Washington DC has a big change in store - and its not just a new president.

The District’s 38,000 employees are making the switch from Microsoft Office to Google Apps. This summer, DC’s Chief Technology Officer, Vivek Kundra, signed a deal with Google worth an estimated $500,000 per year. As part of the contract, the District will drop the installed Microsoft Office Suite for Google’s web-based email and collaboration tools.

With the current state of the economy, everyone is looking for ways to cut costs. After studying Google’s cloud computing model, Kundra determined that its a significantly cheaper solution with the same powerful technology as Microsoft.

Although research agency Gartner reports that Microsoft still has 90%-95% of the office applications market, this switch marks an important win for Google. State and local governments are generally the last market to adopt new technologies, proving that Google Apps is quickly becoming a trusted office suite since its release in 2006.

This move positions Google as a growing threat to Microsoft.

Sources:
Google Apps Unseats Incumbent Microsoft Office in Washington, DC
Washington DC latest to drop Microsoft for web apps