Microsoft wins 25,000-employee Office 365 contract with the EPA

Lockheed Martin stirs up images of fighter jets, high-tech stealth warships, and missile defense systems. Turns out it also does boring old IT management services.

With Microsoft, Lockheed Martin announced today that it won a four-year, $9.8 million contract with the Environmental Protection Agency to supply Office 365 for Government. That’s a version of Microsoft’s newest Office suite that uses segregated cloud space to keep official business separate from the average Joe’s shopping lists.

As part of the contract, Lockheed Martin will manage the migration of 25,000 EPS employees to the new software, including new email and collaboration tools, which the company expects to complete in early 2013.

The fact that Office 365 is cloud-based was an important part of the deal, as Microsoft is claiming environmental benefits:

“Microsoft cloud services are backed by the latest innovations in datacenter design and energy efficiency,” Microsoft VP Greg Myers said in a statement, “providing agencies with a unique opportunity to help reduce their energy consumption, generate cost savings, and reduce the environmental impact of their overall technology footprint.”

Green cloud services can reduce carbon footprints by huge percentages — as high as 90 — but can also be less efficient in some scenarios. There are even a few cloud computing providers, such as Iceland’s GreenQloud, that are entirely green-energy powered.

According to the release, the $9.8 million contract is expected to save the EPA about $12 million over the next four years.

photo credit: Robert Scoble via photopin cc