No wonder Microsoft is always up in arms about Google and their app services. Microsoft is making bank off the American people. Ever wonder why taxes are so high, blame Microsoft. All kidding aside though, Colorado announced today that the state will be adopting Google Apps across the state. This move will be for all Colorado state employees and primarily focus with email and calendar services.

Moving to the Google Apps for Government edition will migrate more than 26,000 Executive Branch state employees to the cloud. The Governors Office states that this move will save the state approximately $2 million per year.

The Government edition of Google Apps is essentially everything we are all used to using on a daily basis, with a few exceptions. It features secure Google data centers with FISMA certification, Gmail powered by Postini and integrated with Microsoft Outlook. They will have Google Docs, Calendar and Google Site access as well. There is also a secure video sharing service. Which is like YouTube, but with out all the garbage and not visible to the world.

Wyoming also made a similar move for their government employees, cutting state costs down but $1 million annually. Imagine if the entire U.S. got on board, but then again, that would put Google inc control the U.S. Maybe that isn’t such a great idea.

The Governor’s Office of Information Technology (OIT) has selected Google to provide email and calendar services for all Colorado state employees. This decision will allow the state to eliminate disjointed and aging email systems and provide a single email solution to all employees, while saving approximately $2 million per year.

Source: Colorado.gov via 9to5Google