USDA moves messaging systems to the cloud

The General Services Administration announced last week it will be the first federal agency to transition all employees to cloud-based e-mail by adopting Google’s suite of e-mail and collaboration tools. But USDA dwarfs GSA, which only has roughly 15,000 employees.

“USDA’s vision of maximizing efficiencies and improving productivity across a vast enterprise through the cloud will be a model for large government agencies,” said Curt Kolcun, vice president of Microsoft’s U.S. Public Sector.

USDA and Microsoft worked for six months to develop a plan for a successful migration from 21 separate e-mail systems to a single, department-wide cloud solution. The agency expects to begin moving employees within the next month and has already secured Federal Information Security Management Act certification for Microsoft’s cloud infrastructure.