A quarter of a million US Army soldiers will use Google Workspace to collaborate with the tech giant.
Google Cloud did it announcement last week, after the service was awarded Impact Level 4 license issued by the Department of Defense in July, which sanctions its use to process controlled non-classified information such as defense and intelligence.
The partnership is the result of the creation of a new division of the company, Google Public Sector, responsible for providing cloud-based services to local and federal public institutions in the US in order to improve their operations.
Google Workspace in the public sector
Due to the unique challenges of employment in the military, hybrid work and collaboration is common. Google Public Sector cites the ease of use of their services as the primary reason why they are useful in the military.
Google is also working with cloud infrastructure company SADA, which specializes in building organizations that use Google Cloud to facilitate the transition of military personnel.
The ever-increasing threat of cybercrime in the military context has clearly not deterred the US Army from taking the decision to adopt such a large cloud computing initiative. This certainty can come from Google Workspace no trust policy, now considered the gold standard of cloud security.
Put simply, every user, regardless of their location, must be authenticated before being granted access.
Common methods of zero trust enforcement include two-factor authentication (2FA), which requires the user to have another device, usually a smartphone, with which to verify their identity and grant access to the service on their primary device.
The agreement with the US military is just another example of how Google’s cloud services are attracting the attention of public sectors around the world.
In 2020, the UK government signed a contract with Google Cloud to bring cloud computing to public sector services such as the National Health Service (NHS). Whereas in 2022 the state of New York announced that it will work with Google Public Sector to introduce cloud computing into an air quality monitoring initiative.
Cloud computing has advantages in a world that has shifted to hybrid work. However, it remains to be seen whether Google’s Zero Trust Principles can still protect ordinary people’s data in the face of increasing cloud dependence.