New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced a wide-ranging IT deal that will have approximately 100, 000 City employees use cloud-based Microsoft applications. The agreement, which will be tailored to fit the varying needs of different types of city workers, is projected to save New York City $50 million over the next five years. Previously, city agencies entered into 40 separate license agreements with Microsoft.
Bloomberg, in a prepared statement, said that the agreement will give city employees the same technological resources that are available to employees in the private sector. The agreement also gives Microsoft a significant win over Google, which recently entered into an agreement with Los Angeles to provide cloud based applications to about 30,000 employees.
Google’s agreement with LA costs about $50 per employee per year for cloud applications and services. Microsoft’s agreement differs because it’s based on actual use rather than on the number of employees who have access to the software.
The City’s announcement also said that the use of cloud applications and services would support collaboration and document sharing between users. Microsoft also agreed to three levels of licenses, occasional users, basic users and power users, with varying license costs for each tier. The Microsoft applications will include real-time updates, so that the IT department will not have to be involved in the regular round of updates for each of its computers.
The new agreement with Microsoft is part of the city’s Citywide IT Infrastructure Services program (known as CITISERVE to NYC computing cognoscenti) which is also engaged in consolidating the city’s existing 50 data centers into a single centrally managed facility. The Microsoft cloud services will also support extension of the data center into the cloud.
For more, read the eWeek article Microsoft, New York City Ink Deal for Cloud Application LIcense.
