US state government to save £8.5 million with transition to Google Workspace

West Virginia has signed a multi-year agreement to enable its digital transformation, to help the state drive cost savings, innovation, and enhanced IT security.

The deal ensures full access to enterprise-level Google Workspace capabilities for all 22,000 state employees at a projected cost-savings of US$11.5 million. Google Workspace is Google Cloud's cloud-based productivity and collaboration solution.

At a time when state governments are facing budget shortages amid the pandemic, adopting Google Workspace will help drive significant cost savings for West Virginia, while keeping the state on the forefront of technology advancements.

West Virginia Governor Jim Justice said:

This collaboration – West Virginia and Google – is truly going to allow us to serve the people of this state better than ever, and the people should be proud of the fact that we got a great deal and will be saving millions and millions of dollars in the process. It’s an incredibly exciting opportunity for us to be able to work with a tech giant like Google. This is another example of how the best of the best companies are seeing all the goodness we’re building in West Virginia and want to be a part of our momentum.

In addition to cost savings, Google Workspace’s enterprise-grade collaboration and security capabilities will make it easier for state employees to continue to work remotely and securely during the pandemic. These include: 

• Data Loss Prevention: Data Loss Prevention tools in Google Workspace can detect sensitive data contained within emails, stored files, databases, and images, then redact or remove the information before it is unintentionally exposed.
• Access Control Policies: Based on the “zero trust” security model pioneered by Google, as well as BeyondCorp technologies, Google Workspace’s context-aware Access Control Policies allow system administrators to create granular access applications based on employee identity, IP address, time of day, and more.
• Advanced video meeting capabilities: Google Meet enables officials to host or join secure video meetings with up to 250 participants, broadcast live streams to as many as 100,000 viewers, and record and save meetings to Google Drive.

Mike Daniels, Vice President, Global Public Sector, Google Cloud, said:

Google Cloud is committed to our partnership with West Virginia, and we look forward to helping them transition to a flexible, secure and innovative way of working, collaborating and serving constituents. Google Workspace’s advanced productivity and collaboration tools can help state employees become more efficient and productive in their daily work, while also allowing them to better deliver citizen services.

Google Cloud’s agreement with the state of West Virginia builds on similar agreements with other state governments, including Arizona, Colorado, and Wyoming among others.