Cloud Computing: New York State Chooses Office 365

Grazed from InformationWeek. Author: Michael Endler.

Office 365 continues to rake in business from companies and government agencies, bolstering Microsoft’s goal to become the enterprise cloud market’s key player. Last week, Microsoft announced that New York State has become the latest government entity to sign up. The deal is also, according to the state’s CIO, a testament to the simplicity and savings that cloud services can bring to large organizations.

More than 120,000 employees across New York’s executive agencies are scheduled to move to Office 365 by the end of the year. Currently, the state employs more than 27 systems for email, word and data processing. The move to a standardized platform is expected to save approximately $3 million in annual license, hardware, maintenance, energy and personnel costs…

But these savings are just the immediate benefits, said Brian Digman, New York State CIO, in an interview. "It saves us money but it’s also a big step into the cloud," he said, adding, "It signals that the best solution might not always be homegrown."…

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