The Environmental Protection Agency will move its roughly 18,000 employees to a cloud-based email and collaboration system by early 2013, EPA said in a statement Friday.
Officials expect the Microsoft-based email and collaboration system to save the agency about $12 million over four years, according to the statement.
EPA contracted with Lockheed Martin Corp. to make the transition from its legacy system. The value of the contract is $9.8 million.
The government expects to ultimately save about $5 billion annually by moving about one-fourth of its information technology to more nimble cloud computing. Email has been a popular item for agencies to move to the cloud because it presents comparatively low security concerns and cloud storage makes it easier for employees to access email, calendars and collaboration tools from personal computers, smartphones and tablets.
The General Services Administration, Agriculture Department and a handful of others already have moved their email systems to the cloud. More agencies are in the process of doing so, including the Labor Department.
(Image via Jozsef Bagota/Shutterstock.com)
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