Canadian Government Executive - Volume 25 - Issue 02

April/May 2019// Canadian Government Executive / 15 innovation Data Residency Data residency refers to government legis- lation mandating that sensitive electronic data under its control be processed and stored in an IT system within the coun- try’s borders. Data residency is designed to address a combination of issues associ- ated with security risks around third-party access to data, including foreign law en- forcement agencies. In Canada, data resi- dency offers assurances that sensitive data is protected from unwanted access by ne- farious attackers and other governments. The cloud gives organizations full own- ership and control over their data through simple, powerful tools that allow them to determine where it should be stored. We’re seeing AWS public sector customers taking advantage of our Canada Region to store data locally, with the built-in con- trols, auditing and security accreditations to maintain compliance with Canadian government regulations. Education It is reassuring that federal, provincial and municipal governments are seeing the val- ue and benefit of migrating to the cloud. To fully realize the value of the cloud and its role in modernizing service delivery, it is equally important that Canada’s pub- lic sector workforce is equipped with the knowledge, skills and training to build, ex- periment and iterate. To help address this challenge, we held the first-ever AWS DigiGov Program in No- vember 2018. Collaborating with the Uni- versity of Ottawa Professional Develop- ment Institute, the two-day pilot program was designed specifically for government employees, providing education and inspi- ration that will help take the delivery of digital services to new heights. We need to build on that momentum and encourage more government organizations to inno- vate on the cloud. Innovating in government is hard, partly because the consequences of failure can be devastating. But it could be argued that the need for transformation is also felt most acutely in this area. The cloud helps manage these challenges by allowing for rapid, low-risk innovation that can im- prove people’s lives. By Jeff Kratz, General Manager, Latin America, Canada & Caribbean Regions Worldwide Public Sector, Amazon Web Services. Security Government organizations are quickly realizing that migrating to the cloud is an opportunity to improve their level of secu- rity assurance and reduce operational risk. Among the challenges that come with building and maintaining data centres are the expenses and resources needed to keep up with the ever-evolving secu- rity and privacy regulatory environment. Working in the cloud, organizations can leverage all the best practices, policies, architecture and operational processes re- quired by some of the most security sensi- tive customers on the planet. Cloud infrastructure is built to support more security certifications and accredi- tations, data encryption and hardware security, offering full compliance with in- ternational and local security and privacy policies. Pairing that with strong physical security gives governments piece of mind and a more secure, cost-effective way to manage IT infrastructure.