Understanding G Suite

Google has embraced the post-PC era by allowing users to also access all services from mobile devices, such as phones, tablets, and other, newer formats, such as transformable and hybrid laptops and tablets. Being a web-based service, all that is needed is a device with a modern web browser and internet access. This flexibility not only makes things more convenient for the users, but also creates opportunities to cut costs on specialized hardware and the associated software maintenance. Setting up a new device can be as easy as opening the web browser and entering the username and password. 

Windows is very common on the standard PC, but its license comes at a cost, and if, at the end of the day, we only need a browser and an office suite, we can cover those needs using one of Google's free operating systems: Android or Chrome OS. G Suite for Business seamlessly integrates with these operating systems, allowing you to set up a device you connected to the internet and log in using your corporate account, as well as boosting security, with features including remotely blocking or deleting a lost or stolen device. Everything is instantly available and all configurations are applied automatically. These devices are usually far cheaper, work surprisingly fast, and require little maintenance.

Collaboration is important for efficient teamwork, and G Suite allows teams to work together regardless of distance. Several users can work on a single document, presentation, or spreadsheet in real time. Teams can also chat or talk in video conferences, or even mix these options and create a document while talking, seeing each other, and sharing notes.

Real-time collaboration improves efficiency in tasks that can be done in parallel, but some projects can also benefit from having a team working in different time zones to allow the project to keep going continuously. Remote collaboration also enables the selection of the best of a wider range of candidates—there is no need to be limited to local talent.

G Suite is also very cost-effective for business. Savings increase as the number of users grows. Companies no longer have to worry about buying a license for every computer, and having to cover the installation, configuration, and maintenance costs for each device.

As a business grows, management becomes increasingly important and complex. You may be able to handle business with ease when there are only five or ten members, but when you need to administer hundreds or thousands of users, you really need a strong management system to keep things in check and running smoothly.

Keeping information safe can be hard when dealing with local files, as users could simply copy them to some external storage. To trace those operations, a business needs to use specially configured hardware and software, which not only costs more money, but also requires installation, license management, and maintenance. G Suite is secured by design—everything was built with a security-first approach with data encryption at every step; it doesn't rely on local files; and it comes with management and security features embedded at no extra cost.

File changes are saved in real time, so accidental data loss due to hardware or electric failures is no longer a problem. On top of this, all changes are recorded, and you can review and rollback to any previous state, and even review the people who made every change, including the day and time. Views, shares, downloads, prints, creations, and deletions are also stored, and can be audited at any time with ease.

When you enroll, Google gives you a 14-day free trial. This lets you get things started. At the time of this publication G Suite price is divided in three tiers: Basic, at USD $6, Business, at USD $12, and Enterprise, at USD $25. Prices work on a per-user-per-monthly basis, and the administration and security services are included. All tiers also benefit from 24/7 support by phone, email, and online. 

Usually, businesses use the flexible billing plan, where you get charged every month based on the number of active users on your domain. Enterprise accounts can also choose an annual billing plan, where they commit to pay for a certain amount of licenses every month for a full year. It's possible to increase the number of licenses, but they can only be decreased when renewing the contract every year.

With the Basic account, you get 30 GB of storage for every user. Business and Enterprise accounts with four users or less get 1 TB of storage per account, and for five or more users, cloud storage is unlimited.

Business and Enterprise accounts also include low-code app development services for easy creation of corporate apps using templates, a drag-and-drop editor, and simplified data modeling. These accounts allow you to control how long emails, chats and messages are retained for all accounts in the domain to comply with data holding requirements in the case of a legal issue. Administrators can track all user activity and use eDiscovery to audit all email, chat, and file content for the entire company.

Enterprise accounts are best for handling large amounts of users, as they include the Security Center, which provides a unified security dashboard that allows administrators to quickly identify, triage, and take action against any security threat or suspicious activity. Enterprise accounts also benefit from advanced data loss prevention for Gmail and Google Drive, digitally signed and encrypted emails, the option to use a physical security key to login, Gmail log analysis via BigQuery, and the option to integrate Gmail with third-party archiving tools.