Army Completes Shift of 1.4 Million Email Accounts to DISA Cloud

The service expects to save $380 million through 2017.

The Army said today it has completed transition of all its email accounts to a cloud service operated by the Defense Information Systems Agency.

The Army started the switch in February 2011, but then Congress mandated the pause the transition in early 2012 so the Pentagon could first certify the project "is in the best technical and financial interests of the Army, and provides for the maximum amount of competition possible.”

The switch includes 1.43 million unclassified email accounts and 115,000 classified accounts. The Army said it expects to save $76 million this year and $380 million through 2017 by using the DISA cloud rather than running its own email operations.

In today’s budget climate, that counts as real money.