Agencies Migrating To E-mail In The Cloud
In this week's All Tech Considered (embedded above), we discuss cloud computing -- specifically, the way companies, government agencies and even the city of Los Angeles are migrating e-mail services to Web-based services like those offered by Google and Microsoft.
A few news pieces and information related to the segment:
- L.A.'s efforts to move its systems to Google Apps has not been perfectly smooth. Google has missed deadlines and is offering to pay extra expenses related to providing enough security to satisfy to the Los Angeles Police Department.
- Google and Microsoft are both pushing hard to offer Web-based services like e-mail, search and "Office"-like products in the cloud, a space companies like IBM have traditionally provided.
- Concern over how secure Google Apps will be, especially when the services are used to house government data.
- Worldwide wireless e-mail users to reach 1 billion by 2014, says Gartner Inc. Much of that will be corporate/enterprise e-mail use.
- Good piece from Computer Weekly about some of the barriers cloud computing providers are dealing with
- What is "Cloud Computing?" You can bet the people at Cloud Computing Journal can answer that.
Cloud computing can save costs, offer better security and data protection than in-house IT work, and can bring an organization more up-to-date, cutting-edge software, but is it appropriate for all companies and government agencies? Let us know what you think in the comments.