Microsoft’s Office 365 vs Google’s G Suite Security & Privacy: An Introduction [Part 1 of 3]

One of the questions we often hear is “Which productivity suite is better for security? Office 365 or G Suite?”, or even “Isn’t an on-premise solution more secure?”

To help outline the Office 365 vs G Suite security features and drawbacks, we’ve put together a 3 part series. In this first article, we provide an introduction to security in cloud-based information infrastructure and productivity suites for your business, the benefits over an on-premise approach, and some hints and tips before rolling over to either Microsoft’s Office 365 or Google’s G Suite. Parts 2 & 3 of the series cover the security of Office 365 and G Suite in more depth.

Worried about changing over to cloud based storage?

[via Reddit]

Concerned about security and privacy switching from on-premise solutions to cloud? You shouldn’t be. Both Microsoft and Google’s internal security are going to be, by design, far safer than your internal systems are. Why? Because they have the engineering and security muscle to build it that way.

In terms of security, you can be fairly certain your data is safe with either of these products – these businesses have built their reputations on being reliable. If extra security is a major part of your purchase decision, then you will need to look at the higher plans for either Office 365 or G Suite. These more premium plans offer stricter access controls, monitoring functionality, backups, etc., etc.

What is your current identity management system?

Many businesses already use Microsoft’s Active Directory for their domain and user management within their systems. If this sounds like you, then you may find it wise to continue with this structure and roll over to Office 365: integration is fully supported, and you can choose to roll over to Azure AD (Active Directory in the Microsoft cloud, included as a part of Enterprise Plans). G Suite does offer the Cloud Directory Sync tool to sync up your AD rules, however if you want to move back to AD then you’ll need to use an external tool.

Office 365 vs G Suite security add-ons

There are various external tools and services that you can use to boost security or provide additional functionality that you feel isn’t adequately covered in G Suite or Office 365.

These include:

JumpCloud for identity management

Boxcryptor for true end-to-end file encryption

General Audit Tool for in-detail auditing (G Suite only)

Do be aware that some 3rd party solutions that use the APIs provided by G Suite or Office 365 can break or be affected by updates to the productivity suites. If you are selecting a 3rd party tool, ensure that they have a history of updates to their software when G Suite or Office 365 is updated.

What’s the core difference between Office 365 and G Suite security?

Office 365 offers businesses more finite controls and capabilities in terms of security management than G Suite. This is often via the use of additional Microsoft cloud management tools that may or may not be a part of your subscription, or require purchasing add-on packages. However, that’s not to say that G Suite will be inadequate for your business purposes.

Now that you’re up to speed on the basics of security within productivity suites, read on for an in depth look at the security features of G Suite and the security features of Office 365.

If you’d like an assessment to determine which solution – Office 365 or G Suite – will be the best for your business then please get in contact with us. We can expertly determine your optimal configuration/s at the best price point for your SMB or enterprise organisation.

Julia Sinclair-Jones

Tech writer and ex-software developer with a penchant for travel, techno, and data. Spreading the word of secure, manageable, optimised IT solutions for everyone.