What is Google Workspace? Why Has The Service Suddenly Become so Popular?

Google Workspace has recently become a buzzword among entrepreneurs. What exactly is this service all about? Where its popularity is coming from? Are you missing out on something if you don’t use it in your business? Let’s explore answers to these questions.

Google Workspace – a cloud-based work environment for modern companies

You might’ve heard the term Google Workspace before and assumed that it’s a single application. Even though Google Workspace contains dozens of apps, you weren’t far from the truth because the service is indivisible and works as a single subscription to a vast suite comprised of many interconnected elements.

Each Google Workspace licence gives the user access to all the tools necessary for communication, collaboration on office tasks, and management of the company’s data in the cloud. As we’ve lined out the three categories, let’s look at the names and detailed purpose of the most important apps within them.

Communication apps in Goole Workspace:

• Professional Gmail: email account in the company’s domain that serves as your centre of internal communication with a team because it’s integrated with all the apps mentioned below;
• Google Groups: an app for creating and managing mailing lists, their members, and shared email addresses.
• Google Meet: a video-conferencing solution equipped with various features supported by AI, like noise cancellation, lighting adjustment, live subtitles and translations.
• Google Chat: a text messaging app embedded in Gmail that allows creating Spaces for teams or regular chat rooms for conversations with colleagues.
• Google Calendar: an app for scheduling meetings, booking resources, and keeping up with the daily timetables of teammates.

Collaboration apps in Google Workspace:

• Google Docs: a document editing app with suggestions mode that enables to accept or decline text corrections left in the file by coworkers.
• Google Sheets: lightweight and speedy spreadsheets editor that makes analytical, financial, mathematical, and organisational tasks easy to conduct and automate.
• Google Slides: slideshow editing app that facilitates hassle-free creation of aesthetically pleasing files that comply with the company’s key visual, like the brand logo, colours, fonts, shapes, themes, or photos.
• Google Forms: a tool for preparing and publishing elaborate online questionnaires.
• Google Drive: storage space for files created in the applications above and any type of file you want to upload from your device to the cloud.

Data management apps in Google Workspace:

• Google Admin panel: an app for configuring and controlling user accounts, security settings, domains, aliases, company resources, data policies, suspicious activity alerts, mobile device procedures, password and two-factor authentication guidelines, etc.
• Google Vault: a solution for archiving emails and files created in other Google Workspace apps; storing the data long-term prevents accidental deletion and promotes transparency in case of electronic discovery proceedings.

The tools from the last category are available only for users assigned as administrators but influence the work of the entire organisation. Companies working in Google Workspace can manage all their data remotely, so it’s much easier for them to introduce a hybrid cooperation model than teams that still rely on local software and dedicated servers.

The history of Google Workspace

Now that we know what Google Workspace is, we can trace the brief history of this service to understand the roots of its popularity. Many people assume that it’s an entirely new offering for business, but in fact, it’s been around since 2006. During the first ten years, the service constantly evolved and functioned under a few names ‘Google Apps for your Domain’, ‘Google Apps for work’, ‘Google Apps Premier Edition’, and ‘Google Apps for Business.

Between 2016 and 2020, the product was known as G Suite – and that’s the name that most of us instinctively associate with professional Gmail accounts. Before and during the coronavirus pandemic, Google focused on deepening the coherence and fluid integration within its cloud environment. To emphasise that shift, the service underwent the final (for now) rebranding and became Google Workspace.

The ‘sudden’ rise in popularity only appears sudden. Google has been building and polishing its products for decades, thus fully earning the massive base of fans it has nowadays.

The main reasons behind the popularity of Google Workspace

In January 2021, Gmail had 1.8 billion active users. It means that over 40% of people with an email address decided to use this particular service. We already know that it didn’t happen overnight, but there are other reasons than the persistence of development that contributed to the success and are worth highlighting:

• Google developed a network of partner companies that support business clients using Google Workspace. One of such partners is FOTC – a company specialising in optimising costs, solving technical issues, aiding configurations, and organising training for teams that work in Google apps.
• Google Workspace is continually evolving to accommodate emerging business needs. Thanks to the fact that this suite of apps is based entirely on the cloud, Google can constantly introduce updates that respond to fast-paced changes in hybrid work trends.
• It’s affordable, scalable, and secure. Google Workspace has many variants that can fit the needs of start-ups that bet on flexibility, small businesses focused on cost-reduction, industries that prioritise maximum security or even schools or NGOs that have their own set of challenges.

If you’re interested in testing this service, contact FOTC to get a 30-days long trial of any Google Workspace edition.