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Microsoft Inks Multiple Public-Sector Cloud Deals
Over the past few weeks, Microsoft has signed contracts with 14 state and local government entities for its cloud computing services, the company announced on Wednesday.
A total of 190 state and local government organizations are now using Microsoft cloud solutions, according to Redmond. These include the Idaho and Colorado state departments of labor, as well as various government organizations in the cities of Chicago, Alexandria, Va. and Virginia Beach, Va.
More than 3 million government employees currently use the company's online business services, Microsoft said.
The contracts, especially those with local governments, are coming at the rate of about one a week, said Gail Thomas-Flynn, Microsoft's vice president of U.S. state and local government, at Microsoft's Public Sector CIO Summit this week in Bellevue, Wash. Thomas-Flynn attributed the company's success in part to the flexibility it provides customers in deciding which services to send to the cloud and which to maintain on-site.
Furthermore, "they [public sector organizations] know we're in this for the long haul," Thomas-Flynn said at Microsoft's Public Sector CIO Summit this week in Bellevue, Wash. "This notion that suddenly [service] features can be pulled out at a whim -- government is an enterprise, and at the end of the day, you can't run with uncertainty."
The other recent deals cover services for Winston-Salem, N.C.; King County, Wash.; Washington state's Sound Transit; Andover, Minn.; Vernon Hills, Ill.; Lake Buena Vista, Fla.; the Michigan State Senate; Carlsbad, Calif.; and the tribal government of the Poarch Band of Creek Indians in Alabama.
About the Author
Paul McCloskey is editor-in-chief of Government Computer News magazine.