The Biggest Problem With Managed It Support Services, And How You Can Fix It

[Aichele Edington]

Managed IT Support Microsoft Teams vs Google Meet vs Zoom: The Definitive Videoconferencing Battle

The COVID-19 pandemic required employees to work from home, however the show had to go on in some way. Overnight, videoconferencing platforms became the lifeline that held organizations together. Even as operations return to normal, videoconferencing suppliers are putting resources into their products.

The 2 main collaboration suites, Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace deal videoconferencing abilities, but we would be remiss not to include among the most popular videoconferencing apps in the market today-- Zoom.

At this point, your service is almost ensured to have a videoconferencing platform already. If not, or if you are aiming to change platforms, continue checking out listed below for a breakdown of features and choices that will assist you make your decision.

Are your conferences long or short? Are you mostly meeting internally or with leads and clients? Will you be hosting webinars?

It goes without stating, if your company is already signed up for Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, and you enjoy with the platform, you should utilize Teams or Meet respectively. If you are not signed up for either and just require a standalone videoconferencing app, Zoom has a complimentary variation that ought to resolve the majority of your needs.

In the areas listed below, we will compare all 3 major videoconferencing platforms based upon numerous metrics you should consider before choosing the ideal one for your service.

Groups vs Meet vs Zoom: Integration with your other apps/services

Before diving into the full list of functions for each platform, it is necessary to comprehend just how much you get from the entirety of what you are paying for.

Groups and Meet belong to larger efficiency suites, whereas Zoom is a standalone item with all the videoconferencing-specific features you might require. While Teams and Meet can be obtained individually, they are best bundled with their bigger suites, Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace.

Case in point, a Zoom Pro membership only provides you videoconferencing abilities. For less than Zoom Pro, the M365 Business Standard and Workspace Business memberships consist of a full suite of business applications.

With Microsoft 365, you get a totally integrated experience with desktop versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and more. The most significant selling point of Microsoft is how easily the apps deal with each other, and the most significant distinction in between Teams and its rivals is how centralized the suite is.

Groups leaps flawlessly from instant messaging to video calls, with the capability to switch back and forth in between them.

Google Meet is independent of Workspace's chat app, Google Chat. While users can utilize both Workspace apps concurrently, the separation of the two is a bit counterproductive.

With M365 and Teams, all chats, taped meetings, and files are all housed in the same main place, making searchability far simpler.

With Meet and Zoom, you will have to seek out conserved chats from old conferences, or in the case of Meet, head over to Google Chat.

This is likewise the case when working on collaborative files. Any files attached in a Teams chat will appear under its files tab at the top of the window, suggesting you don't need to lose time chasing them down when you need them.

Microsoft uses even more applications in their strategies than Google, however many go unnoticed.

Microsoft Sway permits you to quickly get and cut a recorded Teams satisfying that you can then house in your area within Teams itself.

In the case that someone gets here late to a meeting, or a worker records the very same conference and lets it run for hours after its conclusion, you can quickly grab the part of the conference you require and save it.

This bypasses the storage that would be eaten up by an hours-long video, in addition to the time it would require to submit, trim, and export stated video from a video editing platform.

Furthermore, all three platforms do have combinations with numerous other business applications, so make sure to look at compatibility with any apps you currently use, and these platforms.

Groups vs Meet vs Zoom: Features

Comparing Free Versions vs. Paid

Microsoft, Google, and Zoom have all adapted well to the need for certain functions on their platforms, therefore the majority of the same functions overlap throughout prepare for all three suites. This consists of screen sharing, video recording, live captions, and everybody's favorite: customized backgrounds. As for some other functions, they vary throughout each company's offerings.

A table depicting the various strategies and functions of Microsoft Teams vs. Google Meet vs. Zoom Audio Conferencing On-the-Go

While present across the board, dial-in abilities vary throughout strategies. Meet offers dial-in free of charge with any of their paid plans, one of the most significant advantages that the platform has more than its rivals.

Teams provides its dial-in ability for $4 additional per user, monthly; while Zoom's dial-in is toll-based.

Both Teams and Meet deal internet-based PBX services that can replace your internal phones, while Zoom's toll-based setup is not useful.

Microsoft 365 Business Voice integrates effortlessly with Teams, permitting staff members to take company on the go, all with complete continuity.

Video Quality-- Who Supports the very best?

As of the time of this post, each platform displays video in HD, however the quality differs. Teams is capable of 1080p video at 30 frames per 2nd if you have 1.5 Mbps of bandwidth.

Zoom also has 1080p video, however it is limited to the platform's service or business plans. 1080p can also be allowed by Zoom assistance in specific cases. Zoom's 1080p performance requires 1.8 Mbps of bandwidth for 1-on-1 calls and 2.5 Mbps on group calls.

Meet will default to 360p video, but it can send out and managed it support services receive up to 720p video.

Audio quality across platforms depends upon microphone and speaker quality, in addition to the quality of your internet connection.

Rooms and Workspaces-- Breaking Things Down

Breakout rooms are essentially meetings that run concurrently to the initial videoconference. These were specifically essential for virtual education, so instructors might break students out into different groups to discover.

There is a clear energy for breakout rooms in expert spaces, too. If a bigger group is satisfying about a task, breaking down tasks into smaller groups, breakout rooms might be a terrific solution.

Both Teams and Zoom have breakout spaces native to their base platforms, throughout all plans. These spaces are essentially conferences that are running simultaneously to the original videoconference.

Meet allows breakout spaces through their basic and plus plans, but not in the complimentary or standard plans. However, like many Google functions on cheaper strategies, you can add Google Chrome extensions, but this might be more of a headache than it deserves in the end.

Just recently, Microsoft likewise presented Together Mode, which uses AI to place video individuals in numerous digital settings, together. While the utility is light, Together Mode could be a strong morale booster.

Groups vs Meet vs Zoom: Privacy and Safety

To its credit, Zoom reacted promptly to the "Zoom bombing" of the early days of the pandemic, adding end-to-end encryption and beefing up their personal privacy policy. Over 500,000 Zoom accounts were taken and published for sale online quickly afterwards.

While Meet has not had any popular occurrences of personal privacy breaches, Google has actually had plenty of privacy issues and a performance history of gathering information for use in marketing.

Microsoft has the very best performance history of security and they likewise have the most transparent privacy policy.

All three platforms support two-factor authentication. Thinking about that 99% of cybersecurity attacks include a password component, two-factor authentication is a need to if you want a genuine defense versus cybercriminals.

As a part of the broader M365 suite, all chats, notes, and files are encrypted and kept within OneNote and SharePoint, respectively.

Furthermore, Microsoft Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) is offered on its Business Premium and E5 strategies, obstructing potentially harmful material from being accessed by those in your business.

Microsoft likewise uses Data Loss Protection (DLP) to capture delicate information being shared (like social security numbers), and instantly obstruct it from being sent.

Along with eDiscovery and legal holds within channels, talks, and files, Teams ensures you remain certified with all information storage policies.

A graphic showing the course of details as it is secured from Microsoft Teams through Microsoft 365.

Google does provide eDiscovery in their Business and Enterprise strategies and DLP in their Enterprise strategy only, but these are just restricted to Drive and Gmail. From what we can see Meet has no particularly listed DLP abilities.

Zoom does not use any of these features on its main platform.

In general, Zoom has responded well to its personal privacy challenges, but the changes are largely cosmetic.

End-to-end file encryption (E2EE) is terrific to have, however its addition was more of a reaction to a problem than a total option. It is not likely that E2EE protects most users from more than encryption in transit and at rest, like with Teams and Meet.

E2EE