GSA

On the Google Enterprise blog today, General Manager of Enterprise Search Matthew Eichner introduced the latest version of the yellow “Google in a box” search solution for enterprises. GSA 7.0 brings new features nearly 10 years after first introducing the appliance, including: Google-quality search for SharePoint 2010, better smartphone and tablet integration, and refined speed and relevance with assisted navigation and Entity Recognition:

The GSA 7.0 helps you find information stored anywhere in your organization, whether you’re using a desktop, smartphone or tablet. Administrators can easily add content sources from secure storage, cloud services or the public web and social networking sites. GSA 7.0 also provides Google-quality search for SharePoint 2010, making for a more simple and intuitive, all-in-one search experience.

Google described of the other new features in GSA 7.0 including document preview, Google translate, support for more languages, and an improved UI:
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GSA shares Google’s love for electric cars so they helped launch Electric Vehicle Pilot Program in May. Pictured above: GSA’s administrator Martha N. Johnson behind the wheel of a patriotically painted electric car.

Another day, another big enterprise, education institution or government agency goes Google. Today, it’s the US General Services Administration’s (GSA) turn. The search company has made public on the Google Enterprise blog that in just six months GSA has managed to migrate over 17,000 employees and contractors to Google Apps for Government.

“By moving to the cloud, GSA hopes to serve as a model for other federal agencies”, Google writes. Just the move to Gmail-hosted email will save them $15 million over five years. The switch was gradual as hundreds of early adopters at GSA later provided assistance to their colleagues in making the switch. This is in start contract to the traditional approach involving a large IT department, outside consultancy firms and expensive support and training staff.

GSA teams are now enjoying the Google Chrome for Business browser to run web apps such as Google Docs, Gmail, Calendar, Sites, Google-hosted videos and other custom-built applications running off the Google Apps infrastructure. Last month,  the state of Wyoming transitioned all 10,000 state employees onto Google Apps for Government.

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