Sunday, December 12, 2010

GSA First Federal Agency to Move to Cloud Email

The United States General Services Administration, the agency charged with running the United States Government, has announced that it will switch over to cloud-based email and collaboration tools in order to reduce inefficiencies and reduce costs. It is anticipated that the savings of switching to cloud based systems will be 50% over the next five years.

“Cloud computing has a demonstrated track record of cost savings and efficiencies,” said Casey Coleman, GSA Chief Information Officer. “With this award, GSA employees will have a modern, robust email and collaboration platform that better supports our mission and our mobile work force, and costs half as much.”

The contract provides for an easily accessible suite of services, including email and collaboration tools, to facilitate a more mobile work force. While agencies have moved sub-entities’ emails to the cloud, GSA is the first to utilize a cloud-based system for email agencywide. The migration will result in a 50 percent savings over the next five years when compared to current staff, infrastructure, and contract support costs.

“GSA’s cloud email award is in step with the Administration’s ‘cloud first’ strategy and demonstrates that agile, secure, reliable, and cost effective cloud options exist to rapidly improve agency operations and services,” said Dave McClure, GSA Associate Administrator of the Office of Citizen Services and Innovative Technologies.

GSA awarded the $6.7 million, five-year task order to Unisys Corp. under the Alliant Governmentwide Acquisition Contract. Unisys has partnered with Google, Tempus Nova, and Acumen Solutions.

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