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Microsoft pitches at US public sector Cloud (updated)

Posted by admin on Tue, 02/03/2010 - 14:08
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With the US government committed to overhauling its ICT expenditure through investment in Cloud Computing, Microsoft has stepped up to the mark with a dedicated government Cloud service designed to fend off competition from the likes of Google. 
 
Microsoft has already seen Google's Cloud offerings make in-roads into its established government market with the City of Los Angeles being a recent loss of note. Now the firm is fighting back with its own Cloud offering, hosted in secure, dedicated facilities and designed to meet the particular security, privacy, and compliance needs of government agencies.
 
The software giant used its annual US Public Sector CIO Summit last week to lift the lid on the Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) Federal. This includes standard BPOS elements such as Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Office Communications Online, and Live Meeting, but hosted on a government-dedicated infrastructure in secure facilities within Microsoft's own data centres.
 
"These enhancements raise the bar around compliance and security in our BPOS services," Ron Markezich, VP of Microsoft Online. "We've had enterprise customers on this for up to five years, and some of the most demanding multinational companies in the world on this. This is ready for the government today.
 
"When it comes to Google or other players, we have the most progress when it comes to Cloud Computing in business productivity. We have the largest customers and the largest brand names," he said. "No one else provides this (high level of security) for the public sector. We've raised the bar with regard with security and privacy." 
 
New capabilities are also planned for government customers, including enhanced encryption, two-factor authentication, new rights management features, and a master administrative console. 
 
The emphasis on addressing security in Cloud Computing is a good move, reckons Sarah Burnett of research house Ovum. “For the public sector, the need for security is heightened with government communication and information that often deal with matters of national security and policy issues or sensitive customer data,” she said. “For most government departments this is a constant requirement on top of all their other service delivery needs. A new option in the form of a secure cloud should help them enormously - particularly in this age of austerity and the pressure for more cost-effective and efficient IT services.  With Microsoft doing the vetting of staff and dealing with security certification of services, the customer is relieved of some administration overhead too.”
 
There are many opportunities for Microsoft stemming from this move, argues Burnett. “In Europe, for example, the public sector is one of the biggest sectors, accounting for expenditure approximately equal to 40% of GDP and a large workforce.,” she noted.  “ Delivering IT to that workforce offers many opportunities for software and infrastructure vendors. Security in the cloud is again one of the biggest barriers in Europe - often cited as an issue with software as a service by Ovum customers. Moreover, in some European countries (such as Germany, Austria, and Switzerland) personal data cannot be hosted outside the geographic border. In the UK also there is pressure on the public sector to have data hosted within its borders. Microsoft has the global presence and the deep pockets to build the capability and wait for take-up to gain momentum.”
 
But Burnett suggested that Microsoft had missed an opportunity to pitch this Cloud push as a Green offering as well. “Given the pressure on organisations to go green and government policies that increasingly dictate green IT, it was surprising that there was no mention of it in this release. By the very nature of the business, any Cloud operator and hosting data center will want to minimize costs and so there is every incentive to reduce energy use,” she argued. “We believe that Microsoft has missed a trick here. It would have made the offering more complete and appealing if it had emphasised any Green IT built into its operations and practices. For many public sector organisations that would have ticked another important box.”
 
For his part the federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra welcomed the Cloud play by Microsoft. “This is a huge opportunity to apply best practices from the private sector,” said Vivek Kundra.