The Department of Veteran Affairs (VA), has moved 15,000 employee email accounts to Google Apps for Government, announced Charles De Sanno, Executive Director of Enterprise Systems Engineering, Department of Veteran Affairs. The five-year contract will eventually move 600,000 users to cloud services provided by Microsoft. The agency is expected to complete its migration early next year. The move is providing government employees many of the same benefits as when businesses migrate to the cloud including improved efficiency, savings and service. The Department of Veteran Affairs is the second US federal agency to move to cloud email. Earlier to this, the General Services Administration (GSA) announced its move to cloud. Moving to the cloud enables the VA to fulfill the cloud-first federal mandate while anticipating improved employee productivity and collaboration and reduced costs. The VA will use Microsoft Office 365 for Government, which features a separate community cloud, for email, shared calendars, instant messaging, and Web and video conferencing. It also includes industry-leading applications for productivity and collaboration including cloud-based Office, Exchange, Lync and SharePoint. VA provides a wide range of benefits including, Disability, Education and Training, Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment, Home Loan Guaranty, Dependant and Survivor Benefits, Medical Treatment, Life Insurance and Burial Benefits. Veterans Administration Transformation Twenty-One Total Technology’ (VA T4) was launched in 2010. This US$12 billion programme aims to improve the department’s execution of IT projects and further advance top-priority programmes for veterans. The initiative will award 15 contracts, at least four of which are reserved for service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses and three for veteran-owned small businesses. The contract worth US$9.8 million is expected to save the agency, $12 million over four years by moving its 25,000 employees from the current on-premises email system to cloud.