Going with Google
Going with Google
Wyoming has become the first state to use Google Apps for Government for all executive branch employees
By Trevor Brown
tbrown@wyomingnews.com
CHEYENNE -- Wyoming plans to save $1 million a year by becoming the first state in the nation to fully partner with Google and its cloud-based email and information-sharing software.
The state's executive branch and its 10,000 employees officially completed the conversion to Google Apps for Government on Wednesday. The move is expected to bring better efficiency, security and storage space for the state's computing operations.
Gov. Matt Mead said this will free up staff time and improve how employees across different agencies and departments work together.
"It will provide us the opportunity to do our job better because we now have a better tool," he said. "For Wyoming, it's a big deal, and for Google, it's a big deal as well."
The Web-based tools include Google's email client, plus Google Calendar and the Google Docs program that allows multiple users to collaborate in real-time on documents, spreadsheets and presentations.
The software utilizes Google's cloud technology, which means information can be stored on the Internet and shared remotely. It also offers security protections and a recovery program if information is lost or damaged in a disaster.
Flint Waters, the state's chief information officer, said the state was allocated $5 million for the email platform conversion. He said he expects Wyoming to come under the budgeted amount, and he said the state will save money in the long term.
"When you replace the need for 13 to 14 people running specific mail services all the time, that alone gets us into the $1 million area," he said. "Then you move into server costs, licensing costs and just in comparing mail alone, the savings are dramatic."
He added there also are unquantifiable savings, such as the efficiencies created by the technology that allows employees to simultaneously collaborate on projects.
"So in man-hours saved, I'm sure that $1 million is very, very conservative," he said.
Although Wyoming is the first state to partner with Google on the software for its entire executive branch, it is not the first government entity in the country to make the switch.
Google launched its Google Apps for Government software in 2010 as a competitor to Microsoft's Outlook and Exchange programs that are widely used by many businesses and government agencies.
Among the early adopters of the Google software are several agencies in the federal government, such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and many municipalities, including Los Angeles, Calif., and Orlando, Fla.
Dave Girouard, president of Google's enterprise division, said the software can help governments by streamlining their information technology work.
Girouard said the cloud-based programs eliminate the need for someone to constantly monitor and update the software. This is because it updates itself automatically, he said.
"Cloud computing really does represent a better path going forward," he said. "It is a more efficient use of taxpayer dollars, which everyone cares about, it's safer technology, and better than all of that, it is technology that doesn't get old."
Wyoming's legislative branch is not included in the platform change.
An interim committee voted in May for the Legislature to select Microsoft Exchange as the legislative branch's new email platform. The legislators made the decision after Legislative Service Office staff said the Microsoft email service would fit better with the Legislature's Microsoft SharePoint Legislative Management System.
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