Google, Microsoft Compete for GSA "Cloud Mail" Business

There is no question is my mind that nearly all corporate and individual email accounts will soon be managed in the cloud, a model that is referred to as cloud mail. This will be a major change for many  corporate email users whose support now comes mainly from Exchange servers managed locally by their employers. Google is competing with Microsoft for this cloud mail business and the latest account up for grabs is that of the federal government's GSA (see: Microsoft, Google Vie to Sell U.S. Cloud Mail). Below is an excerpt from the article:

A new front has opened in the battle between Google and Microsoft: selling Web-based email and other software to the federal government. The two technology giants already compete to win contracts from private businesses as well as state and local governments. Such customers hope to cut costs by switching to Web-based software from programs installed on their own computers. Now Google and Microsoft are vying to take over the job of providing email to the General Services Administration, the U.S. agency that oversees government procurement and manages federal property. Besides the contract's size —some 15,000 employee email accounts—the bidding is being closely watched because the GSA often helps shape how other agencies acquire new technology....In what vendors consider a key step, the GSA on Thursday certified that Google's email and word-processing service, known as Google Apps, meets security requirements to qualify for use by the agency, a GSA spokeswoman said. Microsoft says it is close to obtaining the same certification for a Web-based version of Exchange, a widely used program for managing email that most organizations run on their own server systems. Concerns about security are a hurdle facing purveyors of Web-based software—part of a field called cloud computing—because they often store confidential data on behalf of customers....Google...has [signed other contracts with federal agencies]. The Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Labs earlier this year shifted its 5,000 email accounts to Google Apps, according to a government report in May. And more than 10 other agencies have started pilot programs to test Google Apps, a company spokesman says. Cloud-based offerings let users tap into email and other services from any machine with a Web browser, avoiding the need to buy and maintain special programs on individual PCs as well as on server systems.

This is an important piece of news. The cost savings achieved by the adoption of Google Apps, with a yearly cost of only $50 per seat including Gmail, can be huge. Compare this with the cost of purchasing and maintaining local Exchange servers plus that of licensing the server and PC software for thousands of employees. The recent security certification of Google Apps by the GSA is a major milestone. I must confess that I am astonished that Microsoft does not already have similar certification and is only now "close" to obtaining it. Someone was sleeping at the switch. Perhaps the reason lies in the fact that the company has embraced the cloud relatively late, postponing the cannibalization of their PC software market and profits.

For me, the most important aspect of this news is that federal government is now endorsing the concept of cloud computing in a major way. I have posted a number of previous notes about this approach to computing with emphasis on medical applications. We are now looking at an environment where many thousands of federal and state employees will be using cloud apps all day every day. This will surely result in rapid growth in confidence in the technology and an extension of it into other business sectors such as healthcare. The tremendous savings that can be realized due to the centralization and economies of scale of the cloud can no longer be ignored.

Comments

[kamagra]

The rush is on for cloud email, as it should be. Microsoft, Google Vie to Sell Cloud Mail - A new front has opened in the battle between Google and Microsot.

[Ho]

Cloud computing is gaining momentum here in Asia, wonder how long it will last