O365 or Gmail in Wales

[pooley]

I'm looking to decommission our ageing Exchange server and move to the "Cloud"

 

In Wales we have free access to O365 etc via HWB but i'm wondering what other welshies are doing ?

 

Personally I like gmail/gsuite but don't wan't my personal opinions clouding my decision.

 

Cheers

 

Si

[ellsandell]

No reason why you can't get O365 for the school away from HWB (Direct from MS). Although I am sure the LEA/Local Gov would prefer you to use HWB

[TwistedHelixis]

Can I suggest you set both GAPPS and Office 365 up and give a demo to SLT and let them decide as someone will probably moan at which ever you pick.

 

BTW - All my schools went with Google

[3s-gtech]

Hwb will not give you any SSO or password sync, and migrating existing email domains to it is mega money apparently (so you'd need to use their email addresses provided). You don't get access to the Office Admin Centre so sorting out things like email list, access control and sending rights is near impossible. The account admin section is also clunky and cumbersome, and new users are only sync'd across at PLASC (and it you do them manually those accounts get bumped off when PLASC is sync'd to it).

 

On the plus side, it's sort of free.

[CamelMan]

We didnt went near HWB once we saw how it was being implemented. We did our own O365 install. No problems but your domain might be held by your LEA so it could be an issue. I know of a school in Cardiff that setup their own O365 with the LEA help (LEA did the DNS record changes etc) and that didnt cause any problems.

 

As for GAFE vs O365 its just preference, both are very good and have their pros' and cons. We went O365 due to its stronger Office products and option to download a local version of office for free, but then Google have unlimited storage (o365 is 1tB) and Classsroom (O365 had classroom but dropped it and lumped it into Teams - just started looking at it now) so that could sway the decision.

 

O365 has powershell which can make admin tasks easier but some people prefer the more straight forward GUI of GAFE.

 

The poster above had a good idea about doing both and making the call, but I would personally hold some sway in it from admin perspective (i.e. they may want product A, but if its a massive drain on your time then that is a big factor).

 

Edit: Techradar have done an updated review of both, mainly from a business perspective, dated 3 days ago. Gafe 4 stars and O365 4.5 stars out of 5. Could be worth a read.

Edited July 3, 2017 by CamelMan

[pooley]

Thanks guys,

 

We have our own domain so could go O365 directly, staff are starting to use Google classroom to aid teaching DCF so i'm leaning towards GAFE.

 

Are there any issues with using Outlook on pc's or remote access to email via smartphones?

[Gonk]

We were using an LA based exchange and the LA "manoeuvred" us to having to go on Hwb. We chose to ignore them and we activated our Office 365 instead. In 2018 Learning Possibilities are leaving the Hwb project and its being taken under direct WG control. The unofficial word is that you will be able to control the tenancy and have access to all the features at that time: i.e. add multiple domains, federated AD etc. So for us, we're going to carry on as is until 2018 and review it again then.

[robsonma]

Why not go Google.

Its Free for Education. + with Google you get Sheets, Docs Ect for Free also.