14 DAY TRIAL // The UK's HMRC (Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs) announced they would be replacing Microsoft's software services with Google Apps in the upcoming months, as reported by The Channel.
This also means the department is willing to trust Google with its data and send information for storage abroad, which might possibly be the US out of all places.
Very ironically how the UK, one of Europe's most privacy-obsessed countries, is willing to let tax-related information be stored on servers in the country most known for spying on its allies.
Even more ironical is the fact that the HMRC is currently also investigating Google for moving profits offshore, and trying to evade paying taxes in the UK.
It's not the first time UK institutions chose Google Apps over Microsoft
The HMRC is not the first British government institution to do so, being preceded by the DCMS (Department for Culture, Media and Sport) and the Cabinet Office (the department responsible for supporting the Prime Minister and the other ministers).
On the other hand, the HMRC is much larger than the two even when put together, with over 70,000 staff, compared to their meager few thousand employees.
In a blog post in March, shortly after giving up on extended support for Windows XP and opting for Google Apps as their cloud provider, the Cabinet Office explained the decision as follows: "Other solutions (e.g. Microsoft’s 365 suite) also scored highly but the advanced collaboration and flexible working features of Google Apps were the best fit for our needs."
Can this start a trend in the UK?
This means Microsoft will be losing a large revenue stream, and if everything goes well for Google, it could even lose most of the UK government's administrative departments as well.
But everything doesn't seem to go well for Google, and especially its Google Apps division, which according to a Business Insider report is lagging way behind Microsoft 365's suite in adoption rates.