Microsoft has now launched Office 365. In their latest blog Google have shared their perspective, and it’s well worth summarising.

The blog article starts by pointing out that technology gets more complicated as it gets older. Upgrading platforms and adding features results in systems that are increasingly difficult to manage and complex to use. At times like these, Google states, it is worth considering a clean-slate: an approach based on entirely modern technologies, designed for today’s world. That clean-slate would be Google Apps – born for the web.

The article then goes on to highlight things to think about as you compare Google Apps and Office 365:

Designed for Teams – Office 365 is for individuals. Google Apps is for teams.

With Google Apps you can work with multiple people in the same document. You can see people type in real time, and share a file in just two clicks. Discussions bring people into your documents for rich conversations. You don’t need to buy additional licenses to work with others, or hope people outside your company have upgraded to the same software.

Productive Anywhere – Office 365 is built for Microsoft. Google Apps is built for choice.

Office 365 is optimized for Windows-based PCs and devices, which reduces your flexibility. Google’s applications are designed to work well on any device, on any operating system. Desktop, laptop, Chromebook, tablet, smartphone. Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, Blackberry, iPhone, Windows Mobile. Edit on the go. Share from anywhere. Start on your computer, move to your tablet, finish on your phone. When the web is the platform, it just works.

Simple & Affordable – Office 365 is 11 different plans, three editions and two tiers. Google Apps is a small monthly or yearly fee with no commitment.

Google has a single, transparent, low price that meets everyone’s needs, and it hasn’t changed in 4 years. No long term contracts or opaque enterprise agreements. Google also doesn’t lock you in. By design, they make it as easy as possible for you to move off of Google Apps if you want. They have a dedicated team of engineers whose sole goal is to help you get your data in and out of the Google Apps products for free. Google believe that the way to keep you long term is to continue to innovate and make products better so that you choose to stay with them.

Pure & Proven Cloud – Office 365 is about the desktop. Google Apps is about the web.

Google Apps are accessed in a browser. There’s no client software to install, secure and maintain. Upgrades and years of patience aren’t necessary to get access to the latest innovation – just click refresh. Google Apps customers received more than 125 new features in the last year alone. Running a reliable and secure cloud-based service is challenging and requires you to rethink everything. This year Gmail has been available 99.99 percent of the time, which translates to less than 5 minutes of downtime per month. That includes all downtime, planned and unplanned, of any duration, for any and all users. Google make zero exceptions when calculating uptime, and they are transparent with you in the rare cases when things go wrong.

Google finish by asking you to just spend 10 minutes checking out why so many businesses have chosen Google Apps, we heartily agree!

This article was based on the Official Google Enterprise Blog