Google Apps vs. Microsoft BPOS – Comparative Analysis
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Tags: Cloud Computing comparative analysis exchange online feature comparison Google Apps Google Apps Premium google apps vs exchange google apps vs hosted exchange hosted exchange hosted sharepoint Microsoft BPOS Microsoft Business Productivity Online Standard Suite microsoft online services microsoft web applications office live SaaS sharepoint online Software Plus Service
Friends,
Over the past two weeks we were busy testing Microsoft Business Productivity Online Standard Suite, or simply BPOS offered as a part of Microsoft Online Services, and as a part of Microsoft’s new software plus service strategy. The offering includes Microsoft Exchange Online, Microsoft SharePoint Online, Microsoft Office Live Meeting, Microsoft Office Communications Online*.
While Microsoft is clearly playing catch-up with Google Apps, and firmly believes that they are number one player in the cloud computing, based on the independent test of both offering performed by our team, we must conclude that at present Microsoft BPOS falls short in terms of collaboration security, data storage offering, video and audio conferencing quality, and overall solution’s price tag.
One of the key differences is storage space offered by both vendors. Google comes on top with no-nonsense 25GB per mailbox, and additional 10GB for files, Sites and web storage for the organization, plus an additional 500MB per user. For example, if you business consists of 10 employees, with Google Apps Premier Edition you will get:
- 25GB email storage per user, a total of 250GB
- 15GB file, sites (Google Sites), web and video storage
With Microsoft BPOS you will get:
- 1GB – 5GB email storage per user (Microsoft advertises 5GB mailbox with hosted Exchange only) configurable to up to 25GB
- 2.5GB file and site (hosted SharePoint) storage – aggregated, meaning that an administrator can allocate different amount of space on a per user account basis
Another major difference is the quality of audio and video conferencing. We have used and compared hosted Microsoft Live Meeting and Google Talk. While Microsoft Live Meeting offered more off the shelf features, both audio and video conferencing was not a match for Google Talk. We have used Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000 web-cams. Google has done a wonderful job with a complete and seamless integration of the chat client with the email. The video is delivered encoded in Flash and looks smooth and crisp. We did not notice any lag for either video or audio while using Google Talk.
With Microsoft Live Meeting, both audio and video were the same quality as if we were using Windows Live Messenger or Skype. While video had a significant lag, audio was interrupted by some background noise, and a notable echo.
As for online collaboration, Microsoft does not offer real-time document editing unless you are using Live Meeting. Google Apps offers this feature off the shelf and provides a great collaborative environment, and extras that include coloured user name tabs within the document that allow you to quickly identify which user edits a parts of a document. In addition, the instant messaging is fully integrated within Gmail while working on the same document.
By default, Google Talk chat history is automatically saved under “Chats”, and is fully searchable. Users can always go “off the record” at anytime.
We offer complimentary copies of a complete document that includes Google Apps Premier vs. Microsoft BPOS Standard feature-for-feature comparison table. The analysis document is updated frequently. You can request your free copy by contacting us.
Until next time,
The Driz Group
16 Comments for this Post
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March 15, 2009 at 3:05 pm
According to our analysis, Google solutions is more cost effective, and hence makes more sense for companies that try to run lean and mean IT operations while providing their employees with best in breed collaborative tools.
April 7, 2009 at 10:41 am
We recently evaluated Google against BPOS for our organisation and your right Google wins, but you’re not comparing apples with apples! To compare the Google solution you need to evaluate the product against BPOS D “dedicated” solution; if you compare these two against each other then you discover that the BPOS D solution is much better. BPOS was not the solution for our organisation but, BPOS D was. And met all our enterprise requirements.
What this comes down to is how big your organisation is, for a small company Google is most likely the right choice, but mid-sized to large enterprises BPOS-D is definitely the right choice!
April 7, 2009 at 11:21 am
Thanks Jack. We have also looked at “dedicated” solution, however, did compare two standard solutions side-by-side as they are offered by the vendors. Just to clarify, the minimum requirement to enroll in BPOS-D is 5000 user (Thanks Peter!).
When you say that BPOS-D is much better, what exactly do you mean? Is it better in terms of features, price etc. Is it an affordable alternative to an on-premise solutions. Do you have cost/benefit analysis that you could share? Does dedicated solution allows you to collaborate in real-time, meaning that several people can work on the same document at the same time and see the progress?
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July 29, 2009 at 4:35 am
Everything in this post seems correct to me. Feature-vs-feature, Google wins. Capacity-vs-capacity, Google wins. Price-vs-price, Google wins again.
But there are a couple of considerations this post doesn’t cover. These may be important for some people and not for others, depending on how their companies work and what their personal and business priorities are. Some considerations that were important to me, and that led me to choose BPOS over Google Apps Premier, are:
1. Customer Service. BPOS has 24/7 customer service. I have never failed to immediately reach a friendly and knowledgeable human being, and every issue or question that I have had was addressed competently and quickly. This, for me at least, is worth the extra money.
2. User Interface. I find Google’s jumble of a UI almost impossible to work with. BPOS has a gorgeous, clean, orderly, logical UI that is totally pleasant to work with. It makes a big difference.
3. Mobile Device functionality: there is just nothing like Exchange for mobile devices, unless your company is on Blackberry, which mine is not (way too expensive). Google’s imap-based mail offering is pretty okay (although still not like Exchange), but on the whole (counting Calendar and Contacts) Google still does not support a proper mobile PIM the way Exchange does on a variety of devices including notably the iPhone.
I still sometimes wonder whether I made the right decision in going with BPOS instead of Google Apps Premier. But when I remember how important good customer support is to me, and how important a good mobile PIM is to me and the others in my company, I conclude anew that it was the only choice at the time.
July 29, 2009 at 9:49 am
Thanks Paul for the feedback. I truly appreciate it.
While you make an excellent point, you are looking at it from somewhat narrow perspective. My point of view may be subjective, but so is yours. Prior to developing a posting the comparative analysis, we have put in a lot of work comparing both solutions while striving to stay unbiased. After all, our study was not sponsored by either company.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t dislike Microsoft BPOS and truly like the interface, and I agree and it is sleeker than that offered by Google Apps, but at the end of the day, the interface is secondary to such criteria as functionality, features, and ease of use. As outlined in the original post, overall Google has done a much better job with Google Apps.
As fas as customer service and support are concerned, don’t even get me started. By the by, Google does provide excellent support when you need it, while Microsoft, at times is unable to simply deliver and activate licenses for its own products for days bouncing SMB and IT executives from person to person, and I am not talking about Windows or Office.
Thanks again for the feedback!
July 29, 2009 at 5:16 am
Post in haste, re-post at leisure! Here’s another factor I forgot to mention: Outlook! Everyone in my company, including me, is totally addicted to Outlook. Outlook is almost everything. I probably don’t need to explain how much influence that has on the Exchange vs Google Apps decision…
July 29, 2009 at 9:52 am
By the way, if your are addicted to Outlook, you can use it with Google Apps: http://bit.ly/11baaZ
January 30, 2010 at 12:04 pm
Hi Paul, I’d like to post a comment just on UI: I was a user of Outlook client for 15 years, and before migrating to Google Apps, by abitude I thought Outlook was THE email client, my entire “email world”…full stop! And at the beginning, in the transition period I continued for a while using both, because:
1- to me, after 15 years, Outllook was like the Linus blanket, a “confort area” to be stick to, just in case…
2- I had no private/consumer Gmail account, so Gmail UI was to me a bit “strange”
You know what ? After only 15 days, I couldn’t even THINK to return to Outlook client! After just few days (not 15 years…), Gmail UI was more than confortable, I was literaly enthusiast! Plus, with Gmail no more f…”Clock icon” every few minutes, while Outlook is performing his background syncro etc. No more waitings of any kind. A paradise, compared to what was for me “normality”, before with Outlook. Morale: you get used even to toothake when you don’t have alternatives!
And all this, just for email functionality. Guess when I experimented collaboration functionalities in Google Apps, even just working simultaneously from different user on the same document: a radically different way of working in team! A different kind of life. Now, me and my colleagues aren’t able anymore to imagine the previuos way of working together. As natural as drinking a glass of water.
I’m the typical “average user”, that is 95% of the entire professional population, by the way. And that’s the point! Sorry, but your perspective is the one typical of the IT dept: focus on just “features”…and forget about the everyday life of users. Users, to really experience a giant leap on productivity (personal and collective), need a different “metaphore” of working, not just additional features. That’s why (finally !!) web 2.0 has spread the concept of User Experience and (thanks God !) is flushing in the sink the one of UI…
Some additional considerations.
First:the typical CIO never consider a subtle but very concrete fact, when it comes to evaluate the impact of UI on user’s population: at least 80% (95% under-40 y.o. ?) of them already uses Gmail privately! So what’s the point of UI anymore ???
Second: you talk about the quality of service of Microsoft…what are you talking about ???? About a company which, step by step and practically undisturbed (where the variuos anti-trust authorities were looking to, in the past 20 years ???), has obtained more than 90% of marketshare and consequently has lost any aim of product innovation and customer satisfaction ? A company which got enormously rich (and inefficient) ON beta-testing poor and buggy products on paying users ? Or about a company which forced its rebelling users base to migrate to an obscenity of an operating system like Windows Vista ?? Google at least tests the new features of Apps on consumer Gmail users base, and that (moral considerations apart) makes a big difference. Only in the last month, Google has added 30 new major features to Apps Premier platform, everyone of them perfectly performing. Would you, Paul, make a bet on your own house that Microsoft will keep the same pace of innovation on BPOS ?
Third: Google has in place, perfectly up and running, a SaaS global infrastrucure since at least 2004 (6 year, that is 60 years in IT). How do you think Microsoft will fill this gap, considering also its free-falling profit indexes on almost every product lines and the defocusing merging process with Yahoo ?
Fourth: Google has a winning and solid business model on Big Google and oceans of money to pump in ramping up initiatives like Apps; further, it has started from the begining with SaaS business model. To catch up with its competitor, Microsoft has to perform a sound business reverse-engineering process, starting from a model in which traditional package-based software solutions cost 3/4 times its SaaS equivalent. Sound like going to the moon with a Cessna…I have a lot of friend working in Microsoft and they are all literally terrorized and depressed about their professional future.
I think CIOs will have ASAP to take in consideration all these facts, when it’s time to layout IT strategies and decide about the way their colleagues work and collaborate (and decide about the future of their jobs…).
Goodnight and Goodluck
Fulvio
July 30, 2009 at 3:29 am
Yes it’s absolutely a subjective viewpoint — just thought I’d share the main factors of one small company’s decision and I would never tell anyone that this is the decision they ought to take for their company.
Regarding Outlook with Google Apps, what I was able to gather about it at the time was that the experience was not equal to the Exchange-based experience, notably in the way all the various Calendaring tasks (multi-colleague free/busy lookup, invitations automatically pencilling in the time in recipients’s Calendars until accepted/decline, etc.) are supported, which in an Exchange environment is really fantastic and something we as a company have come to rely on for managing ourselves. Entirely possible (indeed probable) that Google either has improved or is improving this — but we needed it all at decision time, and for other reasons couldn’t put our move into the cloud on hold.
July 30, 2009 at 2:41 pm
Thanks again Paul for the feedback!
July 30, 2009 at 2:39 pm
Sorry Paul. I fixed the link: http://bit.ly/11baaZ
September 1, 2009 at 4:31 pm
Well I would have to say. Excellent article about the differences between Google Apps and Microsoft Hosted Solutions. This topic seems to be one whether their will be continued debate. IT professionals need to take notice as this solution may save your organization a lot of money.
December 14, 2009 at 6:05 am
Excellent article. The best part is that we now have two comparable options which will hopefully drive both faster development and better prices. Competition is good. We are currently testing both.
I can’t believe how much time, resources and money we’ve spent on a vanilla application area like email, communication and document sharing, as opposed to business application where the real value is. This area should just work by now.
December 14, 2009 at 8:12 am
Thank you, Dag for the feedback! I agree with your statement and just wanted to add that new collaboration tools will change the way we do business and allocate our time. I do agree that IT professionals need to spend more time and effort developing business applications that can make true impact.
Thanks again!
Steve E. Driz