Microsoft and Google Spat over Government Contract Goes Public and Ugly

For the past few days, Microsoft and Google have been engaged in a war of words, to complement the one in the court. It stems from Google's displeasure at the allegedly 'fixed' bid for a cloud platform to power US government services.

Microsoft won that contract and Google later sued saying that its products were not given a real chance and that the winner was determined even before the bid was created.

This provides the context for a recent Microsoft attack on Google Apps, seemingly backed by government findings. Of course, with both Microsoft and the US government interested in Google not having a case, the neutrality of the claims can't really be argued.

In short, Microsoft claimed that Google Apps did not have a Federal Information Security Management Act certification, which verifies that the product meets security and other standard requirements for government applications.

Microsoft says that this is based on court documents which indicated that the US Department of Justice had actually denied Google's FISMA certification application.

This would be a big blow to Google which says that it has had this certification since summer last year.

After the allegations surfaced, Google was quick to respond and say that they were false, that Google Apps does have a FISMA certification and that this was all a big smoke screen.

"Microsoft claims we filed a separate FISMA application for Google Apps for Government, then leaps to the conclusion that Google Apps for Government is not FISMA certified. These allegations are false," Eran Feigenbaum, Director of Security at Google Enterprise, wrote.

The issue stems from the fact that the FISMA certification was awarded to Google Apps Premier Edition. After that though, the Google Apps for Government was launched, which is what Google is trying to sell to government agencies.

Google Apps for Government is based on Premier but adds several restrictions and operates on its own dedicated data center. Because of these changes, the General Services Administration (GSA) is doing a re-certification, but, in the meantime, Apps is still covered.

"In consulting with GSA last year, it was determined that the name change and enhancements could be incorporated into our existing FISMA certification. In other words, Google Apps for Government would not require a separate application," Google added.

So Google says that the certification applies to its Apps for Government. In fact, Google takes a stab at Microsoft at the end of the post saying that Microsoft's products are the one lacking a FISMA certification.

While this may be the first time the two companies have sparred in public over the issue, you can be sure that, as the market for cloud apps get stronger, eating away at Microsoft's traditional software business, the stronger competition is going to lead to more episodes like this.