In the blue corner weighing in at 1050GB for £7.80 p/mo. we have- Office 365 Business Premium. In the red corner weighing in at 1000GB for £6.60 p/mo. we have- Google Apps for Business. Office 365 and Google apps are the leading contenders in cloud based business applications. But who will win the fight to be named Champion of the Cloud!?
ROUND ONE: Internet
Both Office 365 and Google Apps require an internet connection to operate, as a result if anything were to happen to your internet you could lose access to critical business software. However, as well as having the Microsoft Office suite online Office 365 also offers the full-fat desktop version, so if your internet connection was to fail for any reason, Office 365 has you covered.
WINNER ROUND ONE: Office 365
ROUND TWO: Innovation
Google Apps for business only offers restrictive productivity experiences, it promotes its cloud service as cutting edge but limited flexibility and higher data risk don’t actually marry with this statement . Office 365, however, offers the most advanced version of Microsoft Office to date and is built on more than two decades of innovation. This advancement by Microsoft allows their cloud solution to work really well in hybrid environments and gives a business a much greater level of control and flexibility.
WINNER ROUND TWO: Office 365
ROUND THREE: Mobility
Office 365 was designed to work primarily with Windows desktops and as a result it’s integration with other devices such as Android, IPhone and BlackBerry is standard. It’s cloud solution lack easy to use browser interfaces and requires plug-ins that make it difficult for users to create a unified experience across multiple platforms. Sure you can download the outlook app and it works amazingly, but “out of the box” it suffers slightly. On the other hand, Google Apps only has one requirement: a modern web browser. Whether you are on your desktop, phone or tablet the Google Apps user experience remains consistent and is accessible from practically any device including iPhone, BlackBerry and of course Android.
WINNER ROUND THREE: Google Apps
ROUND FOUR: Maintenance
Office 365 is based on the original Office Suite with a heavy reliance on the desktop offering. Because of this, Office 365 requires everything a desktop application requires: software upgrades, patching and variable amounts of waiting time while maintenance is completed. Google Apps, which is entirely a cloud solution, does not have any software for end-users or administrators to maintain. As all data is stored in the cloud and all upgrades come through the cloud so there is rarely anything to maintain, patch or upgrade. This is great for smaller companies who need the flexibility but don’t have the budget to make sure a professional company is looking after their IT systems.
WINNER ROUND FOUR: Google Apps
ROUND FIVE: Trust and Security
Google Apps for Business offers no assurance to their users as to where their data is stored. Google, as a business, relies heavily upon advertising revenues and Google’s consumer privacy policy allows all customers’ data to be scanned to provide targeted advertisements to users. In contrast, Office 365 offers compliance safeguards that you are able to rely on, and greater visibility as to where your data is and who has access to it. Microsoft contractually commit to not using your organisations data for any intention other than to provide you with what you pay for and have invested in commercial grade privacy and compliance features to help keep your data secured.
WINNER ROUND FIVE: Office 365
ROUND SIX: Capability
Office 365 offers core security capabilities which are built into the service. This means that you don’t need to add more programs to deliver encrypted email, or things such as eDiscovery and Rights Management capabilities. Google Apps, however, continues to sell users a somewhat incomplete solution requiring organisations to rely on third party applications to meet their needs (e.g. data loss prevention and message encryption). Furthermore, third party applications found in Google Marketplace have varying levels of success in meeting the needs of users and won’t have the same capability of the products offered in Office 365.
WINNER ROUND SIX: Office 365
And your winner and the current CLOUD CHAMPION is- Office 365 Business Premium!
Coming in at a very close second but not close enough- Google Apps for Business
It seems that Google adopts a narrow approach in terms of their cloud service, whereas Microsoft delivers a full-service productivity suite that accommodates all of your business requirements. While Google Apps for business leaves workloads unsupported and its terms compromise data privacy, Office 365 supplies the productivity capabilities you need and safeguards you are able to reply upon.
For more information about why Office 365 is our cloud champion or for help and advice on which system is good for your business, contact our Account Managers by email (info@northernstar.co.uk) or by phone on (+44 (0) 800 319 6032).
