The city of Boston has announced that it will ditch Microsoft’s communication software by moving its school and government workers to Google Apps.

Boston’s chief operating officer Bill Oates says the move will allow the city to modernise and reduce total overhead. However, Microsoft representatives say the switch will leave Boston with a poorly secured infrastructure.

“This decision represents an important step forward for the City,” said Oates.

“We want to equip all city employees with easy-to-use tools that allow them be more productive and innovative in their jobs, as well as a system that can scale to keep up with the city’s demands.”

The switch to Google will see Boston city workers start to use Gmail, Hangouts, Drive, and Docs. Workers will be migrated from previous on-site solutions such as Microsoft Exchange and Symantec Vault.

City officials predict that the move to Google’s cloud will reduce annual expenses by over 30 percent. The city’s current Microsoft services cost Boston an average of $8.25 per user each month.

However, Microsoft said the decision to go with Google could lead to future security and privacy concerns.

“We believe the citizens of Boston deserve cloud productivity tools that protect the security and privacy of their data,” a Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement sent into V3.

“Google’s investments in these areas are inadequate and they lack the proper protections most organizations require.”

Microsoft’s harsh words continue its lengthy PR battle with the search giant. Last Month, Redmond went after Google Apps. During one of its ‘Scroogled’ ad campaigns, the firm accused its competitor of sharing user’s personal information with developers.

Earlier this year, Microsoft also shot barbs at Gmail. Last February, Microsoft accused Google of skimming through its users email in a bid to offer up improved targeted ads.

V3 contacted Google for a statement on the news. However, the search giant had no comment at the time of publication.