Google is winning on Microsoft’s business turf, including over 2:1 ratio in Federal agencies

The New York Times is out today with a piece that profiled Google’s Apps for Business service push and how Google has slowly captured a large cut of the market that previously belonged to Microsoft. While noting Google Apps is winning out for many businesses due to its $50 per person cost of entry, compared to Microsoft Office’s $400 per computer, the report also highlighted Google’s dominance among government agencies. According to the report that cited the General Services Administration, Google has won 23 of the 42 government contracts it competed for. Microsoft and VMware’s Zimbra won the remaining contracts:

But according to the General Services Administration, out of 42 federal government contracts for which Google and Microsoft competed in 2012, Google won 23 deals, and Microsoft 10. The rest went to another company, Zimbra, which is owned by VMware, a maker of cloud software.

Earlier this year, The Wall Street Journal noted Google Apps has generated close to $1 billion in sales, while Google also confirmed it has no plans to develop for Windows 8. However, according to Microsoft’s business division general manager Julia White, Google is not yet a threat:

Microsoft says it does not yet see a threat. Google “has not yet shown they are truly serious,” said Julia White, a general manager in Microsoft’s business division. “From the outside, they are an advertising company.” In 2011, 96 percent of Google’s revenue came from advertising.