One often hears about cloud solutions when evaluating new business software and tools. A separate article would be needed to explain exactly what the Cloud is and the advantages it brings. Still, in short, I can say that Cloud Computing is a technology that has been around for some years now, allowing you to exploit specific resources through servers remotely. One of the significant advantages of cloud solutions, in addition to continuous service availability, is the decrease in hardware maintenance costs (such as large servers for data
storage ).
With that is it said, who are the top cloud service providers for businesses? Regarding business tools, there are two market leaders for productivity in the company: Google with G Suite and Microsoft with Office 365. Both platforms offer similar features: personalized professional email, one storage space per user, and various productivity applications, such as text editors, spreadsheets, and more. Whichever platform you choose, it will undoubtedly bring benefits to your business.
G Suite Or Office 365? How To Make The Choice
Although similar, there are still differences between the two solutions. Let’s see them together.
Rate Plans
Comparing the two solutions, we must mention the price, which still has its share of importance in the choice. I want to start with this point because, as we see later, what the end user receives changes according to the price, especially the Microsoft home platform.
G Suite offers two fixed price plans: the Basic version offers all applications, Gmail, and 30 GB of storage space, for €5.20 per user per month; The Business edition includes unlimited storage, the Vault application for e-Discovery and Cloud Search, priced at €10.40 per user per month. The two floors offer the complete suite in the same measure and quality of service, adapting to any need. Then there is the possibility of a personalized offer in case you want more advanced data control and analysis functions by choosing the Enterprise plan. Check the offers. They are now on sale!
Office 365 offers several different pricing plans for Homes and Businesses, each divided into three sub-offers. Having many offers means being able to choose the one that best suits your needs, but it can also be complicated. Furthermore, the different tariff plans differ in price and what they offer: Office 365 Business, for €8.80 per user per month, offers all Office programs and file storage services on PC, Mac, or mobile devices but does not include corporate email. The Office 365 Business Premium version, priced at €10.50 per user per month, consists of the entire Business offer and company email. Finally, the packaged Office 365 Business Essentials, priced at €4.20 per user per month, is recommended for cloud-only companies as desktop Office programs are omitted.
Also Read: Business Email: 9 Reasons To Use Outlook
Collaboration
Since we are talking about tools that improve productivity and collaboration within the company, not only usable by the individual, it is necessary to distinguish how the two solutions conceive collaboration between users. G Suite, since it was born and conceived as a completely online platform, allows the sharing of all the files created and shared within it and real-time collaboration. If, for example, you have to write a text in Docs together with another person, there is no need to send the file via email: share the document (or spreadsheet, presentation, form) with whoever we want, and he can start working on the same file with us, at the same time.
Thanks to the revision history, every change is automatically saved and can be checked. In Office 365, there is sharing, thanks to the storage of files in OneDrive, but collaboration is different. You can edit documents, but this only happens in real-time: if someone is editing a document, someone else can’t make changes simultaneously. We must wait for the other person to finish working and save the file to add our changes.
Storage Space Available
Having all the files created within your organization available is vital for all types of businesses. That said, when it comes to the Cloud, one of the most significant points of comparison has to be the amount of storage offered by the two solutions. Office 365 offers, per user, 1 TB of document storage and 50 GB of mail unless you choose the Business plan where there is no email.
G Suite also distinguishes the space offered according to the plan choice: with the Basic version, you have 30 GB, shared between Gmail and Google Drive, while the Business and Enterprise versions offer unlimited storage. However, there is a crucial point to consider: each file created using Google applications (Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Forms) does not take up space in Drive.
Tools Offered
For clarification, it must be said that Office 365 is indeed a cloud platform, but a hybrid one, so to speak: in fact, the tools offered are to be installed on your device, to be then shared on OneDrive, or used in the online version which, as already mentioned, it is not the same as on-premise. On the other hand, G Suite was born as a solution designed for purely Cloud use and offers a series of productivity tools that have nothing to envy to their Office counterpart, whose artifacts can be saved on your device when you wish.
Documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and much more are all options offered and integrated into the same platform, accessible at any time, thanks to your Google account. G Suite is also fully compatible with the most common file types (.pdf, .xls, .txt, and more), easily modified after archiving in Drive. The differences between the two platforms may seem like a few, but they vary significantly by the type of organization and the number of users. If you work in an enterprise where you are often away from your office and need to collaborate with your team, G Suite is the best option. If mobility and collaboration are not essential, and you already use Microsoft tools in your organization, you might prefer Office 365.
Also Read: Why Migrate To MICROSOFT 365?
