When trying to decide on which cloud productivity and collaboration platform to use, the two most popular services under consideration are – Office 365® and G Suite. Both these services offer great value, especially to SMBs who have unique IT infrastructure needs. They also offer different means of adhering to regulations for HIPAA and the SEC.
Although both have similar productivity features and services to offer, there are some important differences that need to be considered. Microsoft® Office 365 leverages the Exchange Platform and combines familiar Office tools with business grade email and Skype® for Business. In comparison, G Suite uses a proprietary platform for their email, instant messaging and productivity tools. Because of this, G Suite can require a higher learning curve for employees, especially the ones who are more familiar with Outlook® and are ingrained in ways that they use the Office stack.
Office 365 from Intermedia offers an enhanced full suite of integrated cloud services, providing the essential features and functionality your business needs – all as one solution.
See the full comparison of the differences below.
| |
Office 365 from Intermedia |
Google G Suite |
| Products Included |
Exchange Email, Microsoft Teams, Outlook, PowerPoint®, Word, Excel®, and other productivity tools |
Gmail™, Hangouts™, Calendar, Google+™, Google Drive™, Google Docs™, Google Sheets™, Slides, Forms, and Google Sites™ |
| Mailbox Storage |
Microsoft 365 and E1: 50GB, E3- 100GB |
Basic - 30GB
Business/Enterprise/Education - Unlimited |
| Migration |
White-glove onboarding and migration included with every mailbox |
Self-tools or Google Apps Partner (pricing depends on the partner) |
| Uptime SLA |
99.9% |
99.9% |
| Support |
J.D. Power Certified 24/7 support |
24/7 support |
| Outsourcing |
All support technicians are Intermedia employees |
Unknown |
| Certifications |
Microsoft certified experts |
 |
| Anti-spam/Virus |
|
|
| Advanced Email Protection |
Available as an integrated add-on service |
Only in Enterprise plans |
| Encryption |
Available as an integrated add on service |
Only in Business plans |
| Compliant Archiving |
Available as an integrated add-on service |
Only in Enterprise plans |
| Data Centers |
Quincy, WA
San Antonio, TX
Chicago, IL
Boydton, VA
Cheyenne, WY
Des Moines, IA
Other locations: Amsterdam; Australia; Brazil; China; Dublin, Ireland; Hong Kong |
South Carolina, Iowa, Georgia Alabama, Chile, Oklahoma, North Carolina, Tennessee, Oregon, Taiwan, Singapore, Finland, Belgium, Ireland, Netherland |
| Control over location of data |
Not full control, but will be stored in the US |
|
| Management console |
Through HostPilot® |
|
| Updates to service via console |
Full management of services and users |
Upgrades only |
| Microsoft Teams |
|
Offers Instant Messaging through Gmail |
HostPilot is a registered trademark of Intermedia.net, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. Microsoft, Excel, Office 365, Outlook, PowerPoint, Teams, SharePoint are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. G Suite, Gmail™, Hangouts™, Google+™, Google Drive™, Google Docs™, Google Sheets™, and Google Sites™ are trademarks of Google, Inc. J.D. Power 2016 Certified Assisted Technical Program, developed in conjunction with TSIA. Based on successful completion of an audit and exceeding a customer satisfaction benchmark for assisted support operations. For more information, visit www.jdpower.com or www.tsia.com.