An opportunity for local governments…

Amazon Web Services is luring potential government customers again this year with its AWS City on a Cloud Innovation Challenge.

The contest awards $250,000 in cloud service credits to eight government and company customers that exemplify excellence in the categories of “Best Practices,” “Partners in Innovation,” and “Dream Big” — a category extolling the virtues of ambitious innovation. While a play to enhance innovation and modern methods in the public sector, the contest also doubles as a strategic move by the Seattle juggernaut to create enticing use cases it can transform into selling points to draw new public-sector customers.