Google Apps

First Impressions: Comparing #Google Apps to #Office365

As many of you know, I recently accepted a new position at a school district closer to home.  Interestingly, this district decided to go with Microsoft's Office 365 as its cloud based storage/collaboration platform, whereas my previous district  was using Google Apps.  In the interest of full disclosure, I must admit that I am somewhat of a Google FanBoy, but at the same time I like to keep abreast of the latest developments with all educational technology tools.  

My initial impressions are that Office 365 is a clean and simple user interface, but that it is not as developed or mature as Google's.  In particular, Google Drive has many more features, such as the ability to connect additional apps, compared to SkyDrive which is simply a file creation and management tool.  Perhaps some would take issue with this, but it is my initial impression anyway.

On the plus side for Skydrive is that the actual file editing interface and functionality are what most people are comfortable with as it looks and acts just like traditional Office docs.  So if you value that aspect, then it makes sense.  However, I have come to value morethe collabration aspect of document editing and have found that Google's tools in that regard are second to none. 

 As I use Office 365 more, I will post more thoughts here.  I would be interested to hear from those of you in other districts that have also gone "Microsoft".  How has it been for you?