<<The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously today to outsource its e-mail system to Google Inc., making it the largest city in the nation to make the move and handing the Web search giant a major victory in its quest to become a software provider to the world's cities and businesses.

After more than two hours of debate, council members voted 12-0 to approve the $7.25-million contract that would move all 30,000 city employees to Google's so-called cloud over the coming year.>>

<<The vote today ended a nearly year-long process during which Google competed furiously with other software vendors, including rival Microsoft Corp., to secure the city's valuable stamp of approval. Parties on all sides believe that if smaller cities see Los Angeles successfully transition to Google's cloud system, they may be more likely to follow suit.

It is that type of cascade effect that Microsoft lobbied hard to prevent, sending executives and paid advocates to Los Angeles to make the case against Google.>>

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2009/10/city-council-votes-to-adopt-google-email-system-for-30000-city-employees.html

As convenient as the cloud is, i'm not sure how i feel about the government outsourcing to it.

LA will be a digital black hole when Gmail will turn GFail again :-S

[Moved from "Business software heads for the clouds as Google beats Microsoft to LA deal" – Tony]

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/telecoms/article6894607.ece

"Google has won its highest-profile customer in its battle with Microsoft to provide e-mail and other internet services to businesses.

Los Angeles City Council has approved a multimillion-dollar proposal to use Google’s range of office products for its 30,000 workers.

The deal could be a landmark for the search giant as it seeks to wrest market share for office software from Microsoft and IBM.
...."

Needless to say, a lot of Google Apps users...