LA Google Move Stalled due to Security Concerns

As you might have seen Diana tweet about over the weekend, there’s some interesting fall-out going on in reference to the City of LA’s move to Google Apps.  The migration is somewhat stalled due to security concerns raised by – among others – the LAPD.

I’m a huge fan of the cloud-based paradigm shift that seems to be going on right now, but I’ve also been pretty concerned security-wise.  It seems to me that it’s important to make sure security is addressed in the model – after all, the cloud vendor crowd may not be as invested in the security of your data as you are.  So this development in re: Google/LA makes me a bit more optimistic than I have been.

As you may know, I’ve had a hard time getting my head around the lack of security concern from folks making use of some of these services.  I’ve been watching people adopt services like Google Health with some consternation. I just can’t understand how providers are justifying deploying this.  But now the LAPD have stepped up and said that they’re not comfortable with the security measures currently implemented.  So, gogo LAPD.  Despite the tremendous static I’m sure you received internally to the city government, there are some of us watching from the sidelines who are reassured by your caution.

You did the right thing.