Cloud Wars - Google Beats Microsoft in Federal Bid War

Posted on May 2, 2012 by Peter S. Vogel

Google finally won a cloud war against Microsoft after years of battle and the US Department of Interior (DOI) will now deploy Google Apps for 90,000 employees instead of Microsoft Office 365. On January 3, 2011 US District Judge Susan Braden issued a temporary injunction enjoining the DOI from awarding a contract to Microsoft because apparently the DOI did not comply with federal procurement laws. Computerworld reported that Google was the successful vendor:

The contract is worth about US$35 million over seven years, the Interior Department said. It estimated that by replacing its current systems with Google Apps for Government, it will save up to $500 million by 2020.

Google’s success is a major victory for Google Apps in the highly competitive cloud wars.
 

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Apple Announces iCloud and While the FBI Admits an Internet Breach

Posted on June 7, 2011 by Peter S. Vogel

Steve Jobs’ predicts that Apple’s freeiCloud will allow everyone store all of their music, video, photos, and documents on the Web, which is no surprise in today’s hot cloud world. But many alarms went off around the world with the FBI’s announcement that the hacker group LulzSec breached a FBI’s Internet and stole 180 passwords and users names which were posted on the Internet.

So maybe the Internet is still not secure enough for all users to rely on iCloud, but the iCloud announcement was unique for many reasons. Not the least of which was that Apple pre-announced the iCloud in advance of the Apple WWDC (World Wide Developers’ Conference), highly unusual for Apple.

The cloud is unbelievably hot today, and the iCloud is obviously one more way that Microsoft and PC manufacturers will have to re-invent themselves. That is, if iCloud is a success which may seem automatic given Apple great on successful innovation. But it’s possible that Internet users will prefer to keep their own computers and not rely on the cloud. Of course many folks are worried about security, maybe the FBI’s recent break-in will be a wake-up call. Stay tuned.
 

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