POLB Partnering with Amazon on Power Supply Chain Information Highway

(Left) Image via Port of Long Beach. (Right) Image via Amazon Web Services.

The Port of Long Beach has announced that Amazon Web Services Inc., an Amazon.com company, will be used to power the port’s Supply Chain Information Highway, a new digital infrastructure project to aggregate data across industries and sectors to track cargo in real time from origin to destination.

The port’s Supply Chain Information Highway aspires to maximize visibility and efficiency of cargo movement at the port and throughout the supply chain. The new system will allow supply-chain stakeholders to obtain insights to help with planning, scheduling and improving their systems. Registered users will access the data for free. The project is in the process of being finalized.

Port and AWS leaders announced the collaboration May 24 at the AWS Summit in Washington, D.C., an event that convenes public-sector leaders to learn how cloud computing can drive innovation for government, education, space, nonprofit and healthcare organizations.

“The Supply Chain Information Highway is transformative, with a goal of enabling users to make scheduling, planning and payment decisions prior to cargo arrival, reducing delays during each handoff on the way to customers,” said port Executive Director Mario Cordero. “We’re very excited to collaborate with AWS, one of the most innovative companies in the world, to supercharge this endeavor.”

“The difference between our data solution and others that are used to track cargo is that we talked to industry stakeholders before we started to develop it. Our business partners told us they wanted access to a platform that securely collected, curated and published cargo information,” said Long Beach Harbor Commission President Steven Neal. “We’re pleased now to be working with technology leader AWS to bring us that much closer to making this a reality.”

The port conducted extensive outreach to ensure that the data project can inform stakeholders at every level of the supply chain, while being accessible to Fortune 500 beneficial cargo owners and small businesses alike.

“Global supply-chain issues have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, even as conditions improve from unprecedented challenges we’ve faced over the last couple of years,” said Kim Majerus, the AWS vice president for U.S. Education, State and Local Government. “However, the Port of Long Beach has been a leader in listening to its customers, evaluating where investments should be made to improve operations, and leveraging best-in-class technology to develop resources and tools for supply-chain leaders to deliver their cargo faster and more efficiently. AWS applauds the port for developing this Supply Chain Information Highway.”

St. Louis-based technology firm UNCOMN is working with the port to develop the project software. UNCOMN is partnered with AWS, which will provide the cloud-computing infrastructure and services for the program to function, storing the information in Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), which offers scalability, data availability and security.