Inside the Transportation Department’s technology transformation

The agency took a step in its digital transformation journey in September by striking a deal with Google, through the General Services Administration’s OneGov program.

The Transportation Department will soon run on Google Workspace, fulfilling part of the department’s “1DOT IT” strategy to unify and strengthen the sprawling 55,000-employee department and completely modernize its IT infrastructure.

As first reported by Nextgov/FCW, Transportation inked a five-year contract in September worth up to $89 million to move from Microsoft’s collaboration suite to Google’s cloud-based productivity and collaboration tools — Gmail, Docs, Meet and more — and also incorporate Google’s popular AI tools, Gemini and NotebookLM.

Google’s significantly discounted rates negotiated through its April ‘OneGov’ agreement with the General Services Administration first got the Transportation Department’s attention, according to Deputy Chief Information Officer Jack Albright, but technology-enablement ultimately proved the deciding factor for the new partnership ...