I was surprised to hear the announcement that Los Angeles City Council had unanimously agreed to shift the county over to cloud computing and Google Apps starting next year. It is reported that a pilot program will begin as soon as 2010.
I was surprised because it was done without much opposition. Even with the obvious security issues facing having all of you data accessible from the Internet, the Los Angeles Chief Technical Office, Randi Levin, stated he felt the application services were adequate for the needs of the county.
During Tuesday’s city council debate on the issue, Los Angeles CTO Randi Levin went to bat for the cloud-based service, reassuring members that Gmail was safe and advanced enough for government use.
Makes me think of the phrase “good enough for government work.”
Even with the reassurances of the CTO, LA City Council voted to include a penalty if the system was breached and data was stolen. I’m sure Computer Services Corporation, the company that secured the $7.25 million deal, will work diligently to put safeguards in place to protect information.
If the project is successful it will spur the movement to cloud computing for other governmental agencies and business. If there are problems and high profile security issues that could dramatically slow the movement to the clouds for everyone.
Read the full article from the E-Commerce Times
I enjoy Twitter just as much as the next person. In fact, you can follow me at twitter.com/jjhelp or click on the tab to the left. But would I buy a device that does nothing but send and receive tweets? No!