West Virginia to move state employees to Google Workspace

West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice on Thursday announced that the state’s executive branch agencies will start using Google’s suite of cloud-based productivity and collaboration applications as their main business software.

The migration, which is part of a multi-year agreement between the state and Google, is expected to affect about 22,000 employees. Justice’s office also said the move will save the state government about $11.5 million.

“This collaboration – West Virginia and Google – is truly going to allow us to serve the people of this state better than ever, and the people should be proud of the fact that we got a great deal and will be saving millions and millions of dollars in the process,” Justice said in a press release.

Google Workspace — which was recently rebranded from G Suite — includes apps such as Gmail, Google Drive, Calendar and Meet video-conferencing. West Virginia officials also plan to make use of the package’s security and management tools, including endpoint detection, data loss protection and identity and access controls.

Currently, West Virginia state employees use Microsoft Office for productivity and Outlook for email management, according to the state’s Office of Technology. Now, West Virginia joins several other states that have adopted Google’s products for their productivity, calendar and conferencing functions, including Arizona, Wyoming and Colorado.