Last month I wrote about Microsoft’s Office 365 cloud offering for small business. Google also offer similar services with their GSuite products, which includes, email, calendar as well as apps for documents (Docs), spreadsheets (Sheets), presentations (Slides), file storage (Drive) and video conferencing, amongst many other apps. The main difference is that Google is a cloud-based company first and foremost, so their services are delivered with Cloud and mobile access at their core. Google Drive operates similar to Dropbox, where files are synchronised from your local device to the cloud and back to other devices you have connected to it. You can also create a shared space where team members can share files. This is called Team Drive.
GSuite allows collaboration and sharing between members of the same organisation. Pricing is based on a monthly user subscription and the Business plan is currently $10/user per month (https://gsuite.google.com.au/pricing.html). For a small business. this is a quick way to get the services needed to run a business with little up front cost. The Office apps are cloud based, so do not offer as many functions as the Microsoft desktop apps, although they are compatible with the Microsoft formats. If you want the advanced functionality of Microsoft Office apps, you can either buy the Microsoft suite and still use the storage with Drive, or go with the Office 365 subscription mentioned last month. You will get similar services either way. It depends what you are familiar with.
For more information on GSuite take a look here (https://gsuite.google.com.au/).
