This week, in a ceremony at Palladium’s Nairobi offices, Palladium and Amazon Web Services (AWS) signed a strategic Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to accelerate cloud-driven digital transformation across public sectors, including health, through hybrid cloud architecture and other AWS technologies.

Around the world, AWS presents countries with an upgrade path to modernise their digital infrastructure, which underpins much of the work Palladium is already doing across multiple sectors, from health to agriculture.

“The signing ceremony recognised Palladium’s pioneering role in deploying AWS Outposts in the region and we formalised a strategic partnership focused on data management, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and cloud security,” explains Teddy Berihun, Palladium VP Digital Technology. “AWS confirmed several structured commitments under the MOU, including cloud adoption support, innovation workshops, technical expertise, and partner network optimisation.”

He adds that the collaboration is expected to help Palladium scale digital solutions across countries, reduce fragmentation in government systems, and build secure, enterprise-grade architectures that improve service delivery and align with global standards. “Our team already leverages AWS extensively to promote scalability in our current work,” Berihun explains. “For instance, in Nigeria, the team recently completed a migration to AWS from local servers for the country’s electronic medical record solution, LAMIS 3.0, under the Data for Implementation project.”

This shift, he says, will open doors for improved, reliable, and secure service delivery.

In addition, the ceremony highlighted a shared commitment to strengthening national systems across five priority sectors: health, education, food security, climate, and core government services. These areas anchor the partnership’s goals to help governments adopt modern, scalable digital infrastructure that improves efficiency and service delivery.

“We were really excited by AWS’ commitments to support our cloud objectives,” Berihun adds. “These include direct guidance on cloud adoption to improve the ability to migrate from legacy systems to more modern platforms.” In addition, AWS will deliver Working Backwards workshops to support structured, innovation-focused, and client forward product design. Palladium teams will gain access to AWS solution architects and technical specialists for architecture reviews, optimisation work, and advanced troubleshooting.

The ceremony also reaffirmed Palladium’s role as a leading digital implementer. Berihun explains that Palladium was the first organisation in Kenya to implement an AWS Outpost, which extend AWS infrastructure and services so that governments can run AWS services locally, an achievement that demonstrated early cloud innovation capacity and readiness to adopt hybrid architectures.

This has real world uses, Berihun explains. “For the AWS Outpost, imagine a Ministry of Health running sensitive patient data on local services for compliance, while at the same time leveraging AWS cloud for analytics and machine learning.”

Beyond the Cloud

Around the world, Palladium’s digital work extends far beyond cloud infrastructure. “Many of the systems we manage support frontline service delivery for millions of beneficiaries across low- and middle-income countries in diverse sectors,” he adds. In health, for instance, these systems form critical digital foundations that governments rely on daily for continuity of care, reporting, and service coordination.

Notably, Palladium has also supported many governments to roll out large scale electronic medical record (EMR) solutions in multiple countries. In recent years, the team supported governments to implement EMR systems in close to 4,000 health facilities in countries such as Kenya, Nigeria and the Kingdom of Eswatini. Alongside these deployments, Palladium has developed and delivered national data warehousing and analytics solutions.

These capabilities provide governments with consolidated data, greater visibility, and stronger decision-making capacity where and when it matters most.

The collaboration with AWS builds on this foundation and deepen Palladium’s technical capability. By working closely with AWS specialists, Palladium improves its ability to design and manage modern cloud systems. This collaboration also makes it easier for governments to move away from disconnected, outdated systems and adopt secure, standardised solutions that work well together. Over time, this creates more reliable and connected digital platforms, making public services more consistent and effective.

Looking ahead, the partnership will reinforce national platforms, improve operational consistency, and align systems with modern architectural best practices.

The MOU reflects a shared understanding that cloud transformation requires the right mix of capability, design discipline, and long-term partnership. By combining Palladium’s experience in digital health and data systems with AWS’s cloud and AI leadership, the agreement sets a clear direction for a more unified, scalable, and future-ready approach to digital transformation across the priority sectors identified in the partnership.