At a recent press conference, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced a new initiative that will save New York City taxpayers millions of dollars over the next five years while improving citizen services and expanding collaboration across City agencies.

This initiative will move over 30,000 workers to the Microsoft cloud offering, providing them with communication and collaboration tools which will be hosted in one of Microsoft’s secure datacenters.    The workers will have access to email, instant messaging, conferencing and more delivered in the highest levels of security at a cost that is significantly less than if the City hosted it themselves.

You can watch the announcement video here in low or high bandwidth.

There has been significant coverage of this announcement recently.   You can read more at the NYC.gov web site or from one of the many articles posted on the internet.  Below is a sampling of some of those articles.

Wall Street Journal, “New York City Sets Deal With Microsoft” – Microsoft Corp. and New York City announced an agreement on Wednesday that will provide the city’s agencies with an array of computer services, including web-based programs and traditional desktop software.

http://blogs.wsj.com/metropolis/2010/10/20/new-york-city-sets-deal-with-microsoft/

TechCrunch, “Microsoft Puts New York City In The Cloud” – When Mayor Bloomberg wants to make an announcement with Microsoft, CEO Steve Ballmer gets on a plane and flies to New York City. That’s because he’s Mayor Bloomberg, but also because New York City is a very large customer with 100,000 city employees.

http://techcrunch.com/2010/10/20/microsoft-new-york-city/

InformationWeek,“Microsoft Signs NYC To Cloud Computing Deal” – Microsoft and New York City have signed a broad technology partnership that consolidates multiple software contracts,tailors software licensing to suit employee roles, and enables the city to leverage cloud computing.

http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/enterpriseapps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=227900389&subSection=Operating+Systems

CIO, “Microsoft Signs Cloud Deals with California, New York City” – Continuing the progress that Microsoft is making in the state and local government sector, the company has signed cloud computing deals with the city of New York and the state of California.

http://www.cio.com/article/627563/Microsoft_Signs_Cloud_Deals_with_California_New_York_City?taxonomyId=3234

PCWorld, “Microsoft Signs Cloud Deals With California, New York City” – Continuing the progress that Microsoft is making in the state and local government sector, the company has signed cloud computing deals with the city of New York and the state of California.

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/208332/microsoft_signs_cloud_deals_with_california_new_york_city.html

Government Computer News, “NYC gets citywide deal for Microsoft cloud apps” – New York City has struck a deal with Microsoft for a single, citywide license for the company’s software under which the city, operating in a cloud computing environment, will pay only for the applications that employees use.

http://gcn.com/articles/2010/10/20/nyc-microsoft-cloud-deal.aspx

New York Times, “Microsoft and New York in Software Deal” – New York City has put the squeeze on Microsoft, negotiating a bulk software purchasing deal that should lower technology costs for the city and give government workers access to more modern applications.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/21/technology/21soft.html

Seattle Times, “NYC signs up for Microsoft Office 365” – New York City has upgraded to Office 365, Microsoft’s new cloud-based version of Office.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/microsoftpri0/2013209875_nycgetsonmicrosoftoffice365.html

Seattle Post Intelligencer, “Microsoft reups NYC contract and helps with cloud transition” – New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced an executive order today that aims to consolidate its software licenses with Microsoft and start moving toward cloud computing.

http://blog.seattlepi.com/microsoft/archives/225562.asp

eWEEK, “Microsoft, New York City Ink Deal For Cloud Application Licenses” – Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced today that the two organizations have entered into a wide ranging IT partnership that will let approximately 100, 000 City employees use cloud-based Microsoft applications.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Cloud-Computing/Microsoft-New-York-City-Ink-Deal-For-Cloud-Application-Licenses-335414/

This morning Microsoft announced the next generation of cloud service offerings called Microsoft Office 365.   Microsoft Office 365 brings together cloud versions of our most trusted communications and collaboration products with the latest version of our desktop suite for businesses of all sizes!

It doesn’t matter if you are a small business with 1 to 25 users or a larger enterprise corporation, there is a version of Office 365 to fit.

Microsoft Office 365 includes:

• Microsoft Office Professional Plus
• Microsoft Exchange Online
• Microsoft SharePoint Online
• Microsoft Lync Online

Your small business or enterprise organization can register to participate in a limited beta.   You also get ongoing information from the Office 265 team and early notification of service availability.

Not ready to sign-up?  Check out additional information about Microsoft Office 365 at http://www.office365.com

CSC (NYSE:CSC) announced today that the State of California awarded the company a contract to migrate its current multiple e-mail applications to a cloud-based solution with Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS).

Work under this contract will support Governor Schwarzenegger’s executive order and the state’s efforts to improve information technology (IT) infrastructure, increase government efficiency, save costs and consolidate IT functions under the Office of the State Chief Information Officer.

More information: http://bit.ly/9DgMZG