Fed's General Services Administration transitions to the cloud with Google Apps

The U.S. General Services Administration has taken to the cloud. The 17,000 employees of the agency now communicate using Google Apps for Government, a cloud-based email and collaboration platform that has allowed the GSA to eliminate its expensive data centers and given users access to the network from any location.

The GSA is the first federal agency to complete the transition to the cloud-based app; the $6.7 million project was facilitated with the help of IT specialist Unisys Corp. (NYSE: UIS), which won the contract for deployment in 2010. More than a dozen other agencies are also scheduled to convert to the Gmail-based platform from IBM's Lotus Notes software.

GSA expects its new solution to increase employee productivity, enabling employees to work remotely from any location at any time, while resulting in a 50 percent cost savings.

GSA Administrator Martha Johnson said she expects reduced email operation costs, including staff and hardware, will save more than $15.2 million for the agency over the next five years.

In addition to email, GSA employees also will be able to conduct video chats and collaborate on documents with onsite and remote colleagues.

During the six-month transition, GSA and contractor email addresses, content and calendar data were migrated to Google Apps for Government. Enhanced user authentication and other security improvements were also added during the transition phase. Additionally, all mobile devices were transitioned to the new system.

The project is part of the government's effort to save $3 billion by closing about 40 percent of its data centers over the next five years. The federal market for cloud services is estimated to be worth more than $20 billion.

For more:
- see this release
- see this NextGov article

Related article:
State of Wyoming opts for Google apps for entire government