Google Cloud announced a partnership with the United States Veterans Affairs (VA) department in order to assist developers in deploying new applications and tools to enhance veterans’ access to VA data and services.
Veteran Affairs is the biggest healthcare provider in the United States and serves more than 19 million veterans and their family members. It manages around 1000 outpatient sites and 170 medical centers across the country. Apart from healthcare, the VA manages various services ranging from pension benefits, unemployment assistance, housing aid, and education opportunities. The VA’s prime focus is to provide veterans with easy access to all these services.
VA’s $13 million, multi-year contract with Google Cloud will enable it to deploy Apigee Google Cloud's application programming interface (API) management platform. This deployment will be a continuation of VA’s current Lighthouse API program that is in place to provide developers with secure and seamless access to VA APIs for developing new services and tools.
"Google Cloud's Apigee will help the VA to continue scaling the VA Lighthouse API program for third-party developers in a cost-efficient manner, offering veterans more choice in the applications and tools they use to obtain access to their data and services. This partnership is a logical next step to better connect veterans with VA services, innovate with trusted third parties, and continue to offer a high-quality, digital-first customer experience to which they're accustomed to in other areas of their lives."
Dave Mazik, Director, VA Lighthouse
Mike Daniels, VP of Global Public Sector, Google Cloud, said, "we're honored to support the VA and our nation's veterans. By making it easier for developers and partners to build new applications through Apigee, the VA is spurring innovations that will ultimately enable veterans and their families to more easily access important benefits and services."
APIs represent how developers leverage functionality and data at scale and how software securely communicates with other software. Active management is necessary for these products to enable developers and organizations to execute business strategies and achieve innovation.