Google Workspace

Why Replacing Zoom Is Easy but Replacing Google Workspace Is Not

When European organisations start thinking about reducing their US cloud dependency, the first instinct is to rank their tools by risk and start replacing them. This instinct is correct. The mistake is assuming that every replacement is roughly the same amount of work.

It is not. Replacing Zoom takes an afternoon. Replacing Google Workspace takes months. The difference is not about the quality of alternatives. Good alternatives exist for both. The difference is structural: it comes down to how deeply the tool has embedded itself into the way your organisation operates.

The Anatomy of a Google Workspace Dependency: What Keeps You Locked to Google

Google Workspace is often seen as the lighter-weight alternative to Microsoft 365. Fewer products, simpler licensing, less enterprise complexity. Organisations that chose Google early tend to believe they could switch to something else in a few weeks if they needed to.

That belief rarely survives contact with reality. Google Workspace creates dependencies that are structurally different from Microsoft’s, but just as deep. Some are harder to escape because they are less visible.

A Realistic Migration Path Away from Google Workspace for a 10-Person Team

A 10-person team is the size where Google Workspace feels most natural and where leaving it feels most daunting. You are small enough that Google’s pricing is cheap (€12 to €14 per user per month for Business Standard). You are small enough that you do not have a dedicated IT person. And you are large enough that Google has become the invisible foundation of how your company operates.

This post walks through a realistic migration path for a company of this size. Not a theoretical framework, but specific steps with specific tools, timelines, and costs. The company we are describing is composited from several real engagements, anonymised and simplified.

Is Your Organisation Ready to Leave Google Workspace? A 40-Point Readiness Checklist

Organisations considering a move away from Google Workspace tend to fall into two camps. The first assumes it is simple: export your email, copy your files, pick a new calendar. The second assumes it is impossible and does not start.

Neither is correct. Whether you are ready to leave Google Workspace depends on specific, measurable factors: how deeply your identity layer is embedded, how many Apps Scripts nobody documented, how much metadata you can afford to lose, and whether your team has the capacity to absorb the change.