Now all of the state government's 10,000 employees use Google Apps for Government, a platform that provides extra security to Google's business app suite: Gmail, Docs, Sites, Video, and Calendar.
At a press event to announce the "first," David Girouard, president of Enterprise Google, said the migration was a "powerful message to send to the nation" in light of the current affairs.
"There's budget crises, there's technology that is being underfunded and getting older by the day, there are challenges with data security because of the legacy systems," he said. "Cloud computing really does present a better path forward. It's a more efficient use of taxpayer dollars, which everyone cares about. It's safer technology. Even better than that, it's technology that doesn't get old—you're never on an old version in cloud computing."
In recent weeks government properties have been a popular target among hackers, including attacks on the FBI and the U.S. Senate Web Site.
Google launched Google Apps for Government last July at the price of $50 per user, per year. Google took two additional steps to safeguard data: the company has located the servers serving its government customers solely within the United States, and the Google Apps for Government servers are also physically segregated from the severs provided for business customers.
Google also picked up an FISMA (Federal Information Security Management Act) "Moderate"-level security clearance last summer, which allows Google to secure sensitive but not classified information.
Editor's note: This story was updated at 6:30pm ET clarifying Mr. Girouard's comments.