There has always been a steady stream of events, both virtual and, increasingly, live, coming from AWS. Here are a few coming your way that we hope you’ll join us for.
Our partners at AWS are putting together a presentation for the NET+ AWS community on how you can harden your accounts and Orgs against ransomware.
Ransomware attacks can be significantly disruptive and costly to the college or university beyond the data compromised or stolen, the time lost recovering from an incident and money spent on recovery or for ransom payouts. These incidents can also erode the confidence and trust that students and families, faculty, staff, researchers, and partners have in the organization For these reasons it is important to keep an eye on the threats ransomware poses and to be prepared for all eventualities. In this session you will learn about current trends in ransomware, strategies to prevent and detect intrusions and approaches to mitigate the damage and recover from the attack.
Presented by Larry Kiger, WWPS Solution Architect, AWS. Larry is on a mission to educate and help information technologists and executives grow their understanding of IT Security and Compliance in the Cloud. He joined Amazon Web Services (AWS) in 2019 and now serves as the Americas’ Lead for Security & Compliance in the Worldwide Public Sector team.
This is an interactive session, so bring your questions and invite your friends from the security office. Monday, September 20 12:00-1:30pm EDT. Register here.
Later this month at the Washington, DC Convention Center Amazon is hosting two free in-person conferences.
If you are planning on being there, please reach out to your NET+ AWS team so we can say hello.
AWS Educate, AWS Academy, and other AWS education programs are now within one organization – AWS Education to Workforce, The AWS Education to Workforce team offers new program and consultative services to help customers enable and implement a comprehensive AWS cloud skills workforce education solution. Aaron Osmond, US Lead for the AWS Education to Workforce Team will be presenting this session.
Bio: Aaron Osmond joined AWS in March of 2020. Aaron brings 25+ years of professional experience in building statewide workforce development programs within public and higher education at Novell, Microsoft, Pearson, and now AWS. Aaron leads a team of business development and program implementation experts to help state and local education and workforce leaders implement AWS cloud skills workforce readiness programs.
This is an interactive session, so bring your questions and invite your faculty and colleagues from Learning Technologies. Monday, October 25, 2-3pm EDT, Register here. 
Internet2’s Oren Sreebny is looking to build on his success with a GCP community training cohort. We are working with AWS to get the first on that platform off the ground. More broadly, we are looking to assess the landscape of cloud training/literacy need in the community. Take the survey. Share the survey. Be the survey. Together we will raise higher ed’s Cloud IQ! Deadline for submission - Friday, September 17
One thing we keep hearing is that one of the major obstacles to increased cloud utilization in higher ed is the lack of staff trained in cloud technology and that increased access to training would help adoption. We are looking for up to 15 people interested in participating in a pilot later this fall of a multi-campus cohort training for the AWS Solutions Architect - Associate certification.
The training will consist of asynchronous learning content (videos and hands-on labs) paired with weekly cohort meetings and occasional extra sessions with technical experts. Participants should expect to commit 5-7 hours per week over the course of the training, which will last approximately three months. The cost to participate will be in the range of $500 per participant, not including the cost of the certification exam (~$150 as of this writing).
People interested in participating can fill out this form and we will be back in touch with you as our plans firm up: https://forms.gle/sgFcj1dY8pLeHk3WA. Please respond by Friday, September 24.
Community, whether personal or professional, serves you best when you get involved. A professional community like the NET+ AWS community can be quite rewarding. The bi-weekly AWS Technology & Tactics calls not only produce great technical discussions among peers and partners, but they have proven to be a great place to meet the wonderful people who work in higher ed cloud. 
Coming out of your annual performance review do your goals include contributing to the community? Getting out of your comfort zone? Taking on more leadership roles? Building the soft skills? The hard skills? You are in luck, I’ve got a couple of ready-made opportunities for you.
The NET+ AWS SAB meets monthly to monitor and guide the health of the program. The members meet regularly with AWS and DLT leadership to champion the priorities of the NET+ AWS community and higher ed cloud in general. We are down a few members and welcome fresh faces and new energy. If you are interested, please contact me at bflynn@internet2.edu.
A tangible example of the SAB’s work are the two working groups they created to address issues raised by subscriber schools. Here are very high-level descriptions of the groups.
Both groups are about to start their work. The Enterprise Working Group is looking for a few more members. Support has enough to get going, but if that is your jam, I’m sure they’ll let you join the band. If you are ready to roll up your sleeves and improve the program, drop me a line at bflynn@internet2.edu.
The images in this newsletter come from a variety of sources. Credit where credit is due.
Do you have ideas or requests for a future newsletter? Email bflynn@internet2.edu