LA's Move To Google Apps Slows As "Apps For Gov't." Announced 98
Several readers noted Google's announcement yesterday of Google Apps for Government: "The new version is a variant of Google Apps Premier edition, and includes the same core apps: Gmail, Calendar, Docs, Sites, Groups, Video, and Postini. Pricing is the same as for Google Apps Premier: $50 per user per year. The certification says that Google Apps qualifies for is called a FISMA-Moderate rating, which means that it's authorized for use with data that's sensitive but unclassified. In addition, Google says that it's storing government Gmail and Google Calendar on servers that are isolated from those used for non-government customers, and which are located in the continental US." This service might be just what the city of Los Angeles needs (though the price may not be right). LA started migrating months ago to Google Apps, and the process is experiencing some delays, as pointed out by reader theodp. "In December, Google tooted its own horn as it celebrated edging out rival Microsoft to win a high-profile, ironically Microsoft-funded contract to supply email and collaboration software to the City of Los Angeles. Now comes word that the search giant has missed a June deadline for full implementation due to lingering security concerns. Google downplayed reports of the delay, saying it was 'very pleased with the progress to date' which has allowed 10,000+ of the City's 34,000 employees to use Google Apps."
Re:Meh... more cloud stuff (Score:4, Interesting)
Yes, data is sent over, but the DB processing and storage should be in house. Another reason to keep data in house:
Jack, who has some basic Linux skills wants to make some money on the side in his job in a data center. He copies some credit card numbers from his work and sells them. His company takes the heat, does an audit of who had last access to that tablespace that wasn't normal, and finds that Jack was doing a SELECT on it. Jack almost definitely will end up facing civil/criminal repercussions for the action.
Joe who is working in a cloud provider does a strings on a .vmdk file, gets a similar list. He has no loyalty to the cloud provider's client... that's just some company or organization storing files at his workplace. So, he doesn't feel any reason why not. He sells the list, the cloud provider's client gets the heat for the compromise, and maybe the cloud company may be found responsible for the leak. However, there is no certain audit trail or chain of custody present like there is by keeping data in-house. Maybe sometime in the future some file audit or accounting daemon might show the read or some shell log show the strings command, but it may never happen.
Again, with data in-house, there is an access log record, a video log from the cameras, a log from the ACE servers of access, the audit logs from Active Directory, the logs from the routers. All of this ensures accountability for everyone involved. Outsourcing to a cloud provider? Got none of that. There is no solid chain of custody.
Gdocs is not usable (Score:1, Interesting)
I don't know how other people feel, but I have been trying google apps and have been unimpressed. Writely is OK, but is only wysiwyg by severely limiting what you can do in a doc. It is fine for most collab docs though and sharing is great. My problems have been in using gdocs, its PDF to text conversion is a joke and is obvious just some untested open sources ocr toys. Their shareable links have been broken for weeks and is only acknowledged in their forums and somehow that isn't reported as a problem in their 'status' page. So none of my shared links work in my sites currently. Sites is an OK sharepoint-like web, but it does suffer from simplicity and general site feel much like 2007 sharepoint. You can't remove older revisions which happened to become a security issue for my group so we had to recreate some stuff. Overall it is a great free tool when you don't have anything else, but I don't think I would ever pay per seat for this. Also I think there is more to business than just collaboration tools. I figure if and whenever Microsoft gets .net fully setup in the cloud, all apps will be able to store and run in the cloud, etc.same as on disk. That is when companies can really start using the 'cloud'.
Re:Meh... more cloud stuff (Score:3, Interesting)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fully_homomorphic_encryption [wikipedia.org]
Re:Meh... more cloud stuff (Score:3, Interesting)
My issue with cloud providers is the libre software issue: you become reliant on the cloud provider for your software, and the cloud provider basically holds your data hostage. I really do not want Google to be given so much power -- when Google controls government data, and presumably charges the government a fee for the services they provide, that gives Google some pretty serious leverage and lobbying power. It would not even be obvious -- suppose the government wants to raise taxes on energy used by large data centers, and Google says, "Well if you do that, we'll be forced to increase our service fees..." Does that situation seem far fetched to you?
Re:Seems odd (Score:3, Interesting)
I assume you guys also do your own payroll, manage your own 401a/pension plans, store your own paper archives, repair your own photocopy machines, do your own warranty work on failed hard drives, maintain your own waste disposal landfill, do your own shredded paper disposal, and grow your own fruits and vegetables on premises as well.
Other than the fruits and vegetables, which I assume you threw in just to be ridiculous, the last government entity I worked for in fact did do all of those things internally.