Microsoft and Google slug it out for agencies' cloud business

Microsoft Corp. laid into Google for selling federal agencies unsuitable Web-based software at the company's annual government conference, as it squares off with the Web services behemoth to shape the future of federal cloud contracting.

Curt Kolcun, Microsoft vice president for the U.S. public sector, briefed the media at a presentation and on the phone during the three-day summit in Redmond, Wash., on the differences between Microsoft's vision for cloud computing and Google's approach to the practice of warehousing information technology for agencies in off-site, Web-accessible data centers.

"In a cloud environment, what I would say is that there are unique capabilities and things that our customers need to be thinking about: Do they want a dedicated cloud? Are they comfortable with a secure, multitenant cloud, or is it a public cloud?" he told Nextgov in an interview.

Microsoft sells packages that can combine the company's cloud applications with agencies' on-site systems and Microsoft Office software licenses. Google hosts a variety of business applications, including word processing software, messaging services and collaboration tools, but they are available only through shared off-site systems.

Both companies are vying to gain a foothold in the federal cloud marketplace -- a sector that is expected to account for $20 billion of the government's roughly $80 billion IT budget during the next few years, according to federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra. He is pushing agencies to shift their software and hardware to the cloud with the expectation of phasing out the government's more than 2,000 energy- and cost-consuming data centers.

Google beat Microsoft to secure the General Services Administration as the first federal cloud purchaser only to have the Redmond-based company follow-up with an Interior Department contract. The search company has since sued the government to stop the Interior project, claiming the agency did not hold an open competition for the work.

Microsoft said Google's apps are one-size-fits all suites that require customers to pay for more features than they need or, conversely, fail to provide access to tools needed to fulfill agency missions.

In addition, Kolcun noted Microsoft hosts cloud services in U.S.-based facilities. Google stores message and calendar data in the United States, but Google officials declined to comment on the countries in which data centers that hold documents and other government information are located. Computer security experts have raised concerns that agencies could lose control of their data if it is stored within nations that have different rules on Web monitoring and intellectual property.

In fact, Microsoft at first refused to submit comments on forthcoming government cloud security procedures, called FedRAMP, because GSA was collecting recommendations through Google's word processing application. Microsoft was concerned that Google would claim rights to the comments stored on its servers.

Google spokesman Andrew Kovacs on Thursday responded, "Data location does not equate to data security. Rather, controls like how the data is protected, who has access to it and how it is physically stored are more important." Google's apps meet federal standards for IT security under the Federal Information Security Management Act, whereas Microsoft's apps do not.

Kolcun conceded that Google is a player in the federal marketplace, albeit a small player. "They are clearly in this marketplace. They have FISMA compliance. They obviously have won some business. They are focused on e-mail."

On Thursday, Microsoft announced 16 new government and public education customers, including Portland Public Schools; the city of Alexandria, Va., and the Poarch Band of Creek Indians tribe. In addition, the city of Winston-Salem, N.C., is switching 600 users off of Google Apps and moving 2,750 employees to Microsoft's cloud platform.

"We never had an opportunity to bid for Portland Public Schools' business," Kovacs said. Google provides cloud services for many other state and local governments, such as Los Angeles, Colorado and Wyoming. "The bigger picture in the state is that 90 school districts in Oregon, representing more than 200,000 users, are already live on Google Apps, and another more than 100 districts are in the process of moving to Google Apps," he added.

Kovacs said, "When there has been a full and open competition and other companies have been allowed to compete for the government, the customers have chosen Google Apps and taxpayers have saved millions of dollars."

Regarding the Winston-Salem contract, Kovacs said he wishes the community well and "by design, we make it as easy as possible for companies to move off of Google Apps if they want -- meaning no long-term contracts and data liberation as a fundamental design principle."

He described Microsoft's vision as "a filibuster designed to keep people using their on-premises client software for as long as possible." The disadvantage of this hybrid approach is that it creates headaches for IT managers who have to administer both Internet patches and software settings, Kovacs said.

"There's absolutely some governments for whom [Microsoft's offering] will be a better approach," he said. "Some governments will prefer to manage the software themselves."