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Google Wins Injunction Against Agency Using Microsoft Cloud
jfruhlinger writes "A judge has granted an injunction stopping the US Department of the Interior from moving forward with the adoption of Microsoft's cloud services. The injunction was sought by Google, which of course has its own suite of cloud offerings. Google claimed that the Interior Dept. failed to consider other options as required."
When a company has to litigate to get customers/compete, it's not a good sign.
On the other hand, when the government simply decides to go with an existing vendor without considering other options, it's also not a good sign. After all, we don't want government wasting money on inferior solutions, do we?
... and then they built the supercollider.
If is done by Microsoft, is probably vapor or smoke (and mirrors).
You really think the Department of the Interior manager who made this purchasing decision is an IT person?
Google doesn't give a shit about some measly $56 million, 5-year contact with DOI. That's chickenfeed to them, and they know that contract will eventually go to Microsoft anyway. They're sending a message to other potential government customers that if they play fast and loose with the bidding rules, the big dog will crap on their house.
Especially when that existing vendor is a serial felon all over the world.
And lets be honest folks: There is probably a damned good reason why they were looking at MS products only, and it was most likely because they have an assload of MS Stuff that would cost a mint to convert. I mean if they require Exchange and Sharepoint, they have a metric ton of VBA stuff being used, and Windows desktops everywhere, why in the hell should they be forced to accept bids that won't work? If Google wanted to submit bids on MS products as a VAR that is one thing, but Google docs ain't no MS Word.
It would be like forcing a design house to accept bids from some guy who wanted to rip out all their Macs and replace it with Ubuntu desktops running the Gimp. Does ANYBODY think that is a useful bid? Would they ever in a million years give up all that experience and custom in house code written for Photoshop just to use the Gimp? of course not.
By the same token I bet if we walked into the DOI tomorrow and did an audit on what they are running you'd find a bazillion Windows desktops, with tons of VBA macros, everything controlled by Active directory, with Exchange and Sharepoint. What good will come of having to waste tax dollars on a bid for a solution that won't actually solve anything? Is Google gonna pay to rewrite all that code for free? Are they gonna spring for the cost of retraining everyone out of the goodness of their hearts? No in the end they'll make the DOI jump through hoops before they finally hand them a list that says "These are the MS products we require, because all our stuff is tied into that and we will NOT pay for a complete overhaul!" and then Google will say "Uhhh...sorry we don't sell MS Products" and the money will have been blown for exactly jack and squat. If the DOI had said only MSFT was allowed to bid that would be one thing, but this is just stupid. It is trying to force a product that the customer does not want because they don't want a competitor to sell them a product they DO want. And in the end it is just that more added to the debt for absolutely nothing gained.
Pitiful actions and bad form Google, and from someone that has as much marketshare as you do it just comes off as looking petty and vengeful.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
They very well may have good reasons to go with MS and not Google, but they have to actually do the paperwork on said reasons. They are a government agency and have to show not only that they considered alternatives, but why they rejected them. In this case they did neither.
That's the problem.
The box of screws at your local Home Depot is targeted at some spec [say, attach block of wood 1 to block of wood 2, of various types, with certain minimum/maximum dimensions]
The majority of screws in that box meet or exceed that spec. But it is unlikely that all of them do, and it is unlikely that the few screws that don't meet the spec will be used in a situation where someones life is at stake.
Mil Spec may be lower, but all the screws in that box better meet that spec, because the whole system is designed to need that spec, and lives will directly depend on that screw meeting that spec, and if that screw fails, the military will sort through their records, find the QA person on the line that approved that screw, beat them to a pulp, then order twice as much of the same from that company.
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
Why should someone who has have to give it up for someone who hasn't?
Because the are disproportionately benefiting from those taxes?
A substantial percentage of US government aid in the last decade went to people with a net worth of over 50 million dollars.
A decent percentage of Military spending is spent to reward the contributors to Congressional campaigns, which makes that spending essentially Communism for the rich.
(Why do you think Lockheed Martin donates to Nancy Pelosi?)
The average Republican gets more financial aid from the US Government than they pay in taxes, the average Democrat gets less in financial aid from the US Government than they pay in taxes.
I'm not sure why so many people that are well off have this delusion that they receive no help from the government. It is almost as nonsensical as Justice Thomas complaining about the beneficiaries of affirmative action. (Justice Thomas would not have been admitted to his law school without affirmative action.)
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