A proposal to switch Los Angeles city government’s email (opens in new tab) and some other computer applications to a "cloud computing (opens in new tab)" system operated by Internet giant Google is moving even slower at City Hall than dial-up speed.
The proposal, which would in effect put 30,000 city email accounts on the premium version of Gmail, was to have been discussed at a meeting today of City Council’s Information Technology and General Services (ITGS) Committee. But Council ran late and the ITGS meeting was canceled.
The first time the Google plan was on the ITGS agenda was two weeks ago. With two committee members absent then, the issue was held over for discussion today. Now the meeting has been rescheduled for next Tuesday.
After ITGS considers the plan, it goes to the Budget and Finance Committee before being taken up by the full Council.
This slow pace isn’t a bad thing. Moving into "cloud computing," where data is stored on someone else’s servers and accessed through the Internet, is fraught with security and privacy concerns. The L.A. Police Department is among those who have raised concerns (opens in new tab) about the Google proposal.
I’m not upset at the pace. The only thing a hasty move to Google’s cloud would ensure for L.A. is stormy weather.
