Amazon WorkSpaces vs G Suite: What are the differences?
Developers describe Amazon WorkSpaces as "Easily provision cloud-based desktops that allow end-users to access applications and resources". With a few clicks in the AWS Management Console, customers can provision a high-quality desktop experience for any number of users at a cost that is highly competitive with traditional desktops and half the cost of most virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) solutions. End-users can access the documents, applications and resources they need with the device of their choice, including laptops, iPad, Kindle Fire, or Android tablets. On the other hand, G Suite is detailed as "Collaboration and productivity apps for Business". An integrated suite of secure, cloud-native collaboration and productivity apps. It includes Gmail, Docs, Drive, Calendar, Meet and more.
Amazon WorkSpaces and G Suite are primarily classified as "Virtual Desktop" and "Productivity Suite" tools respectively.
Some of the features offered by Amazon WorkSpaces are:
- Support Multiple Devices- Users can access their Amazon WorkSpaces using their choice of device, such as a laptop computer (Mac OS or Windows), iPad, Kindle Fire, or Android tablet.
- Keep Your Data Secure and Available- Amazon WorkSpaces provides each user with access to persistent storage in the AWS cloud. When users access their desktops using Amazon WorkSpaces, you control whether your corporate data is stored on multiple client devices, helping you keep your data secure.
- Choose the Hardware and Software you need- Amazon WorkSpaces offers a choice of bundles providing different amounts of CPU, memory, and storage so you can match your Amazon WorkSpaces to your requirements. Amazon WorkSpaces offers preinstalled applications (including Microsoft Office) or you can bring your own licensed software.
On the other hand, G Suite provides the following key features:
- gmail
- google drive
- Calendar
Airbnb, Uber Technologies, and Spotify are some of the popular companies that use G Suite, whereas Amazon WorkSpaces is used by HigherMe, Amazon, and Shelf. G Suite has a broader approval, being mentioned in 10757 company stacks & 1111 developers stacks; compared to Amazon WorkSpaces, which is listed in 5 company stacks and 6 developer stacks.
We had been using Office 365 at Omnio Interactive for roughly 5 months before making the bold decision and switching to Google's counterpart.
Stylistically, both systems are extremely easy on the eye and both interfaces can be used with little to no employee training (who hasn't had past experience with Office/Outlook and Gmail?). Ultimately it comes down to personal preferences; our employees preferred Google's offering when it came to UI.
Pricing is incredibly cheap for both of the products. We were using Office 365 Business Essentials and have moved to G Suite Basic which is roughly 30% cheaper, although this only represents a saving of ~£2 per user per month.
A big deal-breaker for our move to G Suite was the sheer number of sites and services that offer authentication with Google. More services that we use allow registration with an existing Google (G Suite) account and so the reduced number of logins that need to be stored and managed is a bonus. In comparison, we could count the number of services that we came across offering a 'Sign In with Microsoft' on one hand.
Mobile device management is also super useful for securing our employees' devices. Setting up work profiles on Android with the 'Google Apps Device Policy' app is extremely easy, and allows for the 'sandboxing' of business-related apps. Being able to secure these apps with a password or biometrics through Android's settings is also nice to have. This works for us as all of our employees' devices run Android. I don't have any knowledge of how this works (if at all) on iOS.
We are highly dependent on G Suite for all our collaboration and productivity needs, from Gmail and Calendar to Sheets and Docs. While it may not be as robust as Microsoft's offerings in those areas, it's totally cloud-based, we've never had any downtime issues and it integrates well with our other tools like Slack. We write and collaborate on all our specs/PRDs in Docs, share analyses via Sheets and handle our meetings via Calendar. #StackDecisionsLaunch #ProductivitySuite #Collaboration #DocumentCollaboration
What is Amazon WorkSpaces?
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- Gmail608
- Google docs444
- Calendar361
- Easy to work229
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G SuiteGoogle Apps provides FANTASTIC value for it's price. It's an entire office suite for $50 a year. I have been using Google Docs for the last 7 years and it is constantly getting better. It was at the point in 2013 that when I bought my new computer I didn't buy Microsoft Office. I use Google Drive for all my business needs.
With many users in Google Apps for Business platform it is very easy to keep documents organized and manage what can and can't be shared with other organizations. All your conversations, docs, and even conference calls are safe within a managed application. You will have easy control over communication and documents within your organization.
Amazon WorkSpacesI use AWS Workspaces for several things:
- As a AWS-secured bastion host to connect to my infra.
- As a "research machine" that I can use its upstream and downstream speed to do google searches, computations and downloads (only my 1Gbps office network beats their ~500mbps downlink speed; articles load in the blink of an eye; any download is almost instant).
- An alternative development environment to test my tooling (how does that electron binary work in windows?)
- A secure backup medium.
- A mini-staging environment that also has great connectivity.
- And an extension to my current Desktop.
- And more…
Their desktop client, especially for Windows, work amazingly well. And they deliver what they promise.
G SuiteScribe brings emails to Slack, and suggests 'smart replies' to them. We chose GSuite as our first email integration, since anyone that uses Slack typically also uses GSuite / Gmail!
G SuiteSaves us a lot of time and headaches. Google groups is a powerful app. Gmail is just well thought-out and integrates well over multiple accounts.
G SuiteYou can design your customized logos with the help of the website first and then pay to get the ownership of the logo that you create later.
G SuitePrometheanTV uses the Google G Suite to provide basic business productivity services including, email, document sharing, calendars, etc.
G SuiteInternal communication, Google Docs, and Gmail. Google products are the best for startup. Cheap and cost effective per user.