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Picking the Right Google Workspace Subscription for Your Business

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Google Premier PartnerTo meet widely varying customer needs, Google offers five core subscription options spread over two tiers. For larger organizations with frontline and deskless information workers, Google offers additional, specialized license options. If you are looking at a Google Workspace subscription for the first time, considering an upgrade, or looking for Gemini AI features, you’ll want to choose the subscription and licensing that meets your needs without overpaying.

Subscription Tiers

Business Tier

Businesses with fewer than 300 employees typically select one of the Business Tier subscriptions– Workspace Starter, Standard, and Plus. These subscriptions limit the number of users and focus on the features and security most appropriate for smaller organizations.

Enterprise Tier

Larger businesses, as well as those requiring more advanced capabilities and security, often opt for the Enterprise Tier subscriptions– Standard and Plus. The Enterprise Tier also includes specialized license versions for frontline workers and knowledge workers with other email services.

Selection Criteria

When selecting a subscription, most businesses focus on a few key capabilities, such as:

  • Storage capacity and shared drives
  • Vault archiving/e-discovery
  • Google Meet features
  • Select security capabilities

With AI now integrated into all Google Workspace subscriptions, you should take time to understand the Gemini features included in each plan. A deeper review of security features can also help guide your selection.

Here is a deeper look at key selection criteria.

Storage

Since September 2024, all Google Workspace subscriptions use pooled storage.

Vault, the compliant archive/e-discovery service, covers Gmail, Drive, Groups, Chat, and Calendar, is available for all Enterprise Tier subscriptions and Business Plus.

The amount of storage, allocated per user and pooled, is as follows:

Business Tier

  • Starter = 30 GB
  • Standard = 2 TB
  • Plus = 5 TB

Enterprise Tier

  • Essentials = 1 TB
  • Standard = 5 TB
  • Plus = 5 TB

Meet

Google Meet is a robust meeting and collaboration system that generally negates the need for third party solutions.

Google Meet with Business Standard and Plus

Meet Features in Business Standard and Plus Subscriptions

All Google Workspace licenses include a core set of features:

  • External participants
  • Secure meetings
  • Screen sharing
  • Mobile app
  • Dial-in (US & international)
  • Digital whiteboard
  • Hand raising
  • Reaction

At the Business Tier, Meet features scale up  as noted in the table.

The Enterprise Tier includes live streaming and additional security features with all licensees.

Participant limits increment as follows:

  • Essentials: 250
  • Standard: 500
  • Plus: 1000

Gemini AI in Google Workspace

The following matrix summarizes the Gemini AI features in each of the core Google Workspace subscriptions.

Google Workspace Gemini AI Features

Security

Google Workspace provides a comprehensive set of security features and tools. With too many settings and options to list here, we published a Google Workspace Security Feature Matrix as an eBook. 

Review security features against your regulatory, industry, and business requirements.

Selection Process

When evaluating Google Workspace subscriptions, it’s essential to assess the details. Part of your selection process should include determining whether selecting a higher subscription tier or upgrading is more cost-effective than integrating third-party tools to provide the functionality you need.

For example, while Google Workspace’s Standard Data Protection includes email sandboxing, the feature does not offer the same capabilities– such as QR code analysis– as many third-party email threat protection services. 

In many cases, upgrading your Google Workspace subscription provides the needed capabilities at a lower cost than using a third-party tool. This is often true for Google Meet compared to third-party web meeting tools like Zoom.

For other capabilities, however, a third-party integrated solution may still be required.

Your Next Steps

For help assessing your needs and options, please contact us or schedule a brief intro call with a Cloud Advisor.

About the Author

Bill Seybolt bio pictureBill is a Senior Cloud Advisor responsible for helping small and midsize organizations with cloud forward solutions that meet their business needs, priorities, and budgets. Bill works with executives, leaders, and team members to understand workflows, identify strategic goals and tactical requirements, and design solutions and implementation phases. Having helped over 200 organizations successfully adopt cloud solutions, his expertise and working style ensure a comfortable experience effective change management.

PC Continuity Means Business Continuity

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PC ContinuityIn today’s fast-paced business world, the ability to maintain continuous PC operations is crucial for your business. With limited resources and manpower, you cannot afford to lose data or prolonged downtime. A crashed laptop can take 4 or more days to repair (or replace) and rebuild. The impact on your ability to serve your clients, manage marketing and sales, and invoice will be operationally and financially disruptive.

Backup Covers the Basics

Backup solutions are foundational to business continuity, particularly for small enterprises. A reliable backup service ensures your critical data is secure and recoverable. Having backups off-premise, or in the cloud, extends your protection to physical hazards that can damage local backup systems.

Backups, while essential, come with challenges.  Before you restore, you need to repair or replace damaged equipment. This takes time. Restoring from the cloud is limited by bandwidth. This takes time.  Repair and restore gets you your data back, but slowly. Meanwhile, you will struggle to run your business.

Unique IT Challenges

As a sole practitioner or other very small business, you face unique IT challenges. With limited devices, a single computer failure can bring your business activities to an abrupt and extended halt.

Unlike larger businesses, you likely don’t have the budget to keep spare equipment on hand or to quickly purchase replacements.

As a small business leader, you want, and need, to strike a balance between risk, protection, and budget.


Connect with a Cloud Advisor

A Solution Set for Smaller Businesses

Fortunately, you have service options that help minimize your risk for business disruptions due to PC problems. 

PC Continuity

You can overcome the challenges and limitations of backup/recovery solutions without breaking the bank. PC Continuity solutions enable you to keep your business running while your PC is repaired or replaced and restored.

PC Continuity captures full images of your device multiple times per day. When needed, the image loads and runs on a virtual desktop in a cloud data center. You can access your system’s image from any device with a web browser or a thin client agent.

With PC Continuity, you can return to work quickly. For a small incremental fee above your backup/recovery service, your business keeps running.

Monitoring and Management

Ensuring your computers are current with respect to patches and updates helps ensure optimal performance and security.  Monitoring for system performance can also flag hardware issues before they cause damage or fail.

Remote monitoring and management services track the health of your computer and can alert your IT service team to issues and conditions before they become problems. The service allows for managing system and software updates and can provide remote access to your IT support team when needed.

Lifecycle Management

Larger companies use lifecycle management to manage their computer purchasing and upgrade cycles. For small businesses, lifecycle management focuses on extending the lifespan of your devices and understanding when it is best to upgrade or replace aging systems.

Besides tracking age and warranty status, these services can include extended warranty and accidental damage coverage plans.  These coverages provide repair or like-device replacement.  Having extended warranty and accidental damage coverage reduces the risk of maintaining older systems. In the event of an expected failure or accident, you can avoid early replacement costs.

Some lifecycle management services include certified electronics disposal, helping you avoid e-waste compliance issues and disposal fees.

Your Next Steps

Understanding the risks and impact of PC/Laptop problems, you should decide the value of the various levels of protections.  While protection and continuity services come at a cost, a single incident with your PC or Laptop can cost you in days of lost productivity, damaged or lost data, and thousands of dollars.

To assess your risks, protections, and business continuity needs, please contact us or schedule a brief intro call with a Cloud Advisor.  The assessment is free and without obligation.

About the Author

Bill Seybolt bio pictureBill is a Senior Cloud Advisor responsible for helping small and midsize organizations with cloud forward solutions that meet their business needs, priorities, and budgets. Bill works with executives, leaders, and team members to understand workflows, identify strategic goals and tactical requirements, and design solutions and implementation phases. Having helped over 200 organizations successfully adopt cloud solutions, his expertise and working style ensure a comfortable experience effective change management.

Debunking 5 Cyber Security Myths for SMBs

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Data Protection & SecurityAs owners and leaders of small and midsize businesses (SMBs), we have limited resources for IT and cybersecurity.  We should not be surprised, therefore, that SMBs face the biggest threat from ransomware and other cyber attacks.  Beyond the cost and risk of ransomware and encryption attacks, SMBs face business email compromise (BEC) attacks and threats to disclose regulated information.  Recovery costs, fines, and legal actions resulting from a successful attack can destroy your business. And yet, many SMBs remain unaware of the risk and/or lacking reasonable data protections and security.  This post intends to debunk five (5) cyber security myths for SMBs.

1My company is too
small to be a target

While note every attack is successful, one global report states that 86% of SMBs have been hit by ransomware attacks, with 20% attacked more than six times. With fewer resources and less focus on cyber security, SMBs represent an attractive target for attackers.  The increase in remote work and use of remote desktop protocols creates additional opportunities for attackers. Securing and managing these services requires time and attention.

The impact of a successful ransomware attack continues to increase.  According to Verizon’s 2020 Data Breach Investigations Report, the average cost of a successful ransomware attack grew from an average of $34,000 to just under $200,000.

2I cannot afford to protect
against cyber attacks

Cyber attacks are inevitable. Protecting your business does not require expensive solutions.  Your cost for endpoint protection for your devices, advanced threat protection for email, and security awareness training is pennies per day per person.  You can deploy multi-factor authentication (MFA), local disk encryption, and the Sender Policy Framework (SPF) and DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) protocols for free. You can deploy cloud-based business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR) for less than traditional backup/recovery solutions.

3I have backups,
so I am safe

Not all backup solutions are equal.  Many backup/recovery solutions for SMBs run on the same servers and networks as your business systems. Ransomware and other cyber attacks will seek out and encrypt/damage backup servers to render your backups useless.  Your backup/recovery solutions should be segregated from your production network and systems to shield them from attack.  Business Continuity/DR solutions offer the additional ability to bring systems back on line in an alternate cloud data center while you recover your primary systems.

4Technology alone
will save me

As with most security protocols, people are your first line of defense.  As many as 93% of cyber attacks begin with a phishing attack. People click on links, unwittingly downloading malware or sharing usernames and passwords.

Security awareness training should be a standard practice within your business.  The training is a proven way to reduce risk, decrease infections and help desk requests, reduce the chances of a security breach and strengthen the overall security posture.

5Cyber resiliency is
too hard to achieve

Cyber Resilience is the ability to withstand security attacks and land on your feet, no matter what happens. Cyber resilience protects your business, customers, and employees from ransomware, business email compromise, and other potential issues and attacks.

While some gaps in security will always remain, you can affordably improve your cyber resiliency.

To overcome these 5 small business cyber security myths, review your security footprint, and improve your resilience, please contact us by email, via our website, or by scheduling time directly with one of our Cloud advisors, with any questions or concerns regarding this service update.

Cyber Protection Solutions for SMBs

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Data protection iconAs our businesses become even more reliant on technology and cloud services, the frequency and sophistication of cyber attacks continue to accelerate. Your Cyber Protection 

Cyber Protection Needs

We need our businesses — and our people — to be aware, protected, and able to recover.

At Cumulus Global, our CPR model maps the necessary components of cyber security into three areas.

  • Communicate & Educate
    • Ensure you team understands the risk, educate them so they can avoid falling prey, create a culture of security and data privacy.
  • Protect & Prevent
    • Leverage advanced and “next gen” technologies to prevent attacks and to protect your networks, systems, data, and people from attacks.
  • Recover & Respond
    • No system is perfect; make sure you can recover your data and systems, return to normal operations, and respond to the technical, legal, and communication challenges.

Successful Cyber Protection relies on your policies and procedures, technologies, and people working in sync. Across more than a dozen focus areas, you need to balance the level or protection you need with the costs and with the risks of not doing enough. You need to balance external requirements, such as government and industry regulations, with internal priorities.

Your Cyber Protection Solution

To design and implement an affordable, integrated, and effective cyber protection solution for your business, start with a Cyber Protection Assessment (CPA).  A CPA will assess your needs, within the context of your business, and preferred solutions across 15 areas of focus:

  • Written Information Security Plan
  • Patches and Updates
  • Email Encryption
  • Data Destruction
  • Background Checks
  • Written Information Response Plan
  • Antivirus and Intrusion Detection
  • Email and Web Security
  • Account and Identity Management
  • Employee Training
  • Firewalls
  • Backup / Continuity / Disaster Recovery
  • File Encryption
  • Network Access Security
  • Responsible Parties

Using the results of the Cyber Protection Assessment, you can plan and implement your levels of protection in each area to create the balance that is best for your business.

Next Steps and Resources

Your best next step is to contact us and discuss your cyber protection status and needs with one of our Cloud Advisors. Consider using our Cyber Protection Assessment to understand your needs, current protections, gaps, and priorities.

Related Resources:

Webcasts

Next Normal: IT Efficiency

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(02/23/2021) – COVID-19 and the events of the past 10 months have, and continue, to change the way we run our businesses. Are the IT choices made during the crisis the best for your business in the long term?

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15 Best Practices for Cyber Protection

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eBook | Source: Cumulus Global 

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