Google Microsoft fights for Government dollars

Microsoft used the Summit annual public sector CIO to highlight the use of its cloud services and grab some digs at Google, which has won some contracts of the high profile public sector itself.

Microsoft Wednesday announced 16 new education and Government clients, including public schools in Portland, Oregon; the city of Alexandria, Virginia; Colorado Department of labor and employment; and the city of Carlsbad, California.

5000 faculty and staff of Portland will begin using the service of Microsoft Live@edu this year and 46,000 students will have access to it, shortly after, Microsoft said. Live@edu is a service email and collaboration for schools.

The district is replacing an aging Novell GroupWise system and expects to save money and improve the relationship between teachers and students, said Nick Jwayad, CIO of Portland Public Schools.

In a press release, Microsoft that sang that Portland public schools and the University of Albany-SUNY-had chosen Microsoft over Google Apps. It is also said that Winston-Salem, North Carolina, is migrating its 600 business users of Google Apps and 2150 Novell GroupWise users to Microsoft Online Business Process Suite.

BPOS is a Microsoft-hosted services offering including Exchange, Sharepoint and Office Live Meeting.

Microsoft also said that it was close to getting FISMA certification for its BPOS services. It has already obtained certification for its data centers and expects to complete the process for applications within a month or so, said Kulcon.

The Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) is a rigorous safety standards that some federal agencies are required to comply. Google Apps is already certified FISMA.

Microsoft complained also some cases where it is said that government agencies that have used Google services unfairly or in a manner that can compromise security.

For example, Microsoft claims that the General Services Administration (GSA), which awarded a contract to Google Apps, last year, changed his contract during the bidding process to allow data to be stored outside of the United States. At Microsoft, which seemed to be a concession that would allow Google to win the contract.

Microsoft is also complain of what's called a lack of full support for the OpenDocument format in Google Docs, which is used at least informally by some agencies of Government. When Google Docs renders documents in ODF, alter them, for example, changing the page numbers, said Curt Kolcun, vice President of the United States public sector at Microsoft. Microsoft was under pressure from around the globe from government agencies who insisted they support open document standards.

Kolcun also cited a situation where the GSA invited comments on its draft FedRamp. Asked by companies or individuals to upload their comments on Google Docs, he said. Microsoft was worried about the rights that Google could have the documents. Microsoft complained to the GSA and was permitted to submit its observations, using the Excel program, said Kolcun.

Google said that it does not own the data that people put in its systems and points to its privacy policy, which focuses on how Google handles users ' personal information, such as their name and email address.

In 2009, Google had to fix a bug that Google Docs inadvertently shared some with people, even if the author hadn't shared them. The sharing was restricted to the persons the user had shared documents with previously.

Kolcun also pointed out delays in deploying Google Apps to Los Angeles, in part because of concerns about the safety of the Police Department.

Google has had his share of success, however. Won a contract to offer hosted e-mail, the GSA that will become the first federal agency to use this service. He also won deals to offer Google Apps to agencies in Washington, D.C. and Orlando, Florida.

Microsoft says there are now more than 3 million government employees using some form of Microsoft Online services. In addition, more than 15 million people use its services Live@edu.

Businesses see very clearly at stake in the field of Government. Late last year, Google has sued the Department of the Interior after it invited tenders for a cloud e-mail system but bidders are required to use Microsoft products.

Nancy Gohring covers phones and cloud computing to the IDG News Service. Follow Nancy on Twitter at @ idgnancy. E-mail address is Nancy_Gohring@idg.com, Nancy