Earlier today, Google made known that Google Apps for Government is available, and a representative of Berkeley Lab has now made clear that it should be popular, too.  Dr. Rosio Alvarez, Chief Information Officer at the institution, discussed the migration process in a special blog post this afternoon.

On the Official Google Enterprise Blog, Alvarez explained that Berkeley Lab is in the middle of "the first production rollout of Google Apps in the Department of Energy," and it’s apparently going quite well.  Great, even.

On the financial side of things, estimates indicate that as much as $2 million may be saved over the next five years thanks to the switch.  Which is a nice sum of money that taxpayers and politicians will find difficult to ignore.

What’s more, the actual people at Berkeley Lab seem to approve of the change.  In reference to Google Sites and Google Docs, Alvarez wrote about helpful features and improved collaboration, and below, you can see results from the Gmail Migration Survey.

Those are some pretty positive findings, and considering the caliber of people who work at Berkeley Lab (11 researchers have won the Nobel Prize), they make for a very strong endorsement of Google Apps.

It should be interesting to see which other government organizations show interest in Google Apps over the next few months.