Your Guide to Google's Mid-Market Collaboration Solutions

Teams that work more efficiently together are naturally more productive. Google's answer to this upgrade in productivity is "Google Workspace ( G Suite)", a selection of intelligent applications designed to bring teams closer together so that they can adapt, improve, and achieve more than their competition.

To ensure that every company in their network gets the right selection of features for their own unique needs, Google offers a range of licensing options for companies to choose from. Each edition of G-Suite available adds new administrative capabilities to the collaborative tools that Google has to offer. Depending on the goals that you might have in place for your organization, you can choose anything from a "Basic" platform for G-Suite to a more extensive option like G-Suite Business, or G-Suite Enterprise.

The question for many mid-market companies is whether it's important for them to save money with the Business option or ensure absolute productivity by upgrading to Enterprise. Here, we'll look at each option in greater depth to help you make a more informed decision.

Google Google Workspace ( G Suite): From Basic to Business

The three fundamental editions of Google G-Suite are the "Basic" edition, available for a price of $5 per user per month, the "Business" edition for $10 per user per month, and the "Enterprise" edition for $25 per user per month. Each option offers access to Google Workspace ( G Suite) as the core calendaring, email, and collaboration service for your business.

While the purpose of each edition is the same, the major differences between Business, Enterprise, and any surrounding options is an alteration in the amount of compliance, search, and storage solutions you get. For instance, while the "Basic" service limits storage on the Google cloud to about 40GB per user, the Business account offers unlimited storage for those with more than five business user accounts.

Additionally, it's worth noting that access to the Business edition also provides Google Cloud search features for your G-Suite data. It also works seamlessly on the web or with a mobile app. Business also supplies access to the Google Vault, which offers data security and archiving solutions for those who need to hold onto their information for legal compliance.

So, how do you choose the right strategy for your company? It all starts with looking what each edition has to offer.

What Do You Get in G-Suite Business?

G-Suite Business is essentially the enhanced office suite for Google services. Alongside everything you might expect to get from G-Suite Basic, you also get:

• Enterprise-Class file sharing and syncing
• Google Cloud Search
• eDiscovery and compliance features
• Rapid app development platform
• Device management insights

G-Suite Business allows companies to enjoy the convenience of unlimited storage, meaning that you never have to worry about deciding which Gmail messages, photos, and files you should save. If there are four or fewer people in your company, everyone will get 1 TB of storage each.

Additionally, with G-Suite for Business, you can use the company-wide Google Cloud search to look for company content across a range of different G-Suite services and receive suggestions from useful assist cards. There's also access to Team Drives, which means that the files you collect, and store belong to an entire team, rather than one individual.

The Administrator Controls for Google Workspace ( G Suite) Business

Perhaps one of the biggest differences between G-Suite Basic and its Business edition is the access you get to additional administrator controls. For instance, Business offers users the opportunity to use Google Vault to archive, retain, search, and export organizational data for compliance and eDiscovery purposes. What's more, there's also:

• Drive activity alerts: You can get custom alerts when documents are shared outside of your domain.
• Advanced drive reporting: Advanced alerts, custom APIs, mobile alerts and more.
• Security keys: Administrators can deploy and track security keys for the business.

Additionally, there are further policy controls available on the Business edition so that administrators can ensure that specific tasks can only be completed by specific users.

What Do You Get in G-Suite Enterprise?

As compelling and fully-functional as G-Suite Business might be, it's still not enough for some larger companies. G-Suite Enterprise is designed to support and enhance large businesses who want to access advanced functionality features like security key management, enterprise-grade meetings, and data loss protection features. Enterprise edition also comes with the opportunity for 30 people to participate in Google Hangouts Meet conferences. You can also record those sessions and store them on Google Drive.

In the G-Suite Enterprise edition, users get everything they could access in the Google Basic and Business services, alongside:

• Enterprise-class meeting facilities
• Data loss prevention features
• Advanced admin controls
• Customization opportunities

The Premium Admin Controls in G-Suite Enterprise

G-Suite Enterprise offers the highest level of administrative control that Google has to offer. With this edition, your company will be able to:

• Efficiently scan emails for specific content like social security numbers and credit card information.

• Improve Google Drive security with another layer of protection to prevent sensitive information from being uncovered.

• Use third-party archiving products to discover and store critical emails.

• Require security keys for users to sign into their accounts.

• Analyze Gmail Logs in BigQuery for data collection and assessment.

• Use S/MIME Encryption to improve email security

• Automate tasks for mobile device management by setting custom rules that trigger when suspicious activities are detected

• Scan images for text

Choosing the Perfect G-Suite Set-Up

One of the most compelling things about using G-Suite is the fact that it's possible to use different user licenses and solutions depending on your company needs. For instance, Enterprise edition could be given to people in one unit of your business, while Business edition could be the perfect option for those who require fewer applications and features. Many organizations prefer to assign a range of licenses to users in their organization to keep the workflow right.

Google offers editions of G-Suite to meet a variety of needs, all intended to empower your workforce and put collaboration into the hands of the organization. To find out more about G-Suite, or get help setting up your system, reach out to Coolhead Tech today!