Unisys Scores Department of Energy Cloud Contract

Mark another win in the Google Apps for Government column. Google (GOOG) channel partner Unisys has successfully won a contract to deploy Google Apps for Government across the U.S. Department of Energy.

Through the new cloud contract, Unisys will help to transition 6,000 Department of Energy personnel in the hopes of helping the DOE cut costs while also providing end users with secure and efficient access to e-mail and other stored data.

This contract is really an extension of a previous contract Unisys completed last year that saw the transition of 5,000 DOE employees to Google Apps for Government. During that project, Unisys moved employees at the DOE's Idaho National Laboratory to the cloud-based offering. And earlier this year, Unisys moved 4,500 employees at the National Archives and Records Administration to Google Apps for Government.

"We are working with the DOE and its contractors to bring the efficiencies and cost-savings of the cloud to those who support this program," said Steve Soroka, group vice president of Unisys Federal Systems, in a prepared statement.

Unisys is one of many channel partners selling and helping to migrate government organizations and workers to government-focused cloud services such as Google Apps for Government. And the transitions seem to be going strong, even as the federal government faces heavy criticism over other IT debacles.

It's a large market for partners to score contracts and earn good margin, and so as the feds continue to migrate more and more to cloud services to reduce costs and improve worker efficiency, we'll likely see more partners playing a role in that transition.