Google Apps Reseller, Daston, Wins City of St. Louis Cloud Deal

Daston Corp., a Google Apps Premier Reseller, has won a deal to migrate the City of St. Louis, Mo., to Google Apps for Government.

Daston specializes in multiple cloud platforms and SaaS applications, including Google Apps, NetSuite, Amazon Web Services and kloudtrack.

In a prepared statement, St. Louis Mayer Francis G. Slay wrote:

“With an email system that held us back, we wanted to find a new system. After evaluating several competitive bids, the City of St. Louis selected cloud-based Google Apps for Government because it best suits our needs for a reliable, secure, and cost-effective email system. Our employees are not only able to access email reliably at their desks, but will be able to stay connected, anytime, anywhere. This will likely make them more productive; it will certainly make them happier. Because Google is a familiar and trusted brand (and many employees currently use Gmail for their personal email), I’m confident that this will be a smooth transition.”

Daston is no stranger to the Google Apps for Government market. The company has already migrated the City of Pittsburgh, Pa., to Google Apps — shifting nearly 3,000 city employees away from Microsoft Exchange 2003. The migration required four months in 2011, and is expected to save the City of Pittsburgh, Pa., 25 percent or more in annual email support costs.

Although some channel partners worry about low margins in the SaaS market, the industry for Google Apps consulting and migration services appears to be growing rapidly. Roughly 30 percent of the world’s top cloud services providers and cloud integrators offer Google Apps expertise to their customers, according to the second-annual Talkin’ Cloud 50 survey. (Complete results will surface May 16 during a webcast.)