Google Apps vs. Microsoft Office 365

 

The school also approves of Google's ability to integrate Gmail and Calendar with other applications, such as Google Docs, Groups and Sites. Office 365 also offers great integration with Exchange Online, SharePoint Online and Lync Online. However, the fact that UC Berkeley partners UC Santa Cruz and Lawrence Berkeley Lab already use Google Apps helped cement the school's decision to go with Google here.

As for developer tools, UC Berkeley praised the Google Apps API as being better aligned with "the current skill sets on the UC Berkeley campus and what our central IT group currently supports," and said current students already have a familiarity with Gmail and Google Calendar, giving Google Apps two more edges over Office 365.

Surely, Google Apps didn't beat Office 365 on all fronts, or it wouldn't be much of an evaluation. The school appreciates the security, including encrypted email at rest, and authentication afforded by Office 365, adding: "Microsoft offers a better AUP policy, better e-discovery options, and slightly better terms on the location of data. On the whole, Microsoft comes out better than Google but only by a small margin on all categories."

UC Berkeley's selection of Google Apps over Office 365 is a nice, end-of-the-year victory for Google, which was stung last month by the Los Angeles Police Department's decision to forgo migrating to Google Apps and to stick with its on-premise Novell (NASDAQ:NOVL) GroupWise suite.

The LAPD argued that Google Apps wasn't secure enough to satisfy federal criminal justice information requirements. 

Given this factoid, and the fact that UC Berkeley found Office 365 to be more secure than Google Apps, one expects Microsoft to begin the drumbeat in 2012 that its software is more secure than Google's. For now, that seems to be Microsoft's biggest attack point versus its rival.