Hybrid Office 365/Google mix - anyone doing this?

[PaulCooper]

Hi,

 

We moved email from Google to Office 365 last summer, now the leadership want to move email back to Google due to issues with OWA and calendaring, but want to retain the Office 365 portal and as much O365 functionality as possible. This includes only having one cloud storage (OneDrive) so literally swiching off all the Google bells & whistles, but still allowing Office 365 to function as a sharing/collaboration platform.

 

As I understand it, the only way to enable Office 365 to function once we've moved our MX records is to use the tenancy *.onmicrosoft.com domain for Office 365 logins, which negates having email only in Google as we'd need to keep the *.onmicrosoft.com for sharing things in O365. Staff struggle enough with one cloud platform; two would blow their minds and support would also become overcomplicated imo.

 

The only option I can see with Google mail as a mandatory requirement is to go fully Google, which will reduce the Microsoft portal to downloading software to install on people's pcs, and use phone & tablet apps, again using the *.onmicrosoft.com domain.

 

Has anyone done anything similar, or looked at it and established that it just isn't very feasible to run a hybrid solution like this?

 

Please don't ask why this decision has been taken; the SLT has spoken and I just need to look at the technical options for implementation and I need to understand what tools people will be able to use.

 

I have put a call into Microsoft asking for assistance but I'm not really expecting much help from them.

 

Thanks in advance!

[CAWJames]

Go above SLT, SMT/Principal etc, whatever structure you have, build a case as to why this is a silly idea.

 

It sounds like a convoluted can of worms, I would not do it.

 

I would try and find a way to make OWA and calendaring more to their taste, or tell them it is one or the other, google or MS

[PaulCooper]

Unfortunately SLT is led by the Principal, and she is trying to keep a vocal minority happy. I have no choice whether I do it or not unless I can come up with a definitive, no bs, technical argument against it. Some ofthe issues with OWA/calendaring I think are legit but again, my opinion here isn't relevant.

[CAWJames]

What actually is the problem then? Just migrate mail, remove exchange from the o365 licences, and change the MX record to google. But you would be stuck with 2 logins, although if Google have some form of AD Sync, they could be the same login, but i've never used google for this, so dont know how well it integrates. then you just need an Html page pointing to each login, click here for mail, click here for everything else!

[PaulCooper]

AD can sync to Google; they even have at least 2 tools that can do it, albeit in slightly different ways.

The specific issues people don't like are:

1) OWA web cache has been broken for a number of people (but not all) for about 3 months and Microsoft have failed to resolve it, despite providing good support and escalation when I asked for it. This means some staff have to manually type in complete email addresses, so we get typos and bounce backs. Even creating personal contacts for their most-used email eddresses doesn't work. I've offered Outlook as a solutioon (as it uses a different cache - Microsoft seem to have at least 3 recently-used-address caches)

2) Shared calendars on mobile devices - the Outlook apps are pretty poor with these; default IOS and Android apps handle them better.

3) Microsoft's search function in email isn't very slick and some people struggle to find what they need.

 

I know these may look really trivial, but particulary the OWA cache issue has been driving people nuts and Microsoft really haven't covered themselves in glory. And their rebadged IOS and Android Outlook apps they bought are very basic offerings in our experience but should be flagship products.

[CAWJames]

Outlook on mobile is now much better, when did you last try it?

 

I would push Outlook proper on them, as long as you have an O365 it is all free'ish anyway, even students and staff at home can have it.

[Haptic]

she is trying to keep a vocal minority happy.

 

Sadly this is something we hear time and time again, I have to agree with @CAWJames - it sounds like the whole organisation would be using a workaround in order to appease a few staff members.

 

One thing we've found to be incredibly useful, try and highlight the people in question, then request some 1-1 time with them. We always find the best way to handle 'blockers' (sorry for the brusque terminology!) is to sit with them alone. Then as we spend time working through the biggest nuisances/time drains/soul crushing aspect of their working week is....it almost always leads to us discovering a way Google Apps can help. Usually after that they decide MS isn't as irreplaceable as they thought.

 

If you want to ask us any questions or the odd tip or two, feel free to PM

 

Joe

[Simcfc73]

I tried (in vain) to use a super hybrid system... Our students are on GMAIL, staff on Exchange which always worked fine but I wanted to shift some external staff onto O365 which resulted in GMAIL users not being allowed to sent to 0365 users. Probably some setting somewhere which I missed but mail just wasn't being delivered.

[mavhc]

So you have 2 logins, possibly synced to AD, or SSO.

 

Email goes to wherever the MX record says it does.

 

Calendars don't really care.

 

File storage is quite well linked to email and office apps, so gdocs/drive/mail or onedrive/office online/outlook works best, but doesn't sound like you're using that.

 

Office365 can work without email fine, just don't enable it for users and don't point MX records there, the accounts and the domain they're on aren't related to email.

[mb2k01]

Unfortunately SLT is led by the Principal, and she is trying to keep a vocal minority happy. I have no choice whether I do it or not unless I can come up with a definitive, no bs, technical argument against it. Some ofthe issues with OWA/calendaring I think are legit but again, my opinion here isn't relevant.

 

What is your role?

The most worrying part of it all to me is the statement that you 'have no choice' and that your 'opinion isn't relevant'. It is extremely bad management to not allow choice or welcome discussion.

If you are the IT specialist there and employed as such, the Principle should be ASKING you, not TELLING you.

 

For me, it is a decision about what is best for everyone not a minority. Without getting in to a Google vs Microsoft argument, if 365 works for T&L, is easily administered by existing staff, and there is no sound business OR T&L decision to move, then I would be making the decision not to move. The loud minority must confirm to what works best.

In terms of quick win claims you could use to your advantage, how about the free office licenses for staff and students as part of your EES / Office 365 licenses saving everyone a considerable amount of money? The fact the system ties in with Azure which is increasingly used alongside other cloud solutions, technical support from the MS team is considerably better than Google and at no additional cost. There are probably many others too.

[mavhc]

People should use both, but as Office Online has no GDrive, and Google Apps has no Onedrive integration, should keep your Online Office and Online Drive in the same place.