Michael Harper for redOrbit.com — Your Universe Online
Last month, the city of Chicago announced they´d be adopting a “Cloud computing strategy for city wide email and applications” using Microsoft´s Office 365. Today, Microsoft has announced they´ve landed another big player for their new Office solutions, bringing more than 100,000 Texas state employees underneath their cloud.
As a part of Texas´ statewide IT modernization strategy, employees from multiple state departments will begin using Office 365´s collaboration and email tools. According to a statement from Microsoft, these departments include: The Health and Human Services System, Department of Transportation, Department of Motor Vehicles, Department of Information Resources, and Department of Insurance. The Department of Criminal Justice and the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission will begin using these tools “soon,” though no specific date was given.
Texas´ director of e-government, Todd Kimbriel, led the charge to switch the state´s agencies to Microsoft´s new collaboration software in the “largest state-wide deployment of email and collaboration services in the U.S.”
“No other solution provides the rich capabilities of Office 365, including webconferencing, real-time collaboration, and document and calendar sharing,” said Kimbriel in a statement.
“Office 365 will increase efficiency and help our agencies better serve the needs of citizens without compromising on security or privacy.”
Microsoft has been pushing their new Office 365 service as of late, which includes the familiar suite of Office software, as well as collaborative tools and cloud storage for an annual subscription of $99. It was recently noticed Microsoft has even restricted the use of the non-cloud version of Office to encourage users to sign up for Office 365. According to Paul Thurrott and The Age, Microsoft has restricted the use of traditional Office software by only allowing the suite to be installed on one computer, rather than allow multiple licenses. Office 365 users, on the other hand, are allowed to install these apps on up to 5 devices.
Now, as a result of some contractual commitments, all state agencies in Texas will be able to use Office 365. Texas joins the list of other city and state agencies choosing Microsoft´s new software offerings. In addition to Chicago, Texas now joins the likes of California and Minnesota, as well as the city of San Francisco.
“We´ve worked hard to provide security and privacy solutions the State of Texas can trust,” claimed Michael Dorian, the vice president of Microsoft´s State and Local Government business.
“The familiarity of Office backed by deep investments in cloud security, privacy and compliance play an important role in how Microsoft is enabling city, state and federal agencies to move to the cloud.”
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