In Bogota, Colombia, more than 800 people gathered at the Latin America AWS Public Sector Summit on Thursday, March 28, 2019. The event, sponsored by AWS, brought together members of the public sector to share knowledge about sustainability, database migration, and the next generation of tech talent.
Iván Duque Márquez, president of Colombia, opened the presentation with a speech about the technological opportunities and the initiatives presented. “The use of technology is for the development of a country, it is not a question of right or left in politics,” said Duque.
Jeff Kratz, general manager in Latin America, Caribbean, and Canada of Amazon Web Services, highlighted the AWS investment in Latin America. AWS will launch an Edge location in Bogota, Colombia at the end of 2019, making Colombia the first access network outside of Brazil in LatAm. He also announced a strategic alliance with SENA, a Colombian government institution responsible for the social and technical development of Colombian workers. They will train students in IT and cloud technology. It will begin with the training of 2,000 students in Bogotá, in addition to a long-term commitment to establishing Colombia as a key position in Amazon’s growth strategy in the region.
Success in public sector
The presentation also included three speakers who highlighted innovation in Latin America as:
Confecameras, the confederation of chambers of commerce in Colombia achieved risk and cost reduction, and added flexibility. Now they can manage, analyze and share data through 57 chambers of commerce and 300 state agencies that use the service.
SAT Guatemala – Superintendency of Tax Administration (SAT), the Guatemalan tax authority has modernized the tax administration with more efficient processes. Mauricio Romero, IT and information systems consultant at SAT Guatemala, spoke about the importance of finding the right cloud service and how they have focused on hiring experts and training for the future.
The National University of Colombia developed applications faster with AWS, in addition to improving security and increasing interoperability. With the use of AWS services, the university achieved tangible benefits in the area of security and application management.