The Los Angeles City Council has voted to go with Google for their email needs and also to use Google Apps. and more. L.A. will be the first major U.S. city to use Google over other rivals like Microsoft. This has been a hard fought win for the search giant, and if successful, could entice other cities to go with Google as well.

The L.A. Times article also states:

Before the vote, several council members had voiced objections to the contract, including whether the city would see any real cost savings, as Google had contended, and when the new system would be ready to store data from law enforcement, where security standards are more rigorous.

Because Los Angeles will be among the earliest adopters of the Google system, council members expressed concern that the city might be signing on before Google’s cloud system was fully proven.

“It’s unclear if this is cutting edge, or the edge of a cliff and we’re about to step off,” said Councilman Paul Koretz.

The contract was approved pending an amendment that would require Google to compensate the city in the event that the Google system was breached and city data exposed or stolen. No such clause existed in the contract.

Google has been working hard to gather support for its cloud system and use of its apps in the sky. This experiment should be a proving ground on how well Google can pull this off, or fall flat on its face.

What do you think? Is the cloud here to stay?

Comments welcome.

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