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Introduction
The benefits of moving to the cloud are numerous. Someone else
now handles server and application setup, configuration, and
system management, reducing personnel costs and increasing
convenience and access for your employees. Microsoft Office
365 and Google Apps for Business are both comprehensive
office productivity and communication tools for businesses
looking to move to the cloud. But the two solutions have
significant differences. This resource provides a breakdown of the
differences and demonstrates each solution’s strengths to help
guide decision-makers based on their company’s priorities and
needs.
Which iS RiGhT
FOR YOuR BuSineSS?
Office 365 vs. Google Apps
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Where Google Apps Wins
Pricing
Google Apps is cheaper to adopt, cheaper to maintain, and cheaper to operate. Office 365 is
significantly more expensive than Google Apps and in fact, Office 365 often isn’t much less expensive
than the traditional installed version of Microsoft Office, exchange and SharePoint Server that it is likely
replacing. if you’re moving your office software systems to the cloud to save staff and money, Google
Apps is the clear winner.
Google Apps Pricing Plans
Google Apps
Google Apps
with Vault
Price/
User
$5/month or
$50/year
$10/month
Office 365 Pricing Plans
E1
Midsize
E3
E4
Price/
User
$8/month $15/month $20/month $22/month
user interface and ease of use
At the end of the day, software solutions aren’t very effective if your employees have difficulty using
them. Google Apps for Business is designed around ease of use, and its simplified feature set is
reflected in an intuitive interface. The learning curve for Google Apps is shorter than that of Office 365,
so longtime desktop Office users will have little trouble adopting it. Google Drive is very familiar, simple,
and easy to use.
Online collaboration and File Storage
For many businesses, online collaboration is a major reason to adopt Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)
applications. Google accomplishes online file-sharing and collaboration through Google Drive, while
Microsoft does it through SharePoint Online and Office Web Apps.
Google’s streamlined feature set, barebones interface, and dead-simple sharing options are all
designed for easy collaboration. This is not to say Microsoft doesn’t have a case to make. it has
structured workflows, offline productivity, and advanced storage management that Google cannot
boast. But with regards to ease of collaboration, it’s Google for the win.
Where Office 365 Wins
instant Messaging, Web conferencing, Voice chat and Voice Features
Google Apps supports text instant messaging and voice over iP (VOiP) via Google Talk and calling
to actual telephone numbers via Google Voice. Microsoft matches its level of functionality with two
options - its Lync Online service and its Lync Server. Lync Online is a cloud-based service with many
features including web conferencing for up to 250 participants where Google Plus hangouts are
limited to ten participants. Lync Server is an on-premise solution that is more expensive but has
numerous advantages and can completely integrate your business’s traditional phone system with
the rest of your communications infrastructure. The comprehensive nature of Microsoft’s solution,
especially at the enterprise level, deems it the winner of this category.
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intranet integration
Both applications have services for the simple creation of websites to include an intranet (Microsoft
SharePoint & Google Sites). Google’s solution is more intuitive but also pretty limited. it provides
basic customization and collaboration, but Google Drive doesn’t directly integrate into Google Sites.
Sharepoint sites can be heavily customized in comparison and has automated workflow functions to
directly post Office documents to a SharePoint site or route documents for approval by certain users.
in the end, Microsoft is more heavily ingrained in the management side of websites and SharePoint
has the flexibility that complex enterprise environments might demand.
Active Directory integration
Google and Microsoft both provide tools to sync local Active Directory users. Both are one-way
synchronization of many types of data, but Microsoft has the leg up here because more information
can be synced from its Active Directory than Google’s – structure levels, groups, and so on.
Offline Support
Although the services we’re looking at have guaranteed uptime percentages (Microsoft and Google
both promise 99.9% availability), Microsoft’s e3 and e4 plans include desktop versions of Microsoft
Office that don’t require an internet connection to create and edit documents. Google provides offline
support via its chrome web browser but support is limited to mail, documents and spreadsheets. The
Google Drive desktop client mitigates some of Microsoft’s advantage by allowing offline access to
documents stored in Drive, but Drive documents created online are often impossible to edit without
internet access, and traditional documents require a desktop editor – like OpenOffice or Microsoft
Office – which Google doesn’t supply.
The takeaway here is that if your network goes down, Google Apps users will likely lose the ability
to continue much of their work. Microsoft Office 365 users with an e3 or e4 plan will still be able to
work with all of their locally-stored documents in a full capacity (save for sharing). But in either case,
if your internet access goes down, then nearly all communication is lost and productivity is severely
diminished.
Where They Tie
email and email Archiving
email support comes with both products; the main difference is the back end. Google stores email
in its own servers and Microsoft stores it on its exchange servers. Google Apps with Vault supports
email archiving and Microsoft supports it on its e3 and e4 plans.
System Setup and Administration
initial system setup and administration is an important item for iT admins (yes, you will likely still
need an iT staff with these products). if you’re converting an existing Microsoft environment to a
cloud-based solution, Microsoft has a number of setup advantages over Google. These include its
easy migration of local exchange mailboxes to Office 365 and fine-tuned management tools that
provide administrators control over individual mailbox size and distribution groups, etc. Google Apps
provides simple and direct exchange migration to Gmail, but not to this level. instead, Google takes
a more collective approach where users are all assumed to have similar characteristics, which greatly
simplifies management but limits some access and storage control options.
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Businesses accustomed to detailed individual management of employees – and who want to
continue that practice, along with its associated management overhead – will be more likely drawn
to Microsoft Office 365. Businesses looking to simplify their iT infrastructure and management will be
drawn to Google Apps.
Mobile Device Support
Google and Microsoft are fairly even in terms of mobile device support; the choice depends on which
mobile platform your company is using (iPhone, BlackBerry, etc.) as well as the functionality you want
to extend to your workers on the go. Google users can choose which components of the Google
Apps suite to install on their phones but mobile device support varies slightly depending on the app.
The suite is supported on Android, iPhone, Blackberry, and Windows phones, but Google Docs is
‘view-only’ on BlackBerry and Windows phones. Also, Google Sync is supported across Android,
iPhone, and Symbian devices. Office 365 supports email, calendar, and contacts synchronization
across just about all mobile platforms, and Microsoft provides access to mobile versions of most
Office applications, although they are ‘view-only’ on BlackBerry and Symbian (nokia). Microsoft also
provides other mobile functionality; for example, Powerpoint web broadcasts.
At the end of the day, neither company has a clear advantage here; given the limitations of mobile
devices, about the same amount of work can be accomplished using mobile versions of Google
Apps and Office 365.
Google Apps’ Advantages:
Price
Online collaboration
& File Storage
user interface
& ease of use
Office 365’s Advantages:
instant Messaging, Web
conferencing, Voice Features
intranet integration
Active Directory integration
Offline Support
Where the Two Tie:
email & email Archiving
Mobile Device Support
System Setup &
Administration
What It Boils Down To: Understanding Your Business Needs
At the end of the day, we see the difference between Office 365 or Google Apps in terms of business
process improvement (BPi) vs. business process engineering (BPe). instead of declaring a definite
winner in all cases, we think companies should choose one solution over the other depending on
their preferences, reasons for adoption, and business needs.
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BPi has to do with tweaking existing business’s practices to make them more efficient, while BPe
involves dissecting a busines’s existing workflows and redesigning them from the ground up.
We consider Google Apps more of a BPi solution that replaces a current system to improve its
functionality and efficiency. Office 365, on the other hand, is more of a BPe solution that brings new
processes to a company with an in-depth and customizable platform and greater enterprise-level
capabilities - at a higher cost. Specific features are compared side-by-side in this chart.
Office 365/Google Apps Feature Comparison
Google Apps
Microsoft Office 365
Email
a
a
Email Archiving
a
(with Vault)
a
(E3 & E4)
Instant Messaging
a
a
Web Conferencing
a
Voice Chat
a
a
Advanced Voice Features (PBX replacement)
a
(E4 only)
Online Collaboration and File Storage
a
a
Intranet Integration
a
Active Directory Integration
a
a
Mobile Device Support
a
a
Offline Support
a
(limited)
a
Conclusion
To begin the decision-making process, ask yourself about the real purpose behind replacing or
augmenting your existing systems. Are you happy with your existing systems and want to replace
them primarily to reduce costs, or is the motivation more along the lines of providing workers with
new tools that can make them more efficient? if you want simplicity and ease of use, as well as lower
costs, you want Google Apps. if you’re willing to pay extra for high-level controls and advanced
features (and the staff to manage those features), you want Office 365.
About Backupify
Backupify is the leading provider of cloud-to-cloud backup and recovery solutions for Software as
a Service (SaaS) applications, offering an all-in-one archiving, search and restore solution for the
most popular online services including Salesforce.com, Google Apps, Facebook, Twitter and more.
Backupify ensures that companies can access and control the data they entrust to these systems and
prevents data loss from external threats, user error or service failure. Backupify was founded in 2008
and is based in cambridge, Massachusetts. For more information, please visit www.backupify.com,
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