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By Mel Duvall

In what is sure to be seen as a vote of confidence in cloud computing, the Los Angeles City Council has voted to move the city's entire 30,000 email users over to Google.

The council voted unanimously Tuesday to approve a $7.25 million contract to outsource the city's email system to Google, which beat out arch rival Microsoft for the contract. Google will replace the current system which was provided by Novell and its GroupWise software under a 7-year contract.

Key to the plan is Google's "Government Cloud", an Internet-based system that is being developed to serve Federal, State and local governments.

While the decision will certainly provide a boost to cloud computing, it does come with a catch. A provision has been inserted requiring "liquidated damages" or a payment to the council in the event that Google suffers a security breach.

The provision was added after a consumer taxpayer group, Consumer Watchdog, argued against awarding the bid to Google, saying cloud computing email systems and other applications remain largely untested. It still has reservations about the system, but Consumer Watchdog representative John Simpson, says the penalty provision does provide taxpayers with some protection.

"Los Angeles residents cannot be sure the city's confidential or sensitive data will be secure," Simpson said in a statement following council's approval of the contract. "But at least they know there will be a penalty if security is compromised."

Simpson went on to say that the project should be closely watched to ensure that Google keeps its promises.

With the win, Los Angeles will become the largest city to adopt the Google system and will become an important test bed for the technology. In addition to email, Google will also provide the city's employees with calendar, online chatting and other services.

Computer Sciences Corp. will manage the switchover to Google, which will begin with a pilot period during which a limited number of employees will test the system. If the pilot proves successful, the city plans to complete the move to Google by June of 2010.

The city eventually plans to migrate law enforcement agencies over to the system, but that will be delayed until the agencies are satisfied with the security of the system.

Comments (3)

	1. 10-28-2009 12:46
	The controversy over LA's plans has been interesting to follow. If the model proves successful for the city, others will certainly be lining up to do the same.    But it's not exactly a sure thing. There's a great quote in the Los Angeles Times from LA Councilman Paul Koretz: "It's unclear if this is cutting edge, or the edge of a cliff and we're about to step off." Registered

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	2. 10-29-2009 22:54
	One more interesting tidbit from the LA decision. It has been reported that the City plans to fund the Google initiative in part with funds it received from an antitrust settlement with Microsoft in 2006. You can bet Google will take a certain amount of satisfaction from that. Registered

Mel Duvall

	3. 10-29-2009 23:58
	If LA county were not to move to the cloud and they have a security breach, who will pay liquidated damages?  Perhaps the cloud is a better idea after all and such liquidated damages are akin to insurance like FDIC for our money in the bank.  Most importantly this will promote indigenous innovation and take our organizations' spend on off-shored resources. Registered

Debashish Sarkar

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