Discussion on:

Google Apps v. Office 365 summary: Which is better?

I have observed that organizations (SMB and Enterprise) appreciate a Google Apps tool that can resolve any "missing gaps" in functionality. Google Apps has Google Apps Script (or also known as Google Script) a rather simple JavaScript-based tool that integrates well through services and APIs with Google Apps and third-party applications. Recent enhancements announced at Google I/O 2012 makes this tool very attractive from custom spreadsheet functions to powerful web apps.

Another consideration is cross-device productivity. Thanks to recent improvements with Chrome an employee can begin a Chrome browser session on one device and pickup where they left off on another device (PC, Mac, tablet or smartphone).

A good balanced overview of two services - and I agree, both have a lot to offer. There are plenty of differences between these two platforms, but non are more impactful (in my mind) than the user interface. Viscerally Google's sparse interface is a stark contrast to the traditional MS look and feel. The Outlook Web App feels like the traditional enterprise e-mail, while Google is a much more sparse approach with more of a traditional consumer (i.e. home) interface. Even the light Office Web Apps (Word/Excel/PPT) maintain the look and feel of the traditional thick desktop install - albeit with a reduced feature set.

Having "played" with both, from a business perspective we are sticking with onboard 2010 MSOffice. With a significant size travel group, global traveling, this means there are many times when access will not be available for either Google or 365. If you have unfettered access, then you can evaluate and decide.

use either. You can get all those services from free open source software, much of it from Libre Office, so why pay either anything at all. Keeping it in house and on your own computers also provides a level of security that you can NEVER get when you go out over the cloud.

Office 365 and the rest of the cloud craps is the best thing that ever happened to open source office aps I have changed over three very large companies to Libre Office in the last 2 months and at last 10 smaller ones.Companies want their data and aps available to their people 24/7 and as we all know that's not the case with any cloud ap.

Deadly Ernest, I've never used Libre Office, but you could be right in terms of use of the software as an individual. However, from an enterprise perspective, an organization has a number of financial and operational concerns that goes well beyond individual use. For instance, mobility and co-authoring of documents are big ones. Many of today's enterprises need to be able to reference a document from anywhere, without having to be concerned with moving a file manually in and out of a document share. Financially, a SaaS-based office suite makes a lot of sense, because licensing and support costs are drastically cut, as well as the cost to administrate. Lastly, just because you have software on a PC doesn't mean it is secure. In fact, I'd go as far to say that on average, on-demand services offered by Google and Microsoft are just as if not more secure that a well protected machine. You should read Google Apps' and Office 365's SLA. You'll be surprised at what you find.

I would say you will need to provide more training for Google Apps than for Office 365. People are more used to Office and Office 365's UI since they are similar compared to Google Apps where things are completely different. Also, nobody talks about Office Web Apps.

Google apps actually competes with Office Web apps technically speaking and Office 365 users have the option of desktop apps. Google Apps don't have a desktop companion.

Then add the rich feature set of Office products and Google Apps are dead meat.

I am using Office 365, MS Office 2010 and Google Docs (apps) for three different things.
Office 365 for my start up work, MS Office 2010 coupled with share point for my real job and google docs to keep up with personal stuff. Having used all three, MS office 2010 with its new skydrive integration seems to be the winner if you can spend the $$. But if you are in a budget mode, then Office 365 does the trick. It is easy and intuitive to use, if you are fairly competent in using the MS Office software. Nothing wrong with Google Docs (apps), but they don't seem to be easy to use. Disclaimer: I am a MSFT fan, but have used google products from 2004-2010 before, going back to MSFT products.

Since this is a downloaded product I am not sure if my problems are in the download or the installation. After I failed once to get it installed I asked Microsoft to do it. They struck out three times. It was different problems in each case. One Microsoft failure was that they could not get the Analysis Pack installed for Excel. They tried several times, declared everything okay and terminated the connection. Upon stating Excel found the Analysis Pack missing or not functional. My suggested is to use caution here. I am back to Office 2003. Neither Office 2007 or Office 2010 with the third party menu program really worked for me as I was wasting alot of time looking for function redily available in Office 2003.

I have been trying to get rid of Msft and their monopolistic aspirations for the last 15 years. Obviously, I am very happy to use Google Apps and although MS365 may have more functions, which you never use, Google Apps is designed for the user and works fantastically.

Google is now more Apps oriented and its program is more user friendly