Tech-Savvy Chicago Will Be All in the Clouds

On Thursday, Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced that Chicago is “adopting a cloud strategy for all employee email and desktop applications,” according to a press release from his office. In all, the move will save taxpayers $400,000 per year and also consolidate the city’s “disparate” email systems for 30,000 city employees across all departments.

The move is being facilitated by Microsoft’s cloud computing for government platform as part of a four-year agreement. And in case you didn’t know, Microsoft has a large presence right here in Chicago — one that’s particularly friendly to entrepreneurs. (Sonal Mane, the company’s startup evangelist, is largely to thank for the recent Startup Weekend which took place in 1871’s Excelerate Labs’ working space.)

“We are leveraging new technologies to streamline and modernize the way we do business in order to provide the residents of Chicago with the best service at the best price,” Emanuel said.

According to the city’s Department of Innovation, the migration will be done by year’s end.

Read the full release here.

David Wolinsky is a freelance writer and a lifelong Chicagoan. In addition to currently serving as an interviewer-writer for Adult Swim, he's also a comedy-writing instructor for Second City. He was the Chicago city editor for The Onion A.V. Club where he provided in-depth daily coverage of this city's bustling arts/entertainment scene for half a decade. When not playing video games for work he's thinking of dashing out to Chicago Diner, Pizano's, or Yummy Yummy. His first career aspirations were to be a game-show host.

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