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Google Workspace

by Brady Hicks

Copyright 2022,
Faulkner Information Services. All Rights Reserved.

Docid: 00011531

Publication Date: 2204

Report Type: PRODUCT

Preview

Google’s collection of Workspace Apps – formerly known as G Suite and Google
Apps – includes dozens of Web-based productivity tools that are targeted toward
consumer, business, and enterprise environments. Popular brands in this
collection include Gmail, Drive, Docs, and Calendar, among others. For corporate
users, Workspace subscriptions are available in tiers for Basic, Business
Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, and Enterprise. In February 2022, the
company announced it will “wind down” the Currents app for inter-employee engagement
starting in 2023 and transfer the Currents content and communities to its new Spaces
app. This report takes an extended look at the portfolio.

Report Contents:

• Description
• Related
  Faulkner Reports
• Vendor
• Applications
• Environment
• Support
• Pricing
• Competitors
• Web Links

Description

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Google Workspace – formerly G Suite and Google Apps – offers a comprehensive collection of (mostly) cloud-based software tools
for sending messages, sharing documents, managing calendars, and
performing dozens of other functions online.

 

As part of Google’s push to promote its apps as
viable business tools, the company also provides management for these apps to
give IT administrators more centralized control. There is a Web-based console for administering a
domain and allowing administrators to manage user accounts, access rights, and
mailing lists, in addition to helping import archives from other mail systems.
To make apps more accessible while on-the-go, Google also offers versions that
support both Android and iOS devices.

Subscription Options

Workspace subscriptions include its free consumer offer (Basic), Business
Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, and Enterprise editions, each offering features to help
Connect, Create, Access, and Control information.

Table
1 looks at some of the selling points of each edition.

Workspace Apps

Google’s Workspace apps include:

• Gmail – custom business e-mail
• Meet – video and voice conferencing
• Chat– messaging for teams
• Calendar – shared calendars
• Drive – cloud-based storage
• Docs – word processing
• Sheets – spreadsheets
• Slides – presentation builder
• Forms – surveys builder
• Sites – Web site builder
• Keep – notes and lists
• Apps Script – work optimization
• Cloud Search – smart searches across Google Workspace
• Jamboard – whiteboard display
• Admin – security and administration controls
• Endpoint – device management
• Vault – data retention, archiving, and searching
• Work Insight – surface insights on work patterns

Google also provides a Workspace Status Dashboard – which is accessible via
http://www.google.com/appsstatus#hl=en&v=status
– to provide up-to-date reports on service issues.

Figure
1 shows a shared Google Calendar.

Figure 1. Google Calendar

Source: Google

Table
2 looks at some of the
most common Workspace apps.

Applications

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Google’s Workspace provides an alternative to traditional applications. Instead of being installed locally for significant
licensing fees, the cloud-based apps are lightweight
and are delivered over the Web, often for little or
no cost.
This tends to make the software attractive to consumers, as well as SMBs, the
education sector, and government organizations.

Environment

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Workspace offers almost entirely cloud-based applications that
are accessible via most common Web browsers and commonly supported
operating systems. These apps are frequently updated without user involvement,
and – because they are cloud-based – do not tie up a system’s resources to do
so. Google does, however, also offer assorted Chrome (browser-based) apps that
run on most major platforms, as well as downloadable mobile apps for iOS and Android.

Support

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Workspace apps offer a myriad of support options via its
Support Page at
https://apps.google.com/support/. Methods of support include:

• Phone – (877) 355-5787 (US) or +1(646)
  257-4500 (Worldwide).
• E-mail – Administrators can click on the
  Support icon in the Admin console to e-mail Google Apps support. Users can
  locate a domain administrator by visiting
  the Workspace Admin Help
  subsite.
• Online Answer Base – Available via the
  Google Apps Support page.
• Google Apps Partner – Tool for
  locating an experienced IT consultant for helping evaluate, purchase,
  configure, and “get the most” from Google Apps.

Pricing

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Free (basic) and trial versions of Workspace software are available. Costs
are listed in Table 3.

Competitors

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Some of the top Workspace competitors are Microsoft Office
365 and OneDrive, Apache
OpenOffice, Corel
Office, Apple’s iWork, ThinkFree Office, Hancom Office, and, for cloud-based services, Dropbox.

Web Links

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• Apache Software Foundation: http://www.apache.org/
• Apple: http://www.apple.com/
• Corel: http://www.corel.com/
• Dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/?_hp=b&landing=dbv2
• Google: http://www.google.com/
• Hancom: https://office.hancom.com/
• Microsoft: http://www.microsoft.com/
• ThinkFree Online: http://www.thinkfree.com/

About the
Author

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Brady Hicks is an
editor with Faulkner Information Services. He writes about computer and
networking hardware, software, communications networks and equipment, and the
Internet.

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