L.A. Adopts Google Email for Staff of 30,000

[JMcEntegart]

Los Angeles is replacing GroupWise with Google Apps.

L.A. Adopts Google Email for Staff of 30,000 : Read more

 

[sstym]

Microsoft is based in Washington and Google is a California company. It's no surprise the biggest city in California would favor a (semi-)local provider. And that could be a tie-breaker even if the solutions were comparable in every other way (which they probably aren't).

 

[jerreece]

I wonder if L.A. employees will now have their Google/Gmail accounts "hacked" and have their emails posted online... (eg, Sarah Palin & Yahoo).

 

[deadlockedworld]

If I were LA I would pick google too after the recent Sidekick fiasco.

 

[deadlockedworld]

[citation][nom]jerreece[/nom]I wonder if L.A. employees will now have their Google/Gmail accounts "hacked" and have their emails posted online... (eg, Sarah Palin & Yahoo).[/citation]

Sarah Palin didn't get "hacked". She was a moron that had her email security question set as her town of birth. All they did was reset her password and the media called it "hacking."

 

[mlopinto2k1]

No, my company does not use Google Apps. Just letting you know.

 

[tektek]

Ohhhhh so finally Ca is not outsourcing ... seems everything else is either from outside the state or country!

 

[pita]

My university in Ohio has migrated to Gmail service starting from the current semester. My undergrad university in Canada has also switched Alumni mail to Gmail.

 

[dman3k]

Good luck managing employee passwords, LA!

 

[bydesign]

They may regret this nothing important is ready for cloud computing. Any in-house solution is a better choice, well maybe not groupwise...

 

[Drag0nR1der]

According to the full article "Under the deal, Google will provide e-mail, calendar, online chatting and other services to 30,000 city employees."

It mentions nothing about office apps, so I presume they will still be running the almost ubiquitous MS office.

Also their previous calender/email client was groupwise (a horrible evil nasty piece of software that anyone should want to replace) and only turned down a 'bid' from MS to use theirs (presumably outlook, which is wierd if they are already using office... maybe they aren't, but it would be highly unusual).

The most interesting thing about this article is the issues they raise surrounding security on a cloud based system, that these concerns were raised (and by all accounts quite loudly) but that it went through anyway shows that either 1) the people making the deal didn't understand the issues, or 2) google were able to satisfy them that these issues were able to be dealt with... if this second alternative is the case, then I'd like to hear more on how they achieved it.

 

[Drag0nR1der]

[citation][nom]bydesign[/nom]They may regret this nothing important is ready for cloud computing. Any in-house solution is a better choice, well maybe not groupwise...[/citation]

I disagree, I think email and internet applications are... in some ways by their very nature they always were, it just took the comms hardware time to really allow it to take off.

 

[omnimodis78]

Sucks to be Microsoft and for sure this is a bad rep for Novell Inc. but it serves them right! Wake up and offer good, modern, and reliable communication solutions to your users (clients). Congrats Google, don't get too comfy because the next guy will beat you out the second you start to think you rule the World... Just keep the Microsoft legacy in the back of your minds dear Google execs!

 

[fuser]

The contract makes Computer Sciences Corp. liable if there is a security breach.

 

[cookoy]

I like my free Gmail account. No junk mails. Same with Lycos. I still get lots of junk mails with Hotmail and Yahoo. But not as bad as years back. Not complaining. Happy as a clown.

 

[liquid0h]

I wish the DOD would get Google Apps.

 

[buwish]

Google is picking up customers in this regard left and right. A fair amount of decent sized companies and many municipalities are making the switch to them. Obviously, Google is doing something right.

 

[cruiseoveride]

This is just another nail in Microsoft's coffin.

Bill bailed before the going got tough.

 

[sleepflower]

[citation][nom]cruiseoveride[/nom]This is just another nail in Microsoft's coffin. Bill bailed before the going got tough.[/citation]

I fail to see how this could possibly be the end for MS, as they moved from a Novell system to a google one. MS possibly lost out providing outlook and server software plus support. Now considering using gmail, all is outsourced, less IT overheads, there is still quite the likelihood that outlook is still used for organising mail and passwords/accounts. This could possibly be up to the individual.

At my place of work we use an engmail system for webmail and outlook to access on your own workstation. engmail is terrible faux hotmail on intranet and hotmail itself cannot be used by corporations in it's current form and has no IMAP ability. A good webmail is great for hotdesking and outlook is terrible for it. MS has never been great in this area, it's services just aren't together enough now. Whoever lost out it was really in the engmail (possibly an MS product) and mail server arena. Now if they were moving 30,000 employees to linux, that would be a nail gun sounding off in the distance...

 

[Guest]

This is great news for cloud computing in general, not just for Google. This really validates what cloud providers have been saying for a while now: moving to the cloud can save huge amounts of money. Congrats Google!

http://www.rackspace.com/email_hosting/blog/2009/10/congratulations-google-your-win-in-los-angeles-is-a-win-for-us-all/

 

[ptroen]

It's a Derecession(half depression/half recession currently). Organizations need to INCREASE THE BOTTOM Line. This quote says it all "proponents repeated a City Administrative Officer estimate that the new contract would save the city some $5 million in service costs over five years, in addition to allowing the city's technology department to shed nine positions".

 

[okibrian]

for e-mail and other Internet services.

What "other internet services" are they talking about. Could it be this: http://www.google.com/tisp/
It would be fitting.

 

[whiplash75]

[citation][nom]okibrian[/nom]What "other internet services" are they talking about. Could it be this: http://www.google.com/tisp/It would be fitting. [/citation]

I personally like the Plumbing Hardware Dispatchers (PHDs)!!!!!

 

[wildwell]

I'm surprised the article didn't mention if the Los Angeles City Council brought up any cloud computing concerns with the whole Microsoft mess so being sorted out.

 

[user757575]

[citation][nom]sstym[/nom]Microsoft is based in Washington and Google is a California company. It's no surprise the biggest city in California would favor a (semi-)local provider. And that could be a tie-breaker even if the solutions were comparable in every other way (which they probably aren't).[/citation]

Google was chosen because they are a Jewish company, not because they are located in California.