US Naval Academy goes Google with Google Apps for Government

The U.S. Naval Academy has adopted Google Apps for Government.

The Maryland-based, four-year coeducational federal service academy has offered an appliance-based email solution with secure communications to students, midshipmen, and faculty for years, but it has recently realized the “hefty license fee” it comes with is too expensive and limiting.

The USNA subsequently discovered many of its 4,400 midshipmen were using personal Gmail accounts, and so the academy decided to try Google Apps for Government instead. They assigned 100 users to Google Apps, with instructions to fully test all capabilities, and the trial eventually proved successful. The USNA has now rolled out Google Apps support to 7,200 users at the academy.

“It provided a full suite of communication and collaboration tools such as Docs and Calendar. Coincidently, Google Apps for Government also provided universal mobile access with no additional licensing costs,” explained USNA Chief Information Officer Lou Giannotti on the official Google Enterprise blog.

Aside from the USNA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Coast Guard Academy, and U.S. General Services Administration are just a few of the federal agencies currently offering Google Apps for Government. Giannotti said the USNA uses Gmail the most—roughly four terabytes of mail to be exact—and finds the chat feature very useful for communicating with midshipmen, but adoption of Docs and Calendar is steadily increasing too.

“In fact, the midshipmen and faculty create an average of 5,000 Google Docs daily. Users enjoy the sharing capabilities, enabling greater collaboration,” Giannotti added. “This is enhanced further as Google Apps allows access on any device users choose.

Get more details on the official Google Enterprise blog.