Minnesota government adopts Microsoft�s cloud

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

In one of the largest government-related cloud computing deals, the state of Minnesota announced it has signed a enterprise-wide deal with Microsoft to use its cloud services for unified communications and collaboration services.

In the agreement signed by the state’s Office of Enterprise Technology, Microsoft will provide approximately nearly 33,000 executive branch employees with access to its Business Productivity Online Suite.

By signing with Microsoft, state officials said Minnesota will be able to offer web-accessed email, SharePoint collaboration, instant messaging and videoconferencing capabilities at a significantly lower rate than the state would otherwise pay.

“Rethinking the way we manage our digital infrastructure centrally, to save locally across all units of government, is a crucial part of the solution,” said Gopal Khanna, Minnesota’s State Chief Information Officer. “The private sector has utilized technological advancements like cloud computing to realize operational efficiencies for some time now. Government must follow suit.”

The move makes Minnesota the first state government to adopt a large collaboration and communication suite in the private cloud. However, according to one report, Microsoft has added 3.4 million users in the public sector, including 400 state and local government customers, over the past 18 months.