14 DAY TRIAL // Google scored a major victory for Google Apps by getting the city of Los Angeles to switch to using the company's email and other services. This is now the biggest city in the US to move to the Google service and the biggest win isn't the financial reward but the image boost that comes from having one of the largest and best-known cities in the US use your services. The deal is valued at $7.25 million and the transition will take until June to complete.
"The City of Los Angeles, the second largest city in the nation, made a world-class decision today to support a state-of-the art e-mail system," Councilman Tony Cardenas said, according to the LA Times. He was the initiator of the approval process. The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously, 12 – 0, in favor of the Google products but the debate wasn't exactly smooth. Many expressed concerns about the unproven aspects of the service which is just a few years old and based on what is still relatively new technology especially from an enterprise and government perspective.
Some of the biggest concerns were whether Google Apps would actually save the city any money. There were also worries that, since Los Angeles would be one of the first major cities to make the switch, the service wouldn't be mature enough. However, one of the biggest ones was about security as the move would also affect the city's law enforcement accounts. Obviously these would require heightened security measures. In fact, the deal came through but with the provision that the city would be compensated in the case of data loss or theft.
With the deal approved, all of the city's 30.000 employees will move to the cloud service in a gradual rollout that is set to take several months. The law enforcement accounts will be moved when the service is proved to be secure enough. The deal marks another big victory for Google, which has been pushing hard to expand its Google Apps service with businesses, schools and government bodies. The US Government also announced a major deal to move to Google services a little over a month ago.