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"Microsoft's Business Productivity Online Suite for governments (BPOS-Federal) has received Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) certification.\r\n\r\nMicrosoft also announced that, due in part to this new certification, the United States Department of Agriculture will move its 120,000 employees' &amp;quot;e-mail and productivity applications to Microsoft\u2019s [BPOS-Federal] cloud infrastructure.&amp;quot;\r\n\r\nThe USDA is the first cabinet level Federal agency to move to the cloud, according to the Redmond giant.\r\n\r\nFISMA certification is a hot topic in the enterprise and governmental software worlds. There is a current spat between Google, the US government, and Microsoft over whether or not Google's 'Google Apps for Government' product has FISMA certification. There is evidence that it does, and some that it does not.\r\n\r\nEither way, Microsoft's competing product now does have the\u00A0certification, and a massive Federal client to back up the claim.\r\n\r\nAccording to Microsoft the company is working on even more certifications: &amp;quot;We \u00A0[Microsoft] plan to pursue FISMA certification and accreditation for Office 365, our next generation cloud productivity suite, after it launches.&amp;quot;\r\n\r\nOffice 365 launched into beta this week.\u00A0The company seems determined to grow its government market share:\r\n\u201CNearly every federal agency trusts their productivity needs to Microsoft Office, Exchange, and SharePoint today,\u201D [Curt Kolcun, vice president of U.S. Public Sector for Microsoft]\u00A0said. \u201CFrom a momentum perspective, I think this announcement is going to be a phenomenal catalyst to drive more interest from the federal CIO community to think about moving their full messaging suite applications to the cloud with Microsoft.\u201D\r\nProvided that Google can sort its FISMA status out, it could give Microsoft a run for its money. But if it does have to re-apply for that sticker of approval, it could find itself significantly behind."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://thenextweb.com/microsoft/2011/04/20/microsofts-bpos-federal-system-receives-fisma-certification-lands-usda-as-customer/>