The use of Cloud Computing in the United States public sector has continued to gain traction, with confirmation the Midwest State of Minnesota is to take its communication and collaboration activities into the Cloud through a deal signed with Microsoft.

Minnesota’s Office of Enterprise Technology (OET) announced the State would receive an Enterprise-level Unified Communications and Collaborations platform through Microsoft’s Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS), the first US state to move towards a large collaboration and communication suite in a private cloud environment.

The move by Minnesota falls in line with the increasing use of Cloud Computing applications on both sides of the Atlantic, across multiple divisions of the US and UK’s respective public sectors. Recent moves in the UK have seen the NHS implement Cloud-based workload management tools, the continual move towards the G-Cloud initiative. Meanwhile Los Angeles has migrated council workers over to Google Apps, and the Federal government continues to drive forward with its own Cloud programmes in a bid to realise a range of efficiencies.

The partnership, which the OET enthusiastically called ‘historic’, aims to bring a series of functionality and productivity upgrades to the State, and also enhanced security and cost efficiencies. The move is expected to greatly reduce redundancy and save Minnesota millions in upgrade investments and ongoing costs in the process. The company has also confirmed the privacy of state government data will be ensured through a dedicated Microsoft environment and delivered online through a direct connection to Minnesota’s secure network.

“As states battle growing deficits, they are continually being asked to do more with less,” said Gopal Khanna, Minnesota’s state chief information officer. “Rethinking the way we manage our digital infrastructure centrally, to save locally across all units of government, is a crucial part of the solution. The private sector has utilized technological advancements like cloud computing to realize operational efficiencies for some time now. Government must follow suit.”

“Minnesota is leading the way by looking holistically at the broad productivity opportunities and cost savings afforded by moving to the cloud with Microsoft,” said Gail Thomas-Flynn, vice president of state and local government at Microsoft. “Governments small and large are looking to us to help bring security, privacy, and scalability to their IT consolidation choices. Because shrinking budgets and increased expectations are both realities, states are wise to explore how a move to the cloud makes long term strategic and business sense.”

Counties across Minnesota are already using Cloud Computing applications, and the deal has already been seen as a significant and positive move by the State’s local government. “We currently consume cloud-based services for key financial business applications,” said Marilyn McCarter, CIO of Scott County, Minnesota. “This agreement creates a tremendous potential opportunity for counties.”

Source: http://www.publictechnology.net/sector/local-gov/us-state-migrating-microsoft-s-cloud-offering