Migration

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.

EU Alternatives to Microsoft 365: A Realistic Comparison for Organisations Ready to Switch

Organisations searching for European alternatives to Microsoft 365 usually find two kinds of content: vendor marketing pages that claim full feature parity, and Reddit threads from frustrated sysadmins who tried to switch and gave up. Neither is useful for making a real decision.

This post provides a service-by-service comparison of the most credible European alternatives to each component of Microsoft 365. For each one, we assess feature parity, maturity, hosting options, and the realistic effort required to switch. No affiliate links. No vendor partnerships.

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.

The True Cost of Migrating from Microsoft 365 to Nextcloud: A Detailed Breakdown

Nextcloud is the most frequently cited European alternative to Microsoft 365 for file storage and collaboration. It is open source, German-founded, self-hostable, and available through dozens of EU hosting providers. For organisations evaluating a move away from Microsoft, it is usually the first name on the list.

But “migrate to Nextcloud” is not a plan. It is a destination. The plan requires understanding what the migration actually involves, what it costs, what it does not replace, and where the surprises are. This post breaks down the true cost for a specific scenario: a 25-person European professional services firm migrating from Microsoft 365 Business Premium to a Nextcloud-centred stack.

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.

How SaaS Vendor Lock-in Actually Works: Seven Structural Layers That Keep European Organisations Stuck

Most organisations think of vendor lock-in as a contractual problem: long-term agreements, steep renewal prices, early termination fees. That is the surface layer. The real lock-in operates through at least seven distinct structural mechanisms, most of which are invisible until someone tries to leave.

Understanding these layers matters because each one requires a different approach to undo. Treating lock-in as a single problem leads to migration plans that fail at the first unexpected obstacle.