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February 15, 2013 By Colin Wood
More than 100,000 workers in Texas will be moved to the cloud in one of the largest cloud deployments in state government, Microsoft announced Feb. 15.
The contract, which will give state workers access to Office 365, will provide compliance with the FBI's Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) and federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) security standards.
This ability to meet stringent security standards was one of the main reasons Texas chose Microsoft as a vendor over its competitors, said Todd Kimbriel, director of e-government for the Texas Department of Information Resources.
“One element in the public sector here in Texas that everyone holds in the highest regard is that we have to protect the information of the citizens,” he said, adding that CJIS security standards in particular provide an unmatched level of security.
“Anybody that's going to touch a computer system, server or mainframe where data exists has to go through an FBI background check,” he said. That means every administrator who has access to cloud data must first be vetted by the federal government.
Though this is the first contract in which Microsoft has signed a CJIS Security Addendum, the company's competitors like Amazon, for instance, could not have provided the state with that level of security, Kimbriel said.
Texas looked at all the major cloud vendors, he said, and while they liked the culture of innovation marketed by Google, Microsoft had a longer tradition of providing enterprise support that made them feel more comfortable. In addition, the cloud contract is a continuation of the state's past relationship with Microsoft, as many Texas agencies began using Microsoft Exchange five years ago.
But the contract wasn't just a matter of security and building on an old relationship, Kimbriel said -- it will also save the state money.
“We're paying about a 75 percent discount now compared to what we were paying a competitor four years ago,” he said.
The state initially plans to move about 110,000 employees onto Office 365 at a cost of about $3.50 per user, per month, or $4.60 annually. “And that's just the beginning,” Kimbriel said. “We're looking to expand that. I think several hundred thousand total employees is the ultimate employee count for the state.”
Eventually, he said, they would like to move all employees onto the Microsoft cloud, but the initial move of 110,000 will occur over the next three to four months.
“For us I think it's all about shared infrastructure,” Kimbriel said. “It's about trying to do license agreements and enterprise strategies. This is an optimized approach, he said, versus having 125 separate agencies trying to buy a product or a service. "Instead, do deals and use technology that will allow us to leverage collective buying power of the entire state.”
Though this is Microsoft's first CJIS-compliant deployment, it has fulfilled contracts with Chicago, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Federal Aviation Administration, Minnesota, California and New York.
“One of the big things that government customers have to think about when moving to the cloud are areas around specific security and privacy laws, or regulations or policies that these customers ultimately have to comply with,” said Michael Donlan, Microsoft's vice president of U.S. state and local government affairs. “As you see a lot of government customers move to cloud, they're recognizing the importance of utilizing new technologies and choosing vendor that focuses heavily on the security and privacy aspects.”
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http://www.govtech.com/policy-management/Texas-Moves-100000-to-Microsoft-Cloud.html
Funny---Microsoft...Sorry--thought Texas people had some hint of brains. Guess I was wrong..Have Fun,,next step would be interesting..
But it is not just State of Texas that use Office 365. Here are the some large government agencies that also utilize Office 365: State of California State of Minnesota New York City Chicago San Francisco In contrast, Google Apps is used by tiny agencies: City of Orlando Pittsburgh State of Wyoming The City of Los Angeles uses Google Apps -- but LA is currently asking for a refund from Google for non-performance of contractual obligations. http://betanews.com/2011/10/20/los-angeles-wants-refund-for-google-apps/
Selecting outlook is like putting a target on your back. And, that $4.60 (a year? I think you mean $46.00) per person will swell once the vendor have their hooks into you. Just love those constant forced upgrades to the next level of experimental, untested software.
I think the annual amount should have read $4.6 million (110,000 employees x $3.50 a month x 12 months).
On the other hand, while Google is a great innovative company, not so much on customer service and support. They don't want to provide support. They just want to move on to the next great thing. And that's not bad, but I'm not moving a critical application to a company with that culture.
Kim, well done on the Math correction. And having been part of several large-scale outsourcing RFP's, these aren't easy deals to get done, especially on the Privacy and Security fronts. MSFT has learned from previous opportunities that the Public Sector offering HAS to be a different animal from its commercial setup. Kudos for crossing that bridge, and to the State of Texas for helping MSFT to set the bar a little higher. The Public Sector market will benefit from TX leadership.
@jctmpt - actually the State of Colorado migrated over 30,000 State users to Google Apps for Government in Oct of last year so it is not only small cities as you mentioned.
Well I like what I'm reading about the security aspect so far. That's always been my biggest reservation and concern about cloud. And I do like the natural fit with existing use of Microsoft software.
And, I'd like to know how they handle the jurisdictional issues. Where your data physically resides becomes a jurisdiction where lawsuits for access to your data may occur. It doesn't matter that it is the state data of STATEX if the data is located in STATEY. Or, even better COUNTRYX.
Besides doing extensive background checks, what type of security is microsoft promising once the data is in their cloud? Is the data encrypted, how is the perimeter protected?
Interesting phrasing on the headline. Shouldn't it read "to move"?
Hmm..."9 top threats to cloud computing security" - http://www.infoworld.com/t/cloud-security/9-top-threats-cloud-computing-security-213428
Also recommended: "3 Deep, Dark Secrets of Cloud Computing" - http://www.networkworld.com/news/2013/021213-3-deep-dark-secrets-of-266661.html. Feeling a resurgence of original feelings in favor of "private cloud" if resources are available. I like this one reader comment there: "[...] don't put anything that needs ultra-high-availability or ultra-high-security on the cloud."
Unfortunately Texas DIR has a horrible record with making technology decisions. They will ultimately discover the issues of outsourced cloud computing and will need to resort back to what they should be doing which is a privately owned "private cloud" as noted in previous post. Oh well...got to spend those tax dollars somewhere..might as well send them out of state :)