AWS Experts on the Public Sector Cloud Journey
Tyler Tech Podcast Episode 121, Transcript
The Tyler Tech Podcast explores a wide range of complex, timely, and important issues facing communities and the public sector. Expect approachable tech talk mixed with insights from subject matter experts and a bit of fun. Each episode highlights the people, places, and technology making a difference. Give the podcast a listen today and subscribe.
Show Notes:
In this episode of the Tyler Tech Podcast, a panel of experts from Amazon Web Services — Doug Gartner, John Persano, and Tami Fillyaw — join us to explore the realities of cloud transformation in the public sector.
Recorded live at our annual Tyler Connect conference, this timely conversation dives into the benefits and challenges of cloud adoption across public safety, justice, finance, and administration. Together, our guests break down common concerns about reliability, security, and legacy infrastructure while offering practical insights into how agencies can build a strong cloud foundation and scale smart.
Throughout the episode, Doug, John, and Tami discuss how the cloud supports greater resilience, enhances data security and compliance, and enables cost optimization and performance. They also share lessons learned from real-world migrations — from the importance of executive sponsorship to the value of training and starting small.
Tune in to hear how government leaders can overcome barriers, improve continuity, and use cloud technology to deliver more reliable and secure services to their communities.
This episode also features a special shoutout to Small Cities Month, celebrated each June, highlighting the innovation and impact of communities with fewer than 50,000 residents. From modernizing infrastructure to enhancing local services, small cities are rising to meet today’s challenges with creativity and heart. Read our latest blog to see how these communities are using technology to grow resilience and deliver meaningful change.
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Transcript:
Tami Fillyaw: We are laying the foundation for your IT landscape by moving to the cloud, but then you have the opportunity to iterate and make improvements and really improve the security of your environment. And so, I think the cost optimization, the security, the reliability, and performance are where our customers are seeing the greatest benefits.
Josh Henderson: From Tyler Technologies, this is the Tyler Tech Podcast where we explore the trends, technologies, and people shaping the public sector. I’m Josh Henderson. Thanks for joining us.
In this episode, I’m joined by Doug Gartner, John Persano, and Tami Fillyaw, a panel of experts from Amazon Web Services, for a conversation about cloud transformation in the public sector.
Together, we explore the opportunities and address the common concerns surrounding cloud adoption from improving resilience and security to navigating legacy infrastructure and change management. We also discuss what it takes to start small, scale smart, and support a secure, reliable digital future.
We recorded this episode last month at our annual Tyler Connect conference in San Antonio. It’s a timely discussion with practical takeaways for leaders at all levels of government. So, let’s get into it.
Today on the Tyler Tech Podcast, I’m joined by three experts from AWS, each bringing a unique perspective across finance and administration, courts, public safety, and state and local government.
Doug Gartner, principal solution architect for state and local government and justice and public safety, John Persano, leader for AWS justice and public safety, and Tami Fillyaw, leader for state and local government finance and administration.
John let’s start with you. From your perspective working closely with public safety and justice agencies, why is cloud migration such an important conversation right now in the public sector?
John Persano: I think, you know, we’re at kind of a tipping point when it comes to technology adoption within the public safety world, and a lot of people expect the ability to leverage technology as they do at home when they when they go to work. And as we look at things such as 911 and other aspects where we’re adopting multimedia, adopting the ability to ingest video and send video and requiring a greater situational awareness of our responders, a lot of that technology is resonant in the cloud and is much more adopted easily through cloud technologies.
Josh Henderson: That’s great. Now, Tami, on the finance and administration side, what are you hearing from agencies about the main drivers for moving to the cloud?
Tami Fillyaw: Sure. Great question. So, some of the main drivers include moving away from legacy infrastructure that is non-performant.
It’s not reliable. They’re experiencing outages, and they want to move to something that’s more, has greater performance, greater reliability, and are cloud-based solutions, including those that are low-code, no-code platforms. A lot of interest in that area. I think the second is greater security.
Robust disaster recovery is on the minds for many. There’s the threat of bad actors in the from a cyber perspective and moving to the AWS cloud really provides that level of protection that government customers are looking for.
The AWS cloud really provides that level of protection that government customers are looking for.
Tami Fillyaw
Leader for State and Local Government Finance and Administration, Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Josh Henderson: Now while the benefits are clear, many agencies still have questions or concerns. So, Doug, from a technical perspective or an architectural standpoint, what are the common barriers or hesitations you hear when it comes to cloud adoption?
Doug Gartner: I think, to reiterate some of what Tami just mentioned, we hear a lot of pushbacks on, like, well, is the cloud secure? You know?
Is it reliable enough to host these mission critical workloads? And we think about some of those. You’re talking about computer aided dispatch. You’re talking about 911 call handling.
So really high requirements for high availability, for disaster recovery, for making sure that that system is just on and reliable and stable and secure. And so, again, I think we really focus on the adoption of making sure that the security foundations are in place, that the reliability foundations are in place, and it’s really difficult to do that without the cloud.
Josh Henderson: Great. Now I’ll throw this out to all of you. Where do you see public safety and finance leaders getting stuck or hesitant when it comes to embracing the cloud?
John Persano: So, one of the interesting things, you know, four years ago when Doug and I started this process, it was, why cloud? And, we’ve had a lot of success across the board, across all the verticals, getting people to understand the benefits of the cloud. Connectivity is a tremendous issue right now, particularly in these mission critical aspects where you need that, you know, millisecond latency. You need to make sure that you, you know, you don’t go down. So, we’re switching a lot now to conversations about getting to the cloud. And, you know, with partners such as Tyler and all the incredible offerings that you guys have, how do we ensure that that connectivity is there so they can leverage all the technologies that you all provide on your AWS backbone? So, connectivity is a large conversation.
Tami Fillyaw: Agreed. Yeah. Great point, John. I think from when you think about also from the perspective of being a resilient community and both government staff as well as employees having 24/7 days a week access to information, particularly if you’re in a in a crisis situation, an extreme weather event, or maybe a public health concern. And so that connectivity really is a major driver for folks getting unstuck.
I think I would follow-up to say change management, is another area that I think is important, and that starts with education and training frontline staff, to really understand what the value proposition is of the cloud and the benefits that it provides.
Josh Henderson: Now we touched a little bit on security. I want to dive a little bit deeper into that, though. So how does the cloud address security and compliance concerns? If we can just go a little bit deeper into that.
Doug Gartner: So, we meet all of the state and local government, security and compliance needs. So, whether that be criminal justice information like CJIS, whether it be HIPAA, whether it be IRS 1075, all of those are possible to be met in the cloud. And the reason for that is because of the strong foundation.
So, a few years ago, we took a very deliberate approach to fundamentally change how we virtualize infrastructure. It used to be, you know, you have a software layer that sits on top of bare metal and that software layer then provides virtual compute for these applications.
We changed that and now we have a sort of a hardware layer that sits on top of it. And the goal in making that, decision was to say, we don’t want AWS employees to have access to any of this agency data. We want to make sure that all of that data is owned and operated by the agency and that we have the proper security controls, the proper encryption mechanisms, but we don’t have access to that data. So, when you think about a lot of these compliance programs, they’ll say things like, well, if you have unescorted access to unencrypted data, you know, how can you meet the compliance requirement?
But by saying that there are no AWS employees that have access to that data and then cryptographically verifying that we don’t have access to that data, it really gets around a lot of those sort of, you know, regulatory needs because we don’t want to be in the chain of custody. None of our employees want to be subpoenaed. You know, we just want to make sure that, that agency owns and operates that data, and we provide the right mechanisms to encrypt and secure that data properly.
Josh Henderson: Stay tuned. We’ll be right back with more of the Tyler Tech Podcast.
June is Small Cities Month, and we’re celebrating the towns, villages, and communities with populations under 50,000 that are making a big impact every day.
Jade Champion: Small cities represent the majority of communities across the country. That’s a huge presence and a huge reason to celebrate.
We know small cities face unique challenges like modernizing technology, securing funding, attracting and retaining talent, and meeting growing community expectations. Yet, they continue to rise to the occasion with creativity, dedication, and heart.
Josh Henderson: This month is all about highlighting the leadership and progress happening in small communities from coast to coast.
Jade Champion: From local innovation to resident connections, small cities are doing powerful work.
Josh Henderson: So, if you’re part of a small city, now’s the time to show your pride. Get involved, post on social media, and celebrate what makes your community shine with the hashtag #SmallCitiesMonth.
Jade Champion: Read more in our show notes about how small cities are using technology to grow resilience and make an impact in their communities.
Josh Henderson: Small cities, big hearts. We see you, and we’re cheering you on.
Jade Champion: Now let’s get back to the Tyler Tech Podcast.
Josh Henderson: Obviously, at Tyler, we work with public sector organizations.
Change can be hard for public sector organizations. Right? So how do you help those organizations overcome this perception that moving from on premises to the cloud equals a loss of control for them?
John Persano: I think, you know, the approach that we’re taking is starting small.
There’s just a tremendous amount that can be done, and I think that’s overwhelming to people. So, where we tend to focus on is those workflows that are just really time consuming, very annoying. Nobody wants to do them, and we can automate those very, very effectively.
And that allows people to actually do the job that they’ve signed up to do, be it law enforcement or 911 or courts, corrections officers, you know, on the justice and public safety side. And just having that ability. So, starting small, taking those basic workloads off, educating people on what the potential is, and the power is, and then they just keep asking for more and more. But if you dive in and you try to boil the ocean, it’s just far too far overwhelming.
Tami Fillyaw: And I would just add there too when you when you look at it the AWS cloud has more than 143 different compliance security standards and compliance standards that we meet.
We heavily invest in the AWS cloud infrastructure, so you don’t have to worry about buying your infrastructure on premises, having to worry about overprovisioning to meet peak demand, which is not very cost effective, or having to refresh that infrastructure on an every five-year basis. And so, by us, removing that undifferentiated heavy lifting, from you, we give you the opportunity to focus on protecting your data in the in the cloud and your applications and your mission.
Doug Gartner: And I would just reiterate that that mission focus is something we always try to emphasize because it’s really easy that once we get into some of these systems to sort of iterate on the tech, and then, you know, we’re doing tech for tech’s sake as opposed to what is the mission we’re trying to accomplish? What is the goal? Let’s make sure that we always go back to that so that we’re emphasizing that as a means to deliver the right value and the right impact instead of saying like, oh, it’d be cool to build this thing, but where’s the ROI? Where’s the impact? And to John’s point, what are the kind of lowest hanging fruit application areas where you have that immediate impact and that realization, and then you can move on from there?
Josh Henderson: Tech for tech’s sake. I like that. I don’t think I’ve heard that one. Now kind of along those lines, from your experiences, what have been some of the biggest benefits agencies have seen moving to the cloud? So that can be across justice, public safety, finance, and administration.
Tami Fillyaw: So, in the finance and administration realm, I think, you know, I work with government customers across the U.S. and have been involved in several different migrations. And so, from the, the greater performance and reliability piece, it’s great to see our customers gain that level of confidence in in the AWS cloud and the Tyler solutions that they’re using that are cloud-based. I think, second piece that I see is the cost effectiveness.
So, getting in your first step, you’re laying the foundation for your IT landscape by moving to the cloud, but then you have the opportunity to iterate and make improvements and use native services and really improve the security of your environment. And so, I think the cost optimization, the security, the reliability, and performance are where our customers are seeing the greatest benefits.
Doug Gartner: I would just add too on that. That reliability piece is a game changer because it’s really difficult to build infrastructure to meet some of these critical uptime requirements. I mean, it’s possible, but you’d think about, okay, I’ve got to have two or three facilities. I’ve got to make sure they’re geographically separated. I’ve got to put them on different power and different, you know, fault planes and things like that. And so, it takes a lot of planning and energy and sort of, build out to be able to meet those uptime requirements.
Because if you have, you know, a single machine or a single data center, you have a single point of failure. And so, when you’re looking at things like high availability for mission critical systems, you want to make sure that you avoid all those single points of failure. And it’s just really difficult to do that without that, you know, infrastructure in the cloud. And additionally, on the security piece, I would just add that, you know, a lot of times to combat some of these common attacks, like you think about ransomware, you think about DDoS, doing, like, having point in time recovery, having good backups is a really good way to combat things like ransomware or having the ability to handle that volume of traffic that might come in on a DDoS and then be able to kind of deny some of that traffic is a really good way to combat DDoS.
So those two areas, I think, are really, like, the foundational kind of tried and true benefits. And then there’s a lot of other kind of tangential ones, but those are, in this space, the mission critical benefits.
John Persano: And I think to build on so, you know, they hit the foundation very well.
You can’t do the fun stuff until you have a solid foundation. And everyone wants to do the fun stuff. So, once you have that foundation, now you can start looking at how can these new tools help you look at the data that they have, and everyone is just so awash in data.
And how do we help these public safety entities make better data-driven decisions?
So, they have it. The information’s there, but it’s buried in all these reports or 25 different disparate systems. How do we use these new tools and technologies to bring all these systems together and actually ask it a question in plain language and get usable data that’s going to, you know, affect how I operate my resources, my funding, etcetera, etcetera.
Josh Henderson: And to that point, you know, not every cloud migration journey is the same. A lot of, a lot of these agencies are small. They might be hindered by budget constraints and things like that. What lessons have you all learned from successful cloud migrations that public sector leaders should keep in mind as they start to continue down this path?
Tami Fillyaw: So, I would say two key lessons learned. Well, three, really. So, one would be strong executive sponsorship support from your senior management.
Second would be very strong project management support, and that you have full communication channels, and you also have established a path for escalation to remove blockers.
And then really, I think from a third perspective is invest in training in your staff.
Help them get those certifications. Help them access the free training and resources that are available, through AWS.
Doug Gartner: And I think the other thing too is to go back to the point from, you know, starting small, picking an application that makes sense, that you can kind of understand how it works, move forward with that application, and then you get your end-to-end understanding of how things are going to work, and you kind of test the full thing end to end versus maybe doing a piece or a portion of something, and then it’s harder to see the big picture. It’s harder to see where this could translate to. So, starting small is always a good approach, and then leaning on that, what Tami mentioned around upskilling of the resources so that now they understand how it works. They can think about other areas, other applications that that may be good fits.
Josh Henderson: That’s great. Well, Tami, John, Doug, thank you so much for taking the time to share your expertise today. Today’s conversation obviously reinforces that while there are challenges to address, there are also proven pathways to success. So, thank you all for being part of the Tyler Tech Podcast today. I really enjoyed the conversation.
As we heard today, the journey to the cloud in the public sector involves more than just technology. It’s about building a strong foundation, addressing common concerns, and unlocking long term value through smart planning and collaboration.
Our guests from AWS shared valuable insights into how government leaders can overcome barriers, strengthen resilience, and embrace innovation while keeping mission outcomes at the forefront.
If you’d like to dive deeper into the topics discussed in today’s episode, be sure to check out the show notes for additional resources, and we’d love to hear your feedback. Fill out the listener survey linked in the show notes or reach out anytime at podcast@tylertech.com. And don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and review the podcast so you never miss an episode.
For Tyler Technologies, I’m Josh Henderson. Thanks for listening to the Tyler Tech Podcast.