Sign in / up

back to article EPA likes clouds – as long as they're Microsoft's

Microsoft's ongoing fight to transfer its lucrative government business from software to the cloud has received a major boost with a deal to sell 25,000 Office 365 licenses to the Environmental Protection Agency. The $9.8m contract to supply the EPA with cloudy applications for the next four years was won by Microsoft reseller …

COMMENTS

House rules Send corrections
This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. David Kelly 2

    $100 per seat per year

    I'm sorry but I don't think $100 per seat per year is much of a deal unless it includes the computer hardware. Just how is this software better than OpenOffice? Perhaps 1 in 20 users will ever notice a function missing from OO and less than 1 in 100 inconvenienced.

    3 3
    1. Chris Miller
      Reply Icon

      Re: $100 per seat per year

      Don't forget that this is a 'cloud' implementation - outright purchase of Office would cost a large government agency around $30 a seat, the extra is going to pay for storage and CPU power on the MS cloud. If you want to compare equivalent costs with OO, you need to include a contract with Amazon, Google or someone for those resources (I've little idea what that would be as I have no interest in the proposition, but a few $ a month a seat might well cover it).

      You may be right about those who would be inconvenienced, but if one of the 1 in 20 is a CxO (or their PA) you may be heading for a world of pain. And you might be surprised how many organisations use Office macros, which don't migrate easily to OO - collection/validation of monthly financials from first-line supervisors is a good one.

      2 1
    2. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: $100 per seat per year

      ... and less than 1 in 10,000 will have even heard of 'Open' Office.

      It is crap, always has been, and is only used by people who like to post pictures of penguins.

      2 2
    3. RICHTO
      Reply Icon
      Mushroom

      Re: $100 per seat per year

      It does include the computer hardware.

      0 3
    4. Matt Bryant Silver badge
      Reply Icon
      FAIL

      Re: $100 per seat per year

      "....Perhaps 1 in 20 users ...." Every time there's a new release of OO I convince myself it's a godd idea to try it, and every time I'm back on MS Office within a few weeks.

      2 2
  2. WonkoTheSane
    Big Brother

    The real problem with cloud computing...

    https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/10/governments-attack-cloud-computing

    2 0
This topic is closed for new posts.

Other stories you might like