The City Of Boston Moves To Google Apps

The City of Boston was named as the #1 Digital City in America last year by the Center for Digital Government. The city has made great efforts in engagement by using mobile technology and leveraging social media. Boston is considered as a tech-savvy city. In efforts to seek out the best IT tools to help Boston’s government be innovative and smarter for its citizens, a successful migration of 76,000 email accounts from a collection of our premise based systems, mostly Microsoft Exchange was implemented recently to Google Apps.

All city departments, including the Boston Police Department, now on Google Apps, but every teacher and more than 50,000 public school students each has an individual Google Apps account according to Google. The city now has a new unified, cloud-based communication system. The choice for Google Apps delivers a secure cloud environment.

Bill Oates, Chief Information Officer of the City of Boston blog post on Google wrote, “Going Google on such a large scale has many benefits, We gained reliability and security compared to our prior configuration of Microsoft Exchange servers, which required extensive upkeep, upgrades and patches. “ “The Boston Police department, for example, now has a reliable, scalable system that supports its 24/7 operation with Gmail’s 99.9% uptime guarantee. More than 3,000 police employees, including 2,100 sworn officers, use Google Apps to communicate with one another as well as to streamline reporting processes, “ Oates wrote.

Boston is a great example of how the city is using technology to innovate and become a smarter city. “The Google Apps platform now sits at the center of our drive to infuse innovation in every aspect of city government and enhance collaboration,” stated Oates. Today there are even more U.S. cities realizing the benefits of technology.