NYS Office of Information Technology Services Announces Enterpris...

The New York State Office of Information Technology Services (ITS) today announced an enterprise cloud services agreement with Amazon Web Services (AWS), which alleviates procurement hurdles for state agencies, speeds up statewide innovation efforts, provides a wide range of first-class technology and training tools to the New York State workforce, and achieves significant cost savings for the State.

The agreement makes AWS artificial intelligence and cloud services available to state employees at participating agencies over the next three years at a significantly lower cost than agencies could procure on their own. This partnership aligns with New York State Chief Information Officer Dru Rai’s vision of ITS as the singular service provider for all NYS agencies, while at the same time enhancing the scope and diversity of its overall tech offerings to better serve the public.

This new partnership with AWS is also part of the State’s proactive strategy with respect to Enterprise agreements, which has resulted in $58 million in cost savings for the State and its taxpayers. 

New York State Chief Information Officer and Director of ITS Dru Rai said: “At ITS, we are committed to providing high-quality technology solutions in the most simple, streamlined, and affordable way possible. I thank AWS for being a trusted partner in our ongoing efforts to upskill the state workforce and assist agencies in delivering for New York, while ensuring our residents get the services they need and deserve in a timely manner. Today, we are choosing innovation AND affordability, and taking an important step forward in the State’s technology journey.”

Kim Majerus, Vice President of State and Local Government and Global Education at AWS, said: “We're proud to support ITS's commitment to innovation with AWS's world-class cloud infrastructure. This collaboration empowers the state workforce with the tools, training, and AI-driven capabilities needed to deliver faster, smarter, and more secure services. This is a defining moment in modernizing mission-critical services for millions of New Yorkers.”

ITS is in the final stages of a transition to a Dedicated Agency service model that pairs subject matter experts at the agencies with high-level tech support at ITS. As a result of this change, the health of the State’s priority technology projects is now at an all-time high, and agencies have seen an extraordinary year-to-year reduction in unresolved incidents and requests, allowing them to get even more work done. Meanwhile, agencies are praising the IT agency’s ability to speed up service delivery across State government and to New Yorkers.

This agreement and others like it preserves the on-premises data center now being operated at the Zero Energy Technology (ZEN) building at the Albany Nanotech Complex in Albany, while helping ITS create a hybrid and more diverse environment that better protects the State, and positions ITS to drive new statewide solutions which achieve fundamental and positive change.

Going forward, the State will continue to realize cost savings via the consolidation of individual agency contracts with AWS, and through additional enterprise agreements. This setup will also help expedite the onboarding of agencies and their hardworking employees, so they can work, learn, grow and serve the State with new tools and enhanced capabilities.

The NYS Office of Information Technology Services (ITS) was established in 2012 and is the largest consolidated IT organization in America. At ITS, we deliver modern technology solutions that connect NYS agencies, entities, commissions, and local governments with millions of New Yorkers. 

Our skilled cyber professionals protect the state’s systems and data from intrusion and attack, provide cyber incident response assistance, distribute real-time advisories and alerts, provide managed security services, and deliver comprehensive cybersecurity awareness training for state and local employees.  Through the establishment and expansion of the highly successful Joint Security Operations Center, we are now safeguarding 160,000 endpoints, 4600 applications, billions of sensitive records, and have quickly made New York a national leader on cybersecurity.  

We have enhanced the customer experience by creating simple, seamless and improved digital services which are easily accessed by our citizens.  At ITS, we are guiding the State’s next phase of Artificial Intelligence and helping agencies strengthen their operations, increase productivity and get more done for New York. 

We proudly stand by the quality of our products and services and collaborate with suppliers to boost our offerings even more.  We leverage data to drive informed decision making that helps government work better for hardworking people and save taxpayer money.

Our talented ITS employees are leaders, innovators and drivers of positive change who have won countless state and national awards.  We believe technology is transformational, and we will never stop striving to do better, be better and improve the way we operate.

Want to know more about how ITS, a NYS Agency on the rise, makes IT Happen? Visit our website at its.ny.gov.