Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace Support

The platform your team lives in, set up properly.

Migration, licensing and day-to-day management of whichever cloud platform suits you. We are not tied to either — we run both, and we will tell you honestly which fits your business.

We are not a Microsoft-only shop

Most IT providers pick one platform and recommend it to everybody, because it is easier to support one thing. We run Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace, and which one we suggest depends on your business rather than our convenience.

Broadly: Microsoft 365 suits organisations with Office documents at the centre of how they work, existing Windows infrastructure, or compliance requirements that favour its admin tooling. Google Workspace suits businesses that are collaborative, browser-first and have no particular attachment to desktop Office. Plenty of firms would be fine on either, and in that case the honest answer is to stay where you are rather than pay for a migration that changes nothing.

What we handle

Tenant setup and managementDomains, DNS, mail routing, security baseline and admin policy — configured properly at the start rather than patched up later.
Migration from anywhereOn-premise Exchange, POP/IMAP, Google to Microsoft or the other way, or consolidating two tenants after an acquisition. Mail, calendars, contacts and files, with a cutover planned so people log in on Monday and carry on.
Teams, SharePoint and OneDriveStructured so people can find things. Most SharePoint deployments fail not technically but because nobody designed where anything should go.
Google Drive, Meet and Workspace adminShared drives organised sensibly, sharing rules that are not wide open, and admin console policy that matches how you actually work.
Azure and Google Cloud hostingVirtual machines, hosted applications and site-to-site connectivity where a cloud server genuinely beats a box in your comms room.
Licence reviewAlmost every new client is paying for licences nobody uses, or paying for a tier above what they need. This routinely pays for a chunk of our fee.

Migration without the horror stories

Everyone has heard about a migration that went badly — a weekend that became a fortnight, missing mail, a shared calendar nobody can open. It is almost always the same cause: insufficient discovery, and a cutover with no way back.

How we do it:

  1. Discovery. Every mailbox, shared mailbox, distribution list, calendar, public folder and file share. The surprises come from what was not on the list.
  2. Pre-stage. Data copied and synchronising ahead of time, so the cutover moves a small delta rather than everything.
  3. Pilot. A handful of users move first, including at least one person who uses the system hardest.
  4. Cutover. Usually a weekend. We are available Monday morning, on site if it warrants it, because Monday morning is when the real questions arrive.
  5. Rollback plan. Written before we start. We have rarely needed one, which is roughly the point.

Worth knowing: neither Microsoft nor Google backs up your data in the way most people assume. Both replicate it for their own resilience, and both have limited retention for deleted items — but if a user deletes a folder and nobody notices for three months, or ransomware encrypts a synced drive, that is your problem to solve. See backup and disaster recovery.

Securing it properly

A cloud tenant out of the box is not secure, it is merely functional. The default configuration is designed so everything works for everyone, which is not the same thing.

We apply MFA across all accounts, conditional access rules based on location and device, restricted external sharing, disabled legacy authentication protocols, admin accounts separated from day-to-day ones, and audit logging turned on and retained. None of this is exotic, and its absence is how most cloud account compromises happen. More on our cyber security page.

Licensing, honestly

Microsoft's licence structure is genuinely difficult, and it changes. Google's is simpler but still has traps. Two things worth knowing: you are probably paying for seats belonging to people who left, and you may be on a tier above what you use.

We review licensing at least annually and tell you where you can move down as readily as where you should move up. We have no incentive to inflate your licence count — our fee is based on supported users, not on what Microsoft bills you.

Not sure whether this is what you need? Book a free IT review. A real engineer looks at what you have, tells you honestly what is fine and what is not, and gives you a number. No obligation, and no sales script.

Common questions

Should we use Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace?

It depends on how you work. Microsoft 365 suits businesses centred on Office documents, existing Windows infrastructure, or stricter compliance needs. Google Workspace suits collaborative, browser-first teams. Many businesses would be fine on either — in which case staying put usually beats paying for a migration that changes nothing.

Will we lose email during a migration?

No. Data is pre-staged and synchronising before the cutover, so the switch moves only a small delta. Cutovers are normally done over a weekend with a written rollback plan, and we are available on the Monday morning.

Does Microsoft or Google back up our data?

Not in the way most people assume. Both replicate data for their own resilience and keep deleted items for a limited period, but neither protects you from a deletion nobody notices for months, or from ransomware encrypting a synced drive. That needs separate backup.

Can you cut our licence costs?

Often, yes. Most new clients are paying for seats belonging to former staff or sitting on a tier above what they use. We review licensing annually and our fee is based on supported users, not on your Microsoft bill, so we have no reason to inflate it.

Can you move us from Google to Microsoft, or the reverse?

Yes, in both directions, including consolidating two tenants after an acquisition. Mail, calendars, contacts and files all move.