Break free from Microsoft 365’s lock-in, vulnerabilities, and outages with Google Workspace and partners

Over the past few years, we’ve consistently heard from businesses and public sector organizations that Microsoft 365’s frequent and severe outages, along with SharePoint and Exchange security incidents, have them rethinking their technology investments. IT and business leaders need to have the confidence that their mission-critical work tools — across email, storage, videoconferencing, and AI — won’t go offline or get compromised at a moment's notice.

Even with Microsoft’s recent emphasis to “do security,” the recurring platform-wide vulnerabilities (e.g., Entra ID) and flawed internal practices (e.g., “digital escorts” system for the U.S. Department of Defense) continue to pose grave risks for organizations. And when paired with the company’s restrictive licensing practices, many Microsoft customers feel locked in. Starting from a “clean sheet” is critical for a secure, reliable, and flexible foundation for the AI era.

That’s why, starting today, we’re offering two new cost-effective plans, Business Continuity and Work Transformation Set, that can help organizations minimize the impact of Microsoft’s outages and break free from Microsoft’s legacy tools to transform how their teams work.

How the new plans help organizations

Just because Microsoft 365 goes down — and it’s a question of when and for how long, not if — doesn’t mean that your teams need to go back to using pen and paper. Our Business Continuity plan is a secure and affordable solution that runs Google Workspace in parallel with Microsoft 365; it’s designed for Microsoft customers that want to ensure continuity of operations. During an outage, teams can continue working with secure and compliant apps, such as Gmail, Calendar, Meet, and the Gemini app, without the need for migration.

And if you’re ready to switch entirely from Microsoft to transform how your teams work, the Work Transformation Set offers Workspace with industry-leading identity and device management solutions, one with Okta and Omnissa, and another with JumpCloud — all under a unified competitive price, plan, and Google Cloud contract. This is a secure-by-design, flexible, and cost-effective replacement for Microsoft 365.

How each plan helps to ensure continuity and transform work

Business Continuity

A robust contingency plan, including alternative tools and incident response frameworks, can help mitigate the architectural brittleness in Microsoft's infrastructure. With the Business Continuity plan, Workspace runs in parallel with Microsoft 365 and is ready to go in the event of a Microsoft outage. Workspace, with support from our partners, will sync emails, calendars, chat, and more with Microsoft 365, so customer data is right where organizations need it, without requiring migration. This can protect against disruptions to the core business and impacts to customers. Organizations can also avoid costly penalties that come with downtime and the violation of a growing set of regulatory mandates, including DORA (EU) and OSFI (Canada).

Teams facing a Microsoft 365 outage can keep working with Workspace from virtually any device, anywhere, and with full confidence in its reliability and security. Workspace runs on Google’s battle-tested infrastructure and offers a 99.9% SLA with 5 years of incident transparency. In fact, so far in 2025, Workspace has had a 99.99% uptime. And organizations using Google Workspace experience 3x fewer email security incidents than those using Microsoft 365.

Because the intuitive and popular Workspace apps, including Gmail, Meet, and Docs, are already used by many employees in their personal lives, they can get up to speed in no time. The Business Continuity plan comes with advanced zero-trust, compliance, and digital sovereignty controls that help organizations ensure that their data in Workspace is protected and complies with regulatory standards and data residency regulations.

Work Transformation Set

The Work Transformation Set offers an all-in-one replacement for Microsoft 365 to customers ready to leave behind Microsoft’s lock-in and security incidents to fuel a new way of working. Built for the AI era and with openness in mind, this solution combines Workspace with Gemini and best-of-breed identity and device management solutions. It offers customers a choice of two distinct options. One pairs Workspace with Okta and Omnissa and can help organizations with the most demanding requirements and stringent compliance standards, such as FedRAMP High. Another option pairs Workspace with JumpCloud to provide a streamlined and unified identity, device, and access management platform. Both options are offered with a unified discounted price and streamlined contract from Google Cloud, helping to make planning, procurement, and adoption easier and cost effective for organizations in any industry.

Workspace with Gemini includes premium Google AI at no additional cost, allowing teams to work smarter, from crafting custom reports in seconds, to synthesizing new insights from data, to connecting more meaningfully in meetings. According to a survey commissioned by Workspace, 82% of Workspace users say that AI features provide value (not just hype) compared to 66% of Microsoft 365 users. Workspace is accessible from web browsers and mobile apps, which means that teams can work from virtually any device, anywhere, while IT can keep data protected with built-in DLP, encryption, and compliance controls that can help meet stringent regulations, such as HIPAA, FINRA, FedRAMP High, and DoD IL4.

"Organizations today demand a new way to work that blends best-in-class productivity and AI with a strong security foundation. They want to move beyond the limitations of legacy, one-size-fits-all contracts and adopt solutions that empower their people while protecting their data. By bringing identity into the Work Transformation Set and teaming up with Google Workspace and Omnissa, we’re giving customers the power to choose the best tools for their business without sacrificing security or user experience." — Ric Smith, President of Products and Technology, Okta

AI-assisted work rests on a strong security foundation, and data breaches often stem from software vulnerabilities or weak access controls. With Work Transformation Set, IT teams can reduce security risks and costs by eliminating the need to patch desktop apps and on-premises software. IT teams can also enforce zero-trust access controls by giving users and devices only the access they need. Managing and securing mobile, desktop, and other endpoints also becomes simpler, including enforcing consistent security policies, deploying software, and tracking inventory.

"Omnissa Workspace ONE is engineered to deliver more than just device management; it provides secure, seamless access to essential business resources anytime, anywhere. From empowering knowledge workers to supporting frontline teams, its comprehensive capabilities firmly establish it as the superior choice over 'good enough' bundled offerings. Together with Google Workspace, we are on a mission to transform how innovative teams work: AI-assisted, highly-collaborative, and secure."
— Bharath Rangarajan, Chief Product Officer, Omnissa

Finally, with a broad set of ecosystem integrations and an extensive support of standards, such as SSO, HRIS, LDAP, and RADIUS, IT teams can easily adopt preferred solutions as their organization evolves to avoid technology lock-ins and leverage the most effective industry solutions on the market to solve their specific business needs.

"Google's vision for the modern enterprise is clear, and we're proud to be their strategic partner in bringing that vision to life. Enterprise IT and security teams are at a crossroads, and their decision is simple: keep the legacy systems that stifle innovation or adopt an AI-enabled future. The combination of Google Workspace and JumpCloud provides the modern path forward, leveraging Google’s powerful AI to accelerate deeper security, productivity, and value." — Greg Keller, co-founder and Chief Technology Officer, JumpCloud

Get Started

These new plans can help your organization avoid disruptive downtime caused by Microsoft 365 outages and transform the way your teams work with the help from AI. To learn more, join us for our upcoming webinar. And if you’re ready to reshape how work gets done in your organization, please get in touch with us.