The city of Boston, Massachusetts, has dropped Microsoft’s Exchange platform for Google Apps. More than 20,000 city employees including the Mayor will be shifted over to Google Apps.
“Boston has dropped its longstanding e-mail system, Microsoft Exchange, for Google Apps, the search giant’s suite of software for businesses and government, following the lead of a growing number of big cities, federal agencies, and large companies that have made the switch,” the Boston Globe stated. It seems that the main reason organizations are jumping ship is due to cost.
The city of Boston will now pay $800,000 to make the switch to Google Apps, which includes Google Docs for word processing and Google’s cloud service for storing documents online. Overall, the city is expected to save up to $280,000 a year from the switch. Boston is not alone, as the US Department of the Interior, the state of Colorado, Princeton University, and the New York Times have also planned or are already in the process of making the switch to Google Apps.
Microsoft, on the other hand, isn’t too happy about the switch and feels that the city of Boston is compromising their security and privacy as a result. “We believe the citizens of Boston deserve cloud productivity tools that protect their security and privacy. Google’s investments in these areas are inadequate, and they lack the proper protections most organizations require,” Microsoft stated.
The entire transition is expect to take a year.
