One of the hardest things when planning a move onto a cloud architecture is what your total cost of ownership (TCO) is going to truly be. All the costs are never stated up-front, especially when matters like migration or re-training come into play.
In terms of deciding between Google Apps or Office 365, there are strong elements to recommend both. We’ve gotten plenty of clients up and going on both systems. Deciding, which is more cost-effective depends on your office, as well as your planned usage.
So today, let’s take a quick look at some of the major elements that affect the price, TCO, and ROI on adopting Google Apps vs Office 365.
Major Cost Considerations When Choosing A Cloud Collaboration System
1 – Previous investments.
First, if your shop is already deeply invested in one or the other, don’t fix what isn’t broken. If you’ve got Microsoft service contracts and everyone’s already on Office, just move to Office 365. Or, if everyone’s using their personal Google accounts for work, stay with Google.
There usually isn’t a good reason to change horses mid-stream here, as the saying goes.
2 – Downtime.
In most situations, we find Google and Microsoft to be fairly competitive. However, as things stand, there is one big benefit on Google’s side: Microsoft’s servers go down more often, and have longer outages when they do.
That said, Google is widely-known for having the top availability in the industry, period, so this isn’t surprising. They also beat out Amazon and many other top-tier cloud providers.
3 – Syncing And Compatibility
If cross-system compatibility is a key focus for you, Microsoft is likely the better choice. Their Office formats – DOC, XLS, etc – are worldwide standards, and they offer a variety of APIs for linking third-party software into their own cloud network.
Google, on the other hand, largely uses proprietary formats and consistently has issues handling format conversions. While the issues are usually minor, they can add up to lost productivity for employees having to actively move documents between formats.
That said, Google Apps has created individual apps for Docs, Sheets, and Presentations to enable full compatibility with Microsoft applications across mobile and tablet devices.
4 – Premium Prices For Premium Services
By and large, Microsoft offers better service and support for enterprise end users, whereas Google is more aimed at small and mid-sized organizations. Google Apps can scale effectively, again if you’re staying within Google’s system, but faces challenges in companies integrating many different software systems.
Office 365 ultimately offers more robust integration and security features, but their high-end services are significantly more expensive than Google’s paid App offerings. You get what you pay for, but you may not want/need to pay for it at all.
A Lot Goes Into Picking A Cloud Document Service
The choice between Google Apps and Office 365 is not a simple one. They’re both great services, but with different focuses and approaches. If you’d like more advice, please don’t hesitate to contact Bi101 for a free consultation on your needs!
