Microsoft Online vs Google Apps for Businesses

Microsoft and Google are both professionally run businesses that have earned a great deal of respect from their customers. Both firms offer online services.

I was working with a Microsoft partner when Microsoft rolled out their Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS). The horrible name was actually meant to be only an internal reference but I guess it took on a life of its own and stuck, they're changing the name to Office 365 for the next version (which will run on the 2010 server products). I was with a SI partner, the SI stands for System Integrator. Our job was to come in after or before Microsoft sold a big licensing contract and wire the jigsaw puzzle of software and hardware together to create or prove out a business solution.

When we came across our first SharePoint 2007 project we didn't have any folks who had actually worked with the solution yet as it was brand new, the local Microsoft office didn't have anyone either and the online documentation was all marketing fluff. I was determined we would figure it out so I drove to the book store and bought Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Administrator's Companion by Bill English. We put together and delivered a proposal. I had mixed feelings when we won the project but was assured we could deliver by folks who had worked with SharePoint since its original launch circa 2001 - we couldn't. After being politely reprimanded by the CIO (I thought it was polite but I used to sell car insurance to people with car insurance at Enterprise Rent-a-Car so my anger meter is probably skewed) we were given a second chance, the billings to date would be credited. As our lack of resources became more acutely obvious, suggestions on how to solve the problem quickly dried up. What to do? Well, somebody wrote the book so I called Bill English, the author, and long story short we subcontracted an employee from his consulting firm, Mindsharp. The resource would be expensive so our margins wouldn't be very good but I was glad we'd be able to deliver on our commitment and didn't mind the criticism around revenue and failure to utilize internal resources.

"That's a boring story. What's your point?" My point is I was very, very excited for BPOS. Why? Because BPOS reduces the number of variables that require management in order to deliver a solution to business users. Let's stick with our SharePoint example. SharePoint requires Windows Server, SQL Server, Web Front End(s), and you have to figure out how to scale (scale to what? time for capacity planning), what about failover, what type of hardware do we have/need, are we going to virtualize, which parts, ad nauseam ... ALL that stuff and we haven't done anything with actual business requirements. This is why SharePoint projects take months, can cost hundreds of thousands, typically have to be redone and develop a love/hate relationship with actual users. Admin is a full time job, customizations require a small army ... for the customer this is wasteful and aggravating; for Microsoft, System Integrators, Hardware Vendors, and Large Account Resellers this is how you generate billions of dollars in revenue and make fat commission checks. Failure? Oh well, the software's sold and they paid their consulting bill, what's in the pipeline?

Enter BPOS. No hardware or software required, no SQL Server, no Windows Server, no load balancing, no failover, no WFE, no capacity planning, the licensing costs were determined by a couple of factors instead of a dozen chimpanzees randomly throwing darts at numbers (seriously, people always ask how they figure out licensing costs, that's it, secret's out), search was built in, etc. Apply this same reality across Exchange and Communications Server and we are talking about some serious value. 5x more functionality could be delivered to the business at a fraction of the current cost.

Three things happened after that. I started learning more about BPOS, about Microsoft's approach to their new online services, and about Google Apps.

What about BPOS? It was built on the server products and large clients would just be hosted single-tenant environments, called "Dedicated BPOS". I'm no genius but that didn't sound like cloud computing to me. The Office products wouldn't have web apps at all, they'd be run via on-premise SharePoint ... if they have on-premise SharePoint they wouldn't have BPOS. Online Communications Server actually requires on-premise Communications Server - what? Live Meeting would still suck. Seriously, Live Meeting blows. Simple pricing quickly became more and more convoluted. This type of user, that type of user, this combination of services, this goes with that on-premise agreement, etc.

What about Microsoft's approach? The last thing anyone at Microsoft wanted to talk about or pitch to customers was BPOS. It was a last resort if they couldn't talk them into anything else. They had Office 2010, SharePoint 2010, Exchange 2010, and SQL Server 2010 software to sell. Still do. Ballmer sells to analysts and Wall Street, everyone else sells software.

What about Google Apps? I had been a Gmail user for a year or so. The first time I used video chat I was sold. I didn't have to install anything. Search, oh search, I so take it for granted now. I fell in love with Gmail and started checking out the rest of the suite. The first time you're editing a spreadsheet at the same time as another team member you never want to see a xls or xlsx file format ever again. I remember being taken aback by Google Sites, anyone, and I mean anyone, can create a team site or intranet site and share videos, documents, calendars, presentations, reports etc. That's awesome! Google Calendar has been my favorite Calendar app since the first time I used it, I still don't know what it is that I like so much. It was Gmail and Google Calendar that ruined Outlook for me. I don't need feature 1,274 - I need to find the f@#king email and I need to find it on my phone, at home, at a friends house. How many different menu items can you have? No one on planet earth knows what every menu item on Outlook does. In Gmail I can create rules and filters in seconds, my Inbox is never too full ... not to mention my full chat app is always with me and my chats are searchable. My full calendar and all my docs are also always with me as well - and searchable. It's so easy. Then I learn Google has a business flavor of this suite called Google Apps they're selling. Everything is included, it's all web-based, there's no software, there's no hardware and it works on any computer, and it costs $50/user per year. Talk about reducing variables while delivering more services to business users. 100x more functionality could be delivered to the business at a fraction of the current cost.

Ultimately the reality was clear. The Google Apps suite crushed Microsoft's online offerings. There was no race, it had been over for years. The "competition" from Microsoft was marketing slicks and overpaid suits. BPOS will win many customers but lots of people watch Two and Half Men, that doesn't mean it's a good idea or smart use of resources.

The duty of the IT executive is to the business mission of the firm. The objective should be to enable the business with as many technology services as possible in as efficient manner as possible.

It's not possible to take an objective look at both platforms and determine that Microsoft provides a better value to the firm. Objectivity, however, is a rare quality. Ultimately value is driven by economics, which is coldly objective, and seemingly overnight Google Apps will have become the status quo.

Basically, what's included in each suite is below.

Microsoft Online
Exchange (email/calendar server)
spam/virus protection
SharePoint - intranet/extranet portals, doc share, collaboration
Communications - Instant Messaging, presence, voice/video chat
Live Meeting - web conferencing

*requirements
purchase of Microsoft Office for Outlook, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint
min. of 5 users
purchase/implementation of on-premise Office Communicator 2007 R2
Office Web Apps for Businesses can only be run on-premise with SharePoint Server 2010

Google
Gmail (web app and email server)
spam/virus protection
Calendar - individual work and personal, team, shared, resource, public
Docs - Documents, Spreadsheets, Presentation, Forms, Drawings
Talk - IM, presence, voice/video chat, telephone calling/texting
Groups - create and manage groups
Sites - intranet/extranet portals, doc share, collaboration
Video - secure internal video sharing (think private YouTube)
Moderator - collect and prioritize questions/opinions from employees
Blogger - blogging platform
AdWords - Advertising platform
Voice - phone/web app providing call routing, voicemail, transcription, archiving, etc.
Picasa - online web albums
Analytics - website analytics
Alerts - custom email alerts by topic
...literally dozens more.

*requirements
a willingness to learn, change, and lead.