Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 are two of the most widely used productivity suites among enterprise customers, each offering a distinct set of solutions. However, Google has now criticized Microsoft 365 for its “frequent and severe outages” and has introduced new tools designed to help more customers migrate from Microsoft products to Google Workspace if any outages happen.
Google’s new Business Continuity plan is a tool that allows Google Workspace to operate in parallel with Microsoft 365, enabling customers to continue using Google services like Gmail and Drive if Microsoft services are hit with an outage.
“During an outage, teams can continue working with secure and compliant apps, such as Gmail, Calendar, Meet, and the Gemini app, without the need for migration,” Google said.
Google explains that the Business Continuity plan can sync emails, calendars, chats, and more with Microsoft 365. This allows enterprise customers to access their data seamlessly, regardless of which platform they use, thus preventing disruptions to their operations.
To further mock Microsoft 365’s outages, Google has linked to the service’s official X account, which notifies customers about such disruptions, adding that “it’s a question of when and for how long” Microsoft 365 goes down. On October 8th, Microsoft 365 experienced an outage that prevented users from accessing popular services such as Teams and Exchange Online.
But Google isn’t done targeting Microsoft 365’s customers yet. The search giant has also introduced a so-called Work Transformation Set, which allows users to fully migrate from Microsoft 365 to Google Workspace if they are “ready to leave behind Microsoft’s lock-in and security incidents.” The Work Transformation Set combines Workspace with Gemini while bundling with identity and device management solutions, including Okta and JumpCloud.
Both Google and Microsoft offer a wide range of AI tools and agents within their productivity and collaboration applications. Meanwhile, occasional outages in Microsoft 365 could push more enterprise customers toward Google Workspace.