14 DAY TRIAL // Google is making some progress in promoting its Apps suite and has recently scored a major win, at least in mind share, by convincing the city of Los Angeles to “go Google.” Now the company is announcing that the switch to Google Apps has already begun and, by the time its done, 34,000 city employees will be using the suite.
“Starting today, Los Angeles will be equipping 34,000 city employees with Google Apps for email and collaboration in the cloud,” Matt Glotzbach, Product Management director, Google Enterprise wrote.
“The story of Los Angeles moving to Google Apps started early this year, when the city's Chief Technology Officer, Randi Levin, and her team at the Information Technology Agency (ITA) looked to replace their aging, on-premise system with more secure, productivity-focused technology. After calling for proposals and carefully evaluating over 14 different ones, Randi and the ITA decided to revamp the city government's email technology by adopting Google Apps.”
Google says the move will improve the email system's reliability and security by switching from the current 'server in the basement' approach to Google's vast data centers. Of course, part of the Apps suite, employees will now have access to more than just email enabling collaboration and sharing with tools like Docs, Calendar, Sites and others.
Another, significant, advantage is the cost savings that come with the move likely one of the deciding factors especially since the economic crisis is still very much in full swing, even though there are signs that things are picking up. Los Angeles ended up paying $7.2 million for the three years agreed upon in the deal and has the option to extend the contract by another two.
There are those who aren't yet sold on the cloud solution and say, not without merit, that it raises a few issues over the privacy and the security of the approach, especially when dealing with government data. Still, the US administration seems to be sold on Google and the White House will also implement a cloud-based solution based on the company's technologies and products.