Discussion
We currently use GSuite for our business, mostly because an ex colleague of mine thinks its the best thing since sliced bread. However, despite using it for 3 years I am still not convinced. It is a pain to replicate folders in Drive, sharing folders to anyone not approved (for example sending an electrician a set of photos) is not possible, Google's version of MS Word, etc isn't quite as good, etc.
Given that our OS is MS, it makes sense to use the MS equivalent for GSuite to my mind. Am I missing something though?
Thoughts?
Given that our OS is MS, it makes sense to use the MS equivalent for GSuite to my mind. Am I missing something though?
Thoughts?
It's not the OS so much as the collaboration tools, unless you're looking at everything all together, with M365. If you're using GSuite with Office installed, someone failed to understand properly 
I'm open minded, and GSuite has a place (I use it personally), but pretty much every customer I've touched for the last decade has weighed and measured both and decided on O365, despite it costing a little more. The level of integration between policy and product is very good, and once you start bringing the OS and security tools into the package, it's a comprehensive solution, whether you're an estate agent or a bank.
I'm open minded, and GSuite has a place (I use it personally), but pretty much every customer I've touched for the last decade has weighed and measured both and decided on O365, despite it costing a little more. The level of integration between policy and product is very good, and once you start bringing the OS and security tools into the package, it's a comprehensive solution, whether you're an estate agent or a bank.
Google stuff is great if you just need some free stuff to dip in and out of or you work on mobile devices a lot doing the sort of thing that doesn't involve complex spreadsheets or writing big reports. Anything more permanent or substantial and MS are miles ahead, though I'd actually argue the killer is that Google don't have the attention span to keep these things alive in the long-run, I just wouldn't trust them not to kill that feature you were relying.
The thing with G-Suite is that hardly anyone buys into the whole system and uses Chromebooks instead of windows laptops, android phones instead of iPhones etc. This means you always get a mish-mash of tech which mostly works, but it's never quite as slick as Google intended because people always keep one foot in the MS or Apple camp.
For spreadsheets and documents I actually prefer G-suite to MS Office. I don't need half the features that get stuffed into those apps so I prefer the cleaner screen of G-Suite. For email it's a close run thing between Gmail and Exchange. 365 does seem to have the edge with built-in collaborative tools though, but 3rd party integrations like CRM systems are far more abundant in G-Suite. Swings and roundabouts I guess!
For spreadsheets and documents I actually prefer G-suite to MS Office. I don't need half the features that get stuffed into those apps so I prefer the cleaner screen of G-Suite. For email it's a close run thing between Gmail and Exchange. 365 does seem to have the edge with built-in collaborative tools though, but 3rd party integrations like CRM systems are far more abundant in G-Suite. Swings and roundabouts I guess!
I've used both offerings, professionally and personally.
Both have their place, and each has advantages over the other in certain areas.
Reality is a proper review would have to be done on the operations and workflow in your workplace, and only then a system recommended. And then the relevant training and processes should be introduced.
Personal gut-feelings or partial impressions shouldn't enter the equation in the workplace. It's about finding the best solution for the organisation, not for the individual.
Bikerjon's comments above are very valid. It's about how the system has been implemented in most cases, not the system itself.
The core G Suite apps have been around for 14 years now, and they are used by govt. offices, local authorities, and large corporations globally, so worries about them being dropped are unfounded.
There's room for more than one ecosystem, and competition and choice are to be valued.
Unfortunately poor implementation and guidance are rife though, for a variety of both valid and invalid reasons.
Both have their place, and each has advantages over the other in certain areas.
Reality is a proper review would have to be done on the operations and workflow in your workplace, and only then a system recommended. And then the relevant training and processes should be introduced.
Personal gut-feelings or partial impressions shouldn't enter the equation in the workplace. It's about finding the best solution for the organisation, not for the individual.
Bikerjon's comments above are very valid. It's about how the system has been implemented in most cases, not the system itself.
The core G Suite apps have been around for 14 years now, and they are used by govt. offices, local authorities, and large corporations globally, so worries about them being dropped are unfounded.
There's room for more than one ecosystem, and competition and choice are to be valued.
Unfortunately poor implementation and guidance are rife though, for a variety of both valid and invalid reasons.
Duke of Kidderminster said:
yeah, O365 is so much better. If you buy GSuite you'll only regret it as it's rubbish. It's like buying Tesco value burgers when you should have bought Tesco Finest
Not quite, more like buying sausages and burger buns, sure you can eat them that way but everyone will ask why you didn't buy burgers for the burger buns or hotdog buns for the sausages.As others have said, it has a place, I wouldn't call it rubbish, if you have a full Chromebook environment and Android devices, O365 would be rubbish as well. As an identity manager it is a bit of a PITA and its API's to run SAML are a bit s
t.O365 is a great product set and you of course get nice features that work into the Win 10 OS. I am not overly convinced its anymore expensive these days either. Teams is a pretty good collab tool as well.
We went Google for Work about 4 years ago at work - moving from O365 and removing MS Office.
There are some functions that must use Excel - Finance for example, and some of our clients refuse to have people working on their behalf using GMail or storing docs on Drive, and sharing large docs with people outside of the domain is "challenging".
We originally went Google as a cost effective method to take Single Sign On - and it works pretty well to be honest.
But the mail app and no use of folders is terrible and I am still not used to it - searching anything is a disaster.
Hangouts is great - really like it very much, and all of our company conference rooms globally use Chromeboxes
But if I had the choice - for work I would use MS.
There are some functions that must use Excel - Finance for example, and some of our clients refuse to have people working on their behalf using GMail or storing docs on Drive, and sharing large docs with people outside of the domain is "challenging".
We originally went Google as a cost effective method to take Single Sign On - and it works pretty well to be honest.
But the mail app and no use of folders is terrible and I am still not used to it - searching anything is a disaster.
Hangouts is great - really like it very much, and all of our company conference rooms globally use Chromeboxes
But if I had the choice - for work I would use MS.
We used Google and have recently moved to MS. Never got to the point where we could use Google for our data platforms for security reasons, but we can with MS.
It's an absolute fact that Google have removed stuff on a whim, we had a tenanted version of their social media platform that was running lots of our collaboration across teams that was junked. There are countless other things that Google have turned off that businesses may have been making use of; https://killedbygoogle.com/
Problem is that you want to be able to use the stuff, but lots of your use is business critical so you can't afford for Google to turn around and say they're removing it. And when features are moved into new apps you have a training cost. The same applies to Microsoft, or any other provider but I'd say MS have a far better track record of developing fewer things, but not killing them. Eg the killing of Skype has been managed really well with Teams getting all the features and then allowing parallel running while Teams was made better than Skype, so most people end up not even noticing that Skype has been turned off.
I don't really see there's a big benefit to come from ditching Windows for Chromebooks as all this stuff runs in Browser rather than local apps, so all you achieved is isolating you from the programs that you need to overcome the deficiencies with the Google platform. If you run Android phones you've probably just been annoyed that Google killed the Inbox App and forced you back to the inferior GMail App.
It's an absolute fact that Google have removed stuff on a whim, we had a tenanted version of their social media platform that was running lots of our collaboration across teams that was junked. There are countless other things that Google have turned off that businesses may have been making use of; https://killedbygoogle.com/
Problem is that you want to be able to use the stuff, but lots of your use is business critical so you can't afford for Google to turn around and say they're removing it. And when features are moved into new apps you have a training cost. The same applies to Microsoft, or any other provider but I'd say MS have a far better track record of developing fewer things, but not killing them. Eg the killing of Skype has been managed really well with Teams getting all the features and then allowing parallel running while Teams was made better than Skype, so most people end up not even noticing that Skype has been turned off.
I don't really see there's a big benefit to come from ditching Windows for Chromebooks as all this stuff runs in Browser rather than local apps, so all you achieved is isolating you from the programs that you need to overcome the deficiencies with the Google platform. If you run Android phones you've probably just been annoyed that Google killed the Inbox App and forced you back to the inferior GMail App.
Its rubbish in my book, started a new job and the company uses Gsuite, Drive, Gmail, the works. Having come from a MS background including Sharepoint the Google solution is dire.
In drive, anyone opens a document it creates another copy so you can't tell which version is the right one, most of the basic formatting is gone in Docs, Sheets, etc so anything you produce looks amateurish and as for Gmail, functional but awful at the same time.
I have a swanky top of the range Macbook Pro and then I have you use Gsuite, the contrast is ironic in the extreme.
In drive, anyone opens a document it creates another copy so you can't tell which version is the right one, most of the basic formatting is gone in Docs, Sheets, etc so anything you produce looks amateurish and as for Gmail, functional but awful at the same time.
I have a swanky top of the range Macbook Pro and then I have you use Gsuite, the contrast is ironic in the extreme.
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