The US Department of the Interior (DoI) has awarded Google a $35 million hosted-email contract that was initially destined to go to Microsoft.
The DoI awarded the email and collaboration services deal to Google partner Onyx Networking Corporation on April 30.
The seven year deal, supporting the department’s 88,000 staff, was worth significantly less than the original contract, which the Department previously valued at $49.3 million over five years, Microsoft blogger Mary Jo Foley reported.
The original request for quote was released in 2009, containing conditions that essentially excluded Google from bidding for the deal, leaving Microsoft’s Business Productivity Online Standard-Federal as the sole contender.
Department IT executives allegedly had concerns over the security of Google's Apps for Government, despite it being adopted by other agencies such as the General Services Administration (GSA).
Google filed a suit against the department in late 2010 but dropped that suit in September last year after the DOI agreed to take bids for a five year deal.
Microsoft and Google have been slinging mud at each other’s security credentials ever since, with Microsoft claiming last April that Google fudged their credentials.
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