Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) Office 365 Blows Into Windy City

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) did have a time not too long ago when there was virtually no competition for its enterprise and government digital infrastructure. When it came to business networks, academic institutions and government agencies, Microsoft was the clear choice among IT professionals for their workstations and servers. But in the last couple of years, Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) introduced Google Apps to provide an alternative for cloud computing in enterprise and government spaces, and it had made some serious inroads.

That is why the City of Chicago is a large battleground for both companies. And word is, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) has won that battle. So will it win the war, maintain its enterprise dominance and continue to be a blue-chip tech winner for investors like billionaire David Einhorn of Greenlight Capital?

With the blessing of Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who has committed to improving government efficiency in the city, the City of Chicago recently agreed to switch its 30,000 city employees to Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) and its Office 365 cloud-computing software and services, choosing it over Google Apps among others. In announcing the agreement, Michael Donlan of Microsoft wrote in a blog post that Chicago is the latest of several U.S. cities that have seen the value of using Office 365 and it cloud capabilities in enterprise environments.

Once fully implemented, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) estimates that Office 365 will save Chicago city taxpayers about $400,000 annually.  The new system will apply to all e-mail and desktop applications across all departments – under the current system, Chicago has three different internal e-mail systems, for example. It is expected, then, that consolidation would improve efficiency and security across all offices of city government, making government more responsive. Now that we’ve heard from Microsoft, what does the City of Chicago have to say?

In a statement, city chief information officer Brett Goldstein said, “The cloud strategy gives city employees the ability to do their jobs more effectively while saving taxpayer dollars, decreasing duplication among departments and streamlining our operations across the board.” As of 10:30 a.m. ET Friday, Microsoft stock was quoting just north of $27 per share, down about 0.8 percent on the day.

Do you consider this a big deal for Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)? How important is cloud computing to future success of Microsoft or Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)? We’d like your opinions, so give us some feedback as to where you think this battle stands and which company you think will ultimately win.

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