP and getting an ATO. So we’ve got a number of programs and we have teams that are just dedicated to helping companies really get the word out and really grow and find customers. So yeah, we’re doing a number of things and we do it on the commercial side too as well.
Nathan:
Got it. If you wouldn’t mind, I know you mentioned FedRAMP in the last comment. It wasn’t a question per se, but we do hear that a lot. Could you just briefly comment on FedRAMP? I know it’s a nightmare sometimes, but it’s also necessary evil and actually helps to corral requirements across agencies. What’s your thought on just FedRAMP in general?
Dave:
Well, look, I mean, think FedRAMP’s been I think a really amazing program across the federal government. I don’t know that any of us, whether the FedRAMP office and those folks, and there’s some really wonderful folks over there over the years who have really grown and nurtured that program or us in industry really anticipated how big it was going to be. We hoped it would be big, but I don’t know that we anticipated it was going to be this big. And so I think all of us, whether it’s the government or our industry, we’ve struggled with the growth of that program just in terms of resources and scale and things like that.
Now, I do think there’s a lot of growth and a lot of really cool, innovative ideas going on about how to invest in the FedRAMP program, it’s got a lot of visibility up on Capitol Hill. So the program has delivered I think really good benefits. And this happens in business too. When your business starts to grow in scale, when you’re a young company and you start to grow in scale, you run into these points where you’ve got to figure out how to go to the next level. And so I think it’s incumbent upon the government and the industry to figure out how to get to that next level of scale in that program. And I think there’s some really cool ideas that are going on right now and they’re being generated about how to do that and maybe reduce some of the friction that’s in there today. But from my perspective, it’s all because the program is successful.
Nathan:
Great. I think that’s a great way of putting it. Pivoting a little bit to the government perspective. Question we had come in was, “What are the top one to three things that you think execs on the government side need to know in order to really effectively lead a tech innovation push from the government side?” If you had to give a couple tips, what would they be? Just based on what you’ve seen.
Dave:
Yeah. On the government side, I think it takes sponsorship from the very top. That’s the first thing I would say. Oftentimes, as you know, some of these decisions aren’t technology decisions, they’re really organizational decisions and change decisions about where to go with a particular program or how to adopt to technology. So I would say it all starts with getting the leaders at the very top, really convicted about a direction they’re going in and really behind it and supporting it and then setting goals to make sure the organization is driving along that path when they’re adopting new technologies. And frankly, giving the organization the support it needs to work through these new technologies and to implement them. And bringing on the right kind of talent, looking for the right kind of talent, bringing on the right kind of industry partners to do that. And so I think the top thing that an executive and needs to do is really decide and really own an initiative from the top.
Nathan:
That makes sense. I mean, without picking any favorites, could you give any examples of maybe some agencies or some examples from government where you’ve seen that happening in a positive sense, where you’ve seen a good example of that engagement from the government side?
Dave:
Oh, I don’t want to single anybody out, but I see it happening across government, I see it happening… I tell you, maybe we went from, even just a few years ago, the posture of agencies, there’s still some hesitancy around cloud and particularly with respect to security, but even for things that they were going to ultimately be mission type stuff. And I’ve really seen that change, it’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when. And I see that across the board. Like I said, I don’t want to pick on anybody or single anybody out, but I can’t think of an agency that’s not doing something. So I really don’t know of any agency that’s not doing something.
And AWS is one of the choices out there, we’re really proud of our services and offerings. But I see agencies doing work and taking on emerging technologies. I think the SaaS agencies have really embraced SaaS in a way and maybe at a pace that I didn’t actually expect. And I think that’s great. I see it incorporated in some of their strategies. So I’d say across the board and some parts of the government are moving faster than others, but a lot of that is just due to where they are in that journey. But I’ll be hesitant to shine the light on anybody, but I see it across the board.
Nathan:
Fair enough. I think, as you mentioned, the pace is astounding. I think if you were to go back even five years and think about where we are now with cloud, I mean, the discussion was not even close. And so it is amazing to see that accelerate. And hopefully one of the side aspects of getting through this COVID experience will be one where we do feel pushed a little bit more to jump into what is available with the tech around cloud and how government can embrace more virtual work in general, I think as well. If you had to say one thing you’re looking forward to for AWS in the next year, just looking ahead, just to wrap things up here today with our time, what are you looking forward to, Dave? And other than getting more time out of the house, what are you looking forward to in this next year?
Dave:
Look, again, I think we’re so early days in this transformation in emerging tech. I will say the area that I think is getting the most attention certainly is machine learning and artificial intelligence. But it’s all the other things around ML and AI, frankly. It’s the data and the data management piece, it’s the security, it’s the compliance, it’s the OPs tempo. Nathan, it’s such an exciting time, I think, to be in this business. And there are just so many opportunities, so much opportunity for transformation and change. And we’ve seen some of that, I mean, we’ve seen the pandemic has accelerated that because customers need these capabilities, they absolutely need them to deliver on their mission. So I’m excited, my commute isn’t as long as it used to be, which I’m excited about that. So I just roll out of bed and don’t go too far. But the days are packed and working with customers and partners like you is super exciting.
Nathan:
That’s great. Well, we appreciate your partnership and as you can see with my not so virtual background here, AWS is at the top of the list here. But we appreciate you being here with us today, Dave. Thanks so much for spending the time with us. We know you got a lot of other stuff going on and it feels like a pretty frantic pace right now. So thanks for taking the time to be here for this virtual event.
Dave:
No, thank you. And thanks to everybody that joined today.