<p>The city of Boston is cutting ties with Microsoft Exchange and is moving its 75,000 employees and education users to Google Apps.</p><p>In its announcement Friday, the city said the switch was prompted by a need for a more modern and scalable platform for e-mail, collaboration and document storage.</p><p>"This decision represents an important step forward for the City," said Boston Chief Information Officer Bill Oates in a prepared statement. "We want to equip all City employees with easy-to-use tools that allow them be more productive and innovative in their jobs, as well as a system that can scale to keep up with the City's demands."</p><p>Boston previously used on-premises Exchange and Symantec Vault products, which on average cost $8.25 per user per month to maintain. The city expects a move to the cloud-based Google Apps will slash that cost by 30 percent each year.</p><p><a href="http://rcpmag.com/articles/2013/05/13/boston-dumps-microsoft-for-google.aspx">Keep reading...</a></p><p>Read also:</p><p><a href="http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2267617/microsoft-slams-google-services-as-insecure-as-boston-ditches-exchange-for-gmail">Microsoft slams Google services as insecure as Boston ditches Exchange for ...</a> (Inquirer)</p><p><a href="http://www.v3.co.uk/v3-uk/news/2267773/city-of-boston-dumps-microsoft-software-for-google-apps">City of Boston dumps Microsoft software for Google Apps</a> (V3.co.uk)</p><p><a href="http://www.networkworld.com/community/blog/comedian-rob-schneider-stars-google-docs-microsoft-office-365-videos">Comedian Rob Schneider stars as Google Docs in Microsoft Office 365 videos</a> (Network World (blog))</p><p>Explore: <a href="http://news.google.com/news/more?ncl=dYcZeJS1kSDpaPMmsyDgdkTH9rfBM&ned=us">16 additional articles.</a></p>