November 12th, 2009
Other governments are "Going Google," too - not just L.A.
For Google, Los Angeles was the big catch - the second largest city in the nation chose to Go Google and transition some 30,000 employees to Google’s cloud-based e-mail system.
But L.A. isn’t the only local government agency going Google. Earlier today, the company hosted a live Webcast on ZDNet’s Sister site, TechRepublic, that featured the CIO of the New Mexico Attorney General’s Office talking about his decision to move 120 attorneys and 200 full-time employees to Google Apps.
In a blog post earlier this week, Google also noted that the city of Canton, Georgia has moved its 165 employees to Google Apps and that the school district in Palm Beach County, Florida is moving its 200,000 students, staff and other users, as well. Finally, the city of Orlando, Florida is also on board. From the Google blog post:
Conrad Cross, the CIO for the City of Orlando… is leading the migration of all 3,000 city employees from Lotus Notes/Domino to Google Apps, including the Police and Fire departments. Facing software license renewals, major upgrade costs, and a 12% reduction in staff, it was the right time for the City to consider other options. For half the cost of the alternative, Orlando is jumping onto Google’s innovation curve and freeing up IT resources to focus on more important efforts. “The time was right,” said Cross. “I’m delivering a better service with less resources, and that gets me ahead of the game.”
It appears that these decisions were already in the works by the time the Los Angeles City Council approved a $7.25 million contract with Google. But for many large cities, Los Angeles is the one they’re watching. There’s a lot on the line for L.A., Google and the cloud, in general, as others are waiting to see if the Google move turns out to be a nightmare or a seamless transition that ends up offerings some real cost savings to the city.
Sam Diaz is a senior editor at ZDNet. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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