City of Los Angeles Goes Google in $7.25 Million Deal

The City of Los Angeles gave a major endorsement to cloud computing with a decision to use Google Apps, including Gmail, as part of a five-year $7.25 million deal. In August, Google launched a campaign to drive awareness for Google Apps by extolling the virtues of their cloud-based messaging and collaboration software over traditional on-premise software. Apparently, the Los Angeles city council heard the message loud and clear and approved the deal with a unanimous 12-0 vote.

The deal marks a high-water mark for Google and cloud computing, as Los Angeles will migrate all of its 30,000 workers from Novell GroupWare to Google Apps. Applications such as email, calendering, document sharing and chat, among others, will now be handled through Google's cloud-based software. It represents one of its largest planned deployments of Google Apps and will be implemented and managed by Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC), a systems integrator with a successful track record implementing large-scale technology deployments in both the public and private sector. Part of the deal includes a provision where any security breach will be offset by compensation paid by CSC to the city.

In addition, Google recognizes the heightened concerns around privacy and security related to such a public use of its cloud-based services. As a result, it plans to deliver Google Apps as part of "a new separate data environment called 'GovCloud'. GovCloud will store both applications and data in a completely segregated environment that will only be used by Public Agencies (Federal, State, and Local)." GovCloud is Google's answer to concerns around security and privacy. Essentially, it will separate the public and private domains of Google Apps and increase the levels of security clearance, encryption, and access to data stored on Google's servers. The added provision that CSC will compensate the city for any security breach is meant to underpin the two companies belief that they can deliver a secure environment for Los Angeles.

At the end of the day, it's a major win for Google and cloud computing in general.