Well, it’s official: After months of controversy, the Los Angeles Police Department has officially ended its plans to move 13,000 law enforcement personnel to the Google Apps cloud suite, opting instead to stay with its current Novell GroupWise deployment, according to an LA Times report.
The vote came through the LA City Council Dec. 14, 2011, with the city deciding to scale back its contract with Google partner CSC following some well-documented security concerns. It’s not even close to a total nullification of the original deal, with 13,000 employees of the City of Los Angeles still using the Google Apps cloud suite. But it’s definitely smoke in Google’s eye.
According to that original LA Times story, the concern was over security, saying Google may have overestimated its ability to meet strict Federal compliance guidelines. Moreover, the LAPD is apparently now saying its security policies are “incompatible” with the very concept of cloud computing.
I reached out to Google for comment:
“We’re disappointed that the City introduced requirements for the LAPD after the contract was signed that are, in its own words, ‘currently incompatible with cloud computing.’ We realize this means the LAPD may not be joining the 17,000 other City employees successfully using Google Apps. Even so, Los Angeles taxpayers have already saved more than two million dollars and the City expects to save millions more in the years ahead.”
It must be some small comfort that at the very least the LAPD is sticking with its legacy solution and not going to, say, Microsoft Office 365. But I know for a fact that Google isn’t happy with how this shook out. Stay tuned to TalkinCloud for updates.
The 
