Microsoft Exchange Online alternatives and competitors

We use G-Suite for updating documents. We are implementing it in two stages. In the first stage, we are only using Google Drive, Chat, Sheets, Slides, and we're working toward replacing Microsoft Office 2010. It's deployed in the cloud, which is why we need Google One login to act as the single sign-on.

The first phase is Google Open, which uses Google Drive, and the second phase will be Google Connect, which will be replacing Microsoft Outlook with Gmail. Beyond that, we're also going to get rid of Microsoft Active Directory, which lists users and systems.

Our company builds commercial aircraft, like airplanes and helicopters, manufactured in various countries, so it's a global supply chain. In a multinational company like this, you need to share documents across all these different locations in Europe, North America, or South America.

We're also using G-Suite in manufacturing, so we use big-screen TVs to share documents and update information. It's a touch screen, so it's a big panel on wheels displaying diagrams, engine repairs, and that type of thing.

We're replacing a mishmash of different solutions with one fully integrated product.

G-Suite is excellent for what we're trying to do, but it could use some extra features. For example, it would be helpful if we had a seamless way to convert Excel macros to Google Sheets. We use the OneLogin to authenticate users logging into G-Suite. We'd like to see a lot of the same information provided from Microsoft Active Directory, such as the user's location, telephone number, etc. If G-Suite could develop this type of service, that would be amazing.

I've been using G-Suite Enterprise for the last eight months.

So far, Google seems to be a more stable environment than our current on-premise Microsoft solution that we're replacing.

G-Suite is easy to scale. With an on-premise environment, you have hardware limitations, like hard drive space, server CPU, RAM, etc. You don't have those limitations with a cloud platform because Google has server farms and unlimited hard drive space. So you're going from an environment where you have limitations to one that doesn't.

I'm unsure how many users we have worldwide because our global user footprint includes implementations in France, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Canada, the United States, Mexico, and Brazil. So I couldn't give an accurate number of how many users will be onboarded in the next two years.

We're planning to expand our usage through integrating with other solutions. When I log in, I have around six applications that use the single sign-on, but we will onboard more. We're switching over from the Microsoft environment, like Excel macros, or connecting to the databases and pulling down data from SAP. All of that functionality will be replicated within Google Workspace.

I have never used Google support. I'm also a big Google user outside of the company of Google Workspace. I have a personal Google One account that gives me 1 terabyte of data. And most Google support is self-serve. I do a Google search for help, so it's all pretty straightforward. I've never had a situation where I needed to contact somebody.

We had a bundle of things, including Microsoft servers and Microsoft Outlook email. Other things like file transfer would be covered under SFTP, and we used a product called Axway. 
If you're transferring files between countries, you need to do some encryption like PGP. We use Stormshield for email file transfer. But when you get to larger files, like over 15 gigabytes, you need an SFTP server. If you're transferring a video, then you're going to put it on Google Drive, and because it's authenticated, you can do those file transfers.

On our end, the deployment process is signing up the users. They submit a form with their department and email address, and that's how they get authenticated. I am a senior desktop analyst, so I set up the users, provide them with a laptop or desktop, and set them up with services like Google Workspace. I'm part of the provisioning process. Our headquarters in France handled the primary deployment, and we provide end-user support. I never was involved in the actual setup or implementation.

The only maintenance necessary is the authentication platform instead of the OneLogin product. We're deploying Google Workspace and ServiceNow, which is my primary application as a support person. I can pass through authentication when I'm in the office through OneLogin. If I'm logging in externally on a non-company computer, I can use OneLogin authentication on my phone to get into ServiceNow.

We're in between phase one and phase two of our implementation, so the real cost savings is going to be the ease of use and reduced support cost.

I would not be able to say how much the company paid for the enterprise solution. But from an end-user perspective, I can say that Google One is reasonable. I know schools and small companies use G-Suite. So if public and non-profit enterprises use it, then I don't think the price is a limitation.

I rate G-Suite Enterprise nine out of 10. If you're looking at implementing an application through G-Suite and using the single sign-on, you need to bring on people with a different skill set. For example, if you're replacing those Excel macros, you need somebody who knows the Apps Script programming language. Procuring that knowledge and those skills is the real cost.

People looking to implement G-Suite need to evolve and change their mindset from an on-premise solution to a cloud solution. When working on a cloud solution, you need to retrain your employees. We also set employees up with a trainer when we onboard them. This is a short session that bridges the gap between what they've traditionally used, like SharePoint or sharing files via Excel, and moving toward sharing files between departments on Google Drive.

You also need to become cross-functional in how you utilize the product. For example, we might have one senior marketing person or somebody overseeing technical publications in each country. If you're going to share documents in common, you need to identify who those individuals are and share them with the team.

It is an email solution with all the capabilities similar to different email solutions. We basically use it for internal emails and for making reservations. We have some shared mailboxes to receive communication from general entities.

It has a feature that allows you to retain an email and recover it as an administrator. When you activate this feature, even if a user deletes an email, the email is still in the system, and we can retrieve it as an administrator. It is a very useful function. We turn this feature on for some of the mailboxes because we need to keep all the records.

I like the way emails are classified in this solution. It makes it really easy to take a look at the most important messages. This is a really good functionality. Some of the emails directly exchanged with you are marked as important and shown in one tab, and everything else is in another tab.

We usually don't have any issue with Exchange. It can be integrated with different solutions. 

Its search functionality can be better. It is currently not really easy. It has the capability to search your mailbox, but it has some restrictions in terms of the number of results that you can retrieve. You can only get around 250 results. If you want to do a deeper search, you need to use different functionalities of the product. The policy that we have for handling emails is that we do not delete emails at all. If I insert the text that I am searching for in the Search field, it only retrieves a limited number of emails. To search for an email from 2010, I need to use different search functions to find what I am looking for.

Microsoft can also improve its licensing for its products. Microsoft's licensing is not very easy to understand. It can sometimes be really complex to understand what you need to have in order to comply with Microsoft licensing.

I have been using Microsoft Exchange since I joined this company back in 2008.

Microsoft Exchange has been pretty stable. The problem we faced was because we forgot to delete some of the rules that were created automatically. The problem was on our side. 

We also have Exchange Online, and we have experienced an issue with it in the past. Microsoft had a huge outage about three or four months ago, and we didn't have any access to our email in the cloud. That's the only time we experienced a problem with Exchange Online.

We are a mid-size company with 350 employees. We haven't experienced any problems with scalability or faced a situation where we need to quickly increase the capacity of the system. The company has grown over the last ten years and has added around 100 employees. It has worked for us in terms of scalability, but I don't know if it works for companies bigger than ours.

We have all kinds of users. There is a mix of different functions that are using the system. Our core business is for operating power plants, so our employees are plant operators. Half of our users are plant operators, and we also have a mix of engineers, accountants, commercial staff, legal department, and HR department. 

We have not contacted their technical support. We found all the documentation on the Microsoft site very useful. 

I was not the one who implemented this solution. Based on my understanding from the technical department, installing it in an on-premises environment is easy. Creating or handling all the emails on the cloud is also really easy. The most complex process that we have done so far is migration. We have a hybrid environment with half of them on-premises and half of them on the essential line. Integrating these two environments was the most difficult task. You need to understand both environments to integrate them. We didn't have a lot of problems with this integration. It is a difficult task, but it is not impossible.

Its price is very affordable, and basically, it is the standard of the industry. We have the Exchange 365 subscription, which includes the usage of Exchange Online. I don't know the specific cost, but it is the retail price of Microsoft 365 E3 licenses.

Microsoft's licensing is not very easy to understand. Microsoft changes rules every other day, which makes it difficult for us to understand the licensing not only for Exchange but also for other products. It can sometimes be really complex to understand what you need to have in order to comply with Microsoft licensing.

Its technical implementation is quite good. It is stable and can be accessed through all kinds of devices. You can access it through a client for your mobile phones or computer. It performs pretty well. Microsoft is a market leader with a presence everywhere, which makes it easy to find support.

I would recommend this solution. I would advise others to also go for the entire suite of Office 365 along with Microsoft Exchange. I don't know if Exchange licenses are sold separately. If you are already using Microsoft tools, it makes sense to go for Microsoft Exchange because it has native integration with all those tools.

I would rate Microsoft Exchange a nine out of ten.