Which One??

[the_quick]

Hi Guys

 

So, I'm facing bit of dilemma. Want to move school to cloud services, to start mainly with emails and hopefully full use of it, hopefully to be able to remove local version of office entirely from students PCs.

 

We have initial set up both office 365 and google docs (now g suite) even have 2 teachers using google classroom.

 

We still have office 2010 and exchange of the same flavor - but would like to avoid buying new office/exchange version.

 

Google looks really simple to use, getting rid of exchange entirely but o365 products look better polished, users might have less trouble to switch etc. I like onenote classroom from watching MS presentation, but when try to use it it does look complicated.

 

Tough question eh, what do u recommend from own experience?

 

Thanks

[3s-gtech]

You can use both, to an extent. Certain services, like email, will have to be one or the other but otherwise don't tie yourself down too much. So long as you stick to free/cheap packages of course!

[rogerdnixon]

In an educational context I'd say G Suite is a no brainer. Easy to manage, unlimited storage, great easy to use tools (New Sites, Classroom), devices that are a breeze to manage (Chromebooks/bases/boxes - with managed android apps as well soon) and the best tech support I've every had. But whatever you do staff training is key to maximising impact and minimising confusion. We've have been G Suite for years - but staff training - especially for new people is key to impact in the classroom.

[FN-GM]

We use Google Apps apart from email. For this we use Office 365. One of the main reasons is Google Apps doesn't offer a built in email encryption service like 365 does.

[rogerdnixon]

We use Google Apps apart from email. For this we use Office 365. One of the main reasons is Google Apps doesn't offer a built in email encryption service like 365 does.

 

Gmail is encrypted as is everything else - at rest and in transit. However, I frequently get emails from Office 365 domains that are not encrypted...

[FN-GM]

Once it leaves googles system you can't guarantee its encrypted. True it does use TLS but if the precipitants servers don't support it, the message will send in clear text. For example if I email the LA they are not (they use lotus notes I believe). I can use the Office 365 encryption service to ensure it is. For google I would have to pay for a third party service. Edited November 15, 2016 by FN-GM

[the_quick]

Thank you guys for your input, it does help a lot. Looks like o365 as email and g suite for everything else might be solution for me.

 

With o365 would you recommend full migration to cloud or use hybrid exchange?

[FN-GM]

Thank you guys for your input, it does help a lot. Looks like o365 as email and g suite for everything else might be solution for me.

 

With o365 would you recommend full migration to cloud or use hybrid exchange?

 

Full migrataion. The hybrid is only designed for short term to assist with migration. I would setup the hybrid, migrate the mailboxes and then break the hybrid setup. I have done 3 schools this way now and it worked fine.