14 DAY TRIAL // The US government has launched a new website, Apps.gov, dedicated to bringing cloud-based applications and services to official agencies at any level. This is part of a larger initiative to move the government's infrastructure into the cloud while decreasing the costs associated with IT. Google seems to be very excited by the opportunity and, besides already offering its Google Apps suite in the new cloud app marketplace, also plans to create a dedicated cloud computing system for US government customers.
“Today, we're excited to announce our intent to create a government cloud, which we expect to become operational in 2010. Offering the same services and features as our existing commercial cloud (such as Google Apps), this dedicated environment within existing Google facilities in the US will serve the unique needs of US federal, state, and local governments. It is similar to a "Community Cloud" as defined by the National Institute for Science and Technology,” Matthew Glotzbach, product management director for Google Enterprise, wrote on the company's Enterprise blog.
This dedicated cloud will feature the regular Google Apps suite, which includes Gmail, Docs, Talk and a number of other productivity and collaboration products. The applications suite is delivered as an alternative to traditional offerings from Microsoft and IBM, the big players in business software of this kind, and should provide significant cost savings upfront but also because there is no need for additional infrastructure.
Google has been promoting the Apps suite hard though its market share is still very small compared to established players. Still, the company is pushing it in all directions, with a big advertising campaign launched in August, titled Going Google, aimed at businesses but also with several initiatives for educational organizations, and now it's adding government agencies to the list as they could prove a very lucrative market in the not-so-distant future.
The company is also pursuing an FISMA (Federal Information Security Management Act) certification for Google Apps that will guarantee the software passed several rather strict security requirements. Google says the process is nearing completion and once finalized, it should make it easier and smoother for agencies to deploy the solution.