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Google bids for US government software

Google made a pitch for more government software business on Monday, unveiling a new suite of Internet-hosted calendar, email and other products that meets official US security requirements.

The Mountain View, California-based Web giant said the latest version of Google applications, or apps, for government had received US government certification under the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA).

Google program manager Kripa Krishnan said “Google Apps for Government” were the first “cloud,” or Web-based products to receive the FISMA certification, which outlines specific public sector policy and security requirements.

“This means government customers can move to the cloud with confidence,” Krishnan said in a blog post.

Google’s move is seen as a direct challenge by the search and advertising titan to Microsoft’s ubiquitous Office spreadsheet, email, calendar and word processing programs.

Krishnan said Google Apps for Government had been designed with input from current government customers such as the cities of Los Angeles and Orlando and offer “significant cost savings.”

“With no hardware or software to install and maintain, Google Apps for Government allows agencies to redeploy resources to technology projects core to their mission of serving the public,” the Google program manager said.

Krishnan said Google Apps for Government will store sensitive information such as email and calendar data “in a segregated system located in the continental United States, exclusively for our government customers.”

Packaged software king Microsoft, in response to the threat of cloud-based products from Google, has recently begun offering its own business software solutions hosted online.