You’re going out of town this weekend and have room for only one extra pair of shoes - do you bring your hiking boots or running shoes? Both are great options, but what is better for you depends on your context and particular needs.
In the same way, Office 365 and Google Suite are both great options for consolidating file storage and file-sharing, and which one fits your business will depend on your needs. Since it’s much more challenging to change file storage platforms than it is shoes, you should choose a file management system that is likely to fit your needs now and in the future.
Here are some critical factors to know about Office 365 (O365) and Google Suite (GSuite) for your business:
How many users do we have now?
By what amount do we anticipate our team to grow?
Does our file sharing support CaaS capabilities?
What protections are in place for file restoration and protection?
How much storage does each user get?
Can we change any of this as we grow?
These are all questions that business owners need to ask themselves and their file management platform when deciding where files live.
There are many ways to slice sharing and permissions, and these file sharing platforms don't skimp on options. If your business has a very strict hierarchy and inflexible permissions like many mid-size or enterprise businesses, Office 365 is a wise option. If ease of document sharing is your bag, perhaps for smaller, agile businesses, Google Suite might better fit your needs.
Office 365: Drive-based sharing permissions: Microsoft gives businesses many options for file location based on permissions and sharing needs, which are:
One Drive
Office365 Team site
Office 365 Team subsite
Office 365 site collections
Google Suite: File-based sharing permissions: Google gives unlimited storage (with a GSuite Enterprise subscription) and simple web-based sharing by adjusting permissions on the document or sending a shareable link.
Both Google Suite and Office 365 have per-user pricing models shown as monthly payments, which allows businesses to manage the subscription based on the needs of their growing teams.
Office 365 pricing:
Business Essentials: $5 per user/month (includes business email and OneDrive, but not Office applications)
Business: $8.25 per user/month (no business email, but adds Office applications and cloud file storage in OneDrive)
Business Premium: $12.50 per user/month (includes business email, OneDrive, and Office applications)
Basic: $5 per user/month (30 GB of storage, business email, documents, spreadsheets, and presentations)
Business: $10 per user/month (unlimited storage and archiving, business email, documents, spreadsheets, and presentations)
Enterprise: $25 per user/month (unlimited storage, business email, documents, spreadsheets, and presentations, plus advanced controls)
Both Microsoft and Google invest in security to protect their systems from hackers. However, they cannot protect you if your password is stolen. In addition to requiring staff to select strong passwords, IT can protect users by using built-in two-factor authentication capabilities. GSuite offers Google Authenticator, and O365 offers Microsoft 2FA.
Many companies have access to personal data, so they desire to enable compliance filtering on Office 365 and require staff to use encrypted emails when exchanging confidential personal data with partners or government agencies. They can also improve security by greatly reducing the number of staff with remote access to their internal network since most information is now available on Office 365.
Google and Microsoft both have compliance options for monitoring the release of confidential data, also known as Personally Identifiable Information or PII, and also offer integrations with third-party archiving solutions.
This is only an overview of Office 365 and Google Suite, so do your digging before you decide which file management platform fits. For more information about which productivity suite might be better suited to your organization, schedule your consultation with CallTower today: