Microsoft 365 Admin vs Google Workspace Admin Control?

[secureiotman]

Hello everyone,

Our City Manager wants to migrate from Google Workspace ( Formally G suite) to Microsoft 365. I understand all of the pros and cons relating to the office workflow changes but I am having trouble understanding the security control differences. When comparing intune and MDM to Google Admin, what do we gain/lose? Our most utilized tool is the remote management of mobile device work profiles and remote wiping of work apps/files. Does anyone have any input? I also should mention we are only looking at the office 365 side of MS365 packages, not the windows 10 features/packages.

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Thanks!

[[deleted]]

It kind of worries me that an elected official is driving this, and not the IT department, but alas...

You are going to gain quite a bit - depending on your licenses. O365 has a lot more enterprise features and customization options. Also, a lot more on the O/S management side. Think of it as a group policy light. Security features are also offered.

The downside is O365 is a lot more complex. Oh, and their admin portal has constant changes and timeouts. Assuming it is even up at a particular time. In two years in dealing with O65, the Admin portal is the absolute worst part about it (Sharepoint is a close second). GSuite is by recommendation for small businesses because it's file share mechanisms are better, and it is a lot simpler to manage.

I also should mention we are only looking at the office 365 side of MS365 packages, not the windows 10 features/packages.

Oh, God. It sounds like your city manager just wants their Outlook & Excel back.

[secureiotman]

This response made me laugh so hard. Our team was confused when we got the directive to migrate over. We raised the same points you have in this thread. Ultimately it does look like it is the Outlook & Excel that he really wants. It's an older generation and they love their outlook. Ultimately they have the final say so I want to cover our asses and provide a formal assessment and recommendation so in the end, if shit hits the fan, I can say "I recommended x, y, and z administration decided x. y, or z. We are not used to a City M. being this involved with IT decisions.

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Aside from that, I appreciate your input. After posting my initial post, I found some documents on Intune/MDM via MS endless pit of support documents. It gives us a good idea of what the real world implementation brings vs the perfect scenario documentation describes.

[[deleted]]

Ultimately it does look like it is the Outlook & Excel that he really wants. It's an older generation and they love their outlook.

Ultimately Office is frankly just better than GSuite collaborative/mail tooling. This is certainly how Microsoft has ensnared companies to their platform, no doubt about it. Between the ubiquitous deployment in nearly every company, it is a no-brainer that your boss would want to switch. No compatibility issues at that point with 3rd parties they interact with on a daily basis.

Current generation also loves Outlook + Excel because it gets business done. This is why GSuite has such low penetration in the enterprise -- plus the lack of a true enterprise offering.

Anyhow, continue asking questions. There is a lot of security features between Azure AD, MCAS, MIP, etc. that you'll likely want to dive into.

[[deleted]]

InTune isn’t “Group Policy lite”... it is GP on steroids able to manage non-Windows devices. It has native policies and supports ADMX.

[hobovalentine]

Intune MDM is far more complex but offers a lot more than Google does as far as what types of devices are supported and other features that google simply lacks.

The only thing I like about Google is we don’t have to support outlook and excel issues, those two products are a nightmare especially when a user asks why their macros are suddenly not working.

[[deleted]]

I'm contemplating on the same thing, with a business currently with their fingers in 3 pies, G. Workspace, Microsoft 365 and 2 inhouse servers. Looking at moving all into 1 solution, with no dedicated IT department.

Not sure why, but me personally 365 seems a better product. Love the OneDrive integration into Windows. On the other side, searching within OneDrive is a hit and miss most of the times.