Google Apps Not Cutting It for LA’s Finest

Two years after the City of Los Angeles approved a $7.25 million deal to move its e-mail and productivity infrastructure to Google Apps, the migration has still not been completed because the Los Angeles Police Department and other agencies are unsatisfied with Google’s security related to the handling of criminal history data.

Los Angeles officials originally expected to roll Google Apps out to its 30,000 users by June 2010, in partnership with systems integration contractor CSC. But that number has been reduced to about 17,000 employees, largely because of security objections raised by the LAPD and other safety-related departments. Advocacy group Consumer Watchdog opposed the deal, and this week released a letter LA officials sent to CSC in August, which states “The City is in receipt of your letter dated May 13, 2011, wherein CSC indicates that it is unable to meet the security requirements of the City and the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) for all data and information, pursuant to U.S. DOJ Criminal Justice Information Systems (CJIS) policy requirements.”

The letter further demands a financial credit for the LAPD portion of the contract, and that CSC and Google reimburse Los Angeles for the money it has had to pay Novell for a GroupWise system. A proposed amendment to the LA/Google contract says that “Google shall pay the City for the GroupWise System Costs for the period of July 1, 2011 through November 20, 2012.” Los Angeles’s original plan was to move everyone off GroupWise and other internal software and instead use Gmail, Google Docs, and related Google services.

To Continue Reading: Click Here
--------------------------------------------------
Source: wired.com
By: Jon Brodkin