Google Apps Scores Over Microsoft Office 365 with NARA, CBC Wins

Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) has scored two more government wins over Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT). The National Archives and Record Administration (NARA) has completed its migration of 4,500 employees over to Google Apps for Government. And in Canada, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. (CBC) opted to move 12,000 employees to Google Apps over its top competitor, Microsoft Office 365.

NARA, the country's record keeper, selected Google Apps through Google partner Unisys (NYSE: UIS). After receiving several bids proposing a variety of solutions, NARA selected Unisys to deliver a Google Apps implementation. Through an "aggressive timeline," Unisys and NARA replaced an aging, onsite email system with Google Apps. According to a blog post written by David Mihalchik of Google Apps for Government team, "the addition of approximately 22 terabytes of Google Drive storage allows employees to access and share their documents with ease."

Meanwhile in Canada, CBC examined many public solutions, including those from Google Apps and Microsoft Office 365 (the only two actually named in the Google Enterprise blog post). As Jean-Martin Thibault, senior enterprise architect at CBC, wrote in his guest blog post, it became clear that Google Apps "was the right solution for us based on cost, proven service level and availability guarantee and the breadth of tools the platform offered for collaboration."

That's another win for Google Apps in the continuing battle between Google and Microsoft for dominance in the public cloud space. And there have been some interesting benefits to the Canadian federal government media corporation.

"Since we went live, adoption of the whole platform has well exceeded our expectations of email and calendaring. Google+ Hangouts has revolutionized the way that our employees interact with each other. Long conference calls are now becoming a thing of the past," Thibault wrote. "We can now jump on a Hangout and have a face-to-face meeting with colleagues across the country via our smartphones, from home or the office, without getting on a plane. It's cost-effective and more efficient without compromising our core business."