Opinion on Cloud Services

Tech Talk
1

This is going to be a bit long, but I could use the opinion of some tech minded folks on this.

I own two domains that are currently Google Workspace. They were originally G Suite Free, but I upgraded to the paid service for some basic functionality that I wanted that wasn’t offered as part of the free service any longer. One domain has one account (this I would consider to be my main account), the other domain has two accounts (my wife’s main account). In addition, I have a Gmail account.

Last month, I upgraded my Pixel 4 XL to a Pixel 6 Pro. During this, I subscribed to Pixel Pass. This had to be associated with my Gmail account. So, I went through the process of migrating all of my Google Drive data from my Workspace account to the Gmail account (I had also purchased additional Drive space for the main account that I can now cancel) to take advantage of the space given to me as part of Pixel Pass.

At about the same time, I had to convert the second domain to a current Workspace account. I had originally switched to the basic, but had to upgrade to the next level because my wife is continually running out of space (I wish I knew how a single person could have so much stuff in their email) and that was the easiest solution at the time.

I was recently notified I had to do the same thing to my main account. I also went with the next level Workspace for that one because I didn’t want to risk not being able to use Google Chat with people outside “my organization” (mainly anyone I would communicate with).

OK, so now that we have the background info, I’m trying to figure out the best way to manage my stuff. From a storage standpoint, I now have 2TB of shared storage between the two Google Workspace domains, plus 200 GB of storage via the Pixel Pass. I’ve already resigned myself that for Google related services that I need to use the Gmail account due to restrictions with the Workspace accounts.

Odds are, I will keep the second domain as is (not worth changing things with my wife), but with my main domain, I’m wondering if I should make some changes. I’ve been happy with Google, but I’m not tied to it. I like having the sync’d calendar and contacts that it provides along with email, so I don’t want to give that up.

So, in people’s opinions, should I just stick with Google, or look at migrating to a different service?

2

If you are happy with it, and it is providing the services you need, why change? If you need Google Chat and not just ‘a’ chat service, I guess you are stuck with Google.

Personally, if you already have 2TB of space, I wouldn’t have bothered about setting up a personal account and shifting everything around, just for an additional 10%. That doesn’t sound worth it.

Having multiple accounts is also a pain, in the long run. I would consolidate, if I could. I don’t have much experience with Google services, but I know Jeff Jarvis is always complaining that some features arrive late, or never, on his paid accounts and it is all a bit of a mess.

I don’t trust Google and have a couple of my own domains. I just use the standard mail and calendering and contacts that the account offers, I think it is basically an OwnCloud type service. They also offer cloud storage, but I went back to Office 365 for storage, because I used MS Office, and the storage was a bonus.

In the last year, I switched to Apple for phone and PC and I am thinking of dropping Office 365, but I have a family account, so would have to sort out who actually uses the storage and the apps.

I am looking to move more and more to European based services, because I live in Germany and the big US based offerings aren’t really 100% GDPR compliant, especially the consumer offerings - no tracking allowed, unless it is opt-in and all data has to be stored in the EU and cannot be transferred to the US. I’ve ignored that for the convenience over the last few years, but I am less and less enamoured with the direction Microsoft are going with their Windows, Office and cloud offerings.

3

I think the order of operations makes things confusing.

When I got my new Pixel with Pixel Pass, I moved everything over to that account with the intent on dropping the additional storage on my main account. It was after that, that I had to add storage to the second account.

At this point, my issue with Google is that they treat Workspace accounts too different from normal accounts. Too many features aren’t available in Workspace. Which I can understand, seeing that it is designed for corporate accounts. But, there are many, like me, who use it for personal domains (since it was free at one point). I had been considering moving a lot of my stuff that was tied to my main workspace account over to a gmail account for awhile.

I was always a fan of Google services. But now, I’m not 100% sure.

1 Like
4

I suppose I should mention, the reason for the rumination is cost.
I was paying $6/month per user (3 users total). Now I’m paying double that. Plus the fee for Pixel Pass.

5

Bandwith caps is why I don’t like Cloud Services.