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Los Angeles snubs Microsoft for Google
SELLER OF OFFICE EXTORTION-WARE Microsoft appears to have lost big-time as the City of Angels signed a deal to use Google's cloud-based office applications. Los Angeles, California has announced that it will move its 30,000 employess to Google Apps rather than Microsoft Office.
And it seems that the Vole will end up paying for the deal, since more than $1.5 million of the project cost will be indirectly financed by Microsoft itself.
Google Apps are being deployed by the city government to cut its budget deficit and deal with an IT staff shortage along with widespread dissatisfaction with the current office software. The city has been using Novell Groupwise collaboration software but has found that its mailbox sizes are too small for its needs.
If the city government had the cash it might have bought Voleware, but it also had concerns about having to support an in-house mail system.
Since the city is in an earthquake zone it needs a disaster-recovery system, but it can't really afford that either, so it decided that having its email system and office documents hosted on Google's remote cloud servers would be a good idea.
The city government has some cash that Microsoft paid to it in settlement of a class-action lawsuit that alleged Microsoft overcharged for software. So the city has used that money to buy Google Apps instead. µ
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Hmm, i suspect they didn't go for Open office because it would still require in house support staff, as well as a backup and DR solution.
Will be interesting to see how much money they save.
Would HATE to start work on a monday morning though!
In regards to privacy and security this might have a beneficial side to it too, since the data is offline you leave a trail when accessing it, so it becomes hard to for officials/clerks to let people have an unofficial peek since it would be logged, and that kind of thing happens all the time all over the world, that supposedly private info is accessed by people or departments that have no reason to be accessing it but they let them because they are colleagues or 'friends of the office'.
You claim in this article,
"The city has been using Novell Groupwise collaboration software but has found that its mailbox sizes are too small for its needs"
What nonsense. The City of LA's decision to move from GroupWise to Google was not driven by mailbox size and to claim it was is ludicrous. Such claims only go to illustrate the paucity of knwoledge which you applied to writing this article.
I think they made the right choice, and a choice that may catch on throughout the world. Would you want to be part of the same cloud as Communist China and their millions of data-hackers? Microsoft is "dedicated to doing business in China". Nuff said.
The only thing a Microsoft cloud will rain is viruses.
100% free, 100% functional and doesn't rely on cloud services! People might want to tell that to the governator.
@Buzz
"good case in point is how social networking sites can easily expose your private lives"
You must of not read whereby Microsoft wants to embed facebook into Outlook.
One only has to look at the total cockup recently of Sidekick/Dangers SAN upgrade due to the lack of even the most basic backup of data before upgrading firmware. Trust us with the cloud? Get fing real MS.
The world will choose Google over MSs smoke and mirrors.
did you understood what you just read?
let me put this simply for you, " localized services/storage is more secure than remote/cloud based services/storage". where in my comment did i say microsoft was king of security and privacy? well, obviously you hate microsoft.
now for you simpletons out there, i'm not saying don't put your computer on the internet. but answer me this: having 2 exactly identical computers runnng applications and storing your data on whatever OS, which is more secure? one that is connected to the internet or one that is not? the answer is one that is not connected.
now imagine running applications and storing your data over the internet on a remote computer/server you don't even own. yes, there is encryption, ssl, etc. at the end of the day who has your data? it won't be just you.
Security&Privacy???? Who are you trying to fool? Do you think that M$ cares about Security$Privacy? Maybe you work for Microsoft or you started using computers today....
I am glad I don't live near you.
everyone should know that cloud based services is a security&privacy risk. good case in point is how social networking sites can easily expose your private lives, don't you think internal employees i.e. (facebook/twitter/especially google) won't have the capability to data mine their servers, either sanctioned by the company or not? i'm glad i don't live in california, californians say hello to id theft.
the chrome o/s should be a thorn in the side of microshaft. it shold help keep them honest if nothing else.
could the only threat be viruses from other o/s competitors?