Google is betting that public cybersecurity failures at Microsoft — along with aggressive discounts — will convince corporate and government customers to switch from the Office productivity suite to the search giant’s software offerings.
Government agencies that move 500 or more users to Google Workspace Enterprise Plus for three years will receive one year free and qualify for a “significant discount” on the remainder of the contract, said Andy Wen, senior director of product management for Workspace. Alphabet Inc.’s division is also offering enterprise customers that sign a three-year agreement 18 months of free usage, substantial discounts thereafter, and incident response services from Google’s security unit Mandiant. All customers will receive free consulting services to support the migration process.
On Monday, Google also released a white paper highlighting security gaps in its competitor’s products and is considering launching similar themed campaigns across social media and advertising channels.
“Ongoing security challenges related to Microsoft require a better alternative for both enterprises and public sector organizations,” Google wrote in the white paper. “We believe Google Workspace is a more secure alternative, with a proven track record of engineering excellence, significant investment in advanced protections, and transparency, where securing customers is treated as a core responsibility.”
Last month, the U.S. Cyber Safety Review Board released a report documenting Microsoft’s failure to stop China-linked hackers who breached the email accounts of U.S. officials last year. The report called for urgent reforms, which Microsoft has pledged to implement as part of its largest security overhaul in two decades.
Google is actively trying to persuade customers to move away from Office, saying Microsoft’s cybersecurity issues have made organizations more open to switching platforms. At a recent Google conference, Wen said enterprise customers reported that their boards and executives had set deadlines to stop using Microsoft due to “unacceptable risk levels.”
Wen also noted that Google conducted its own security overhaul after a 2009 cyberattack in which China-linked actors breached its servers and accessed a database containing U.S. surveillance-related information.
The timing may be favorable. Users are increasingly familiar with Google apps through personal and educational use, while some corporations are frustrated by rising Office pricing and additional charges for new AI features.
According to Jeanette Manfra, former U.S. Department of Homeland Security official and now head of Google’s global risk and compliance operations, there is also a growing desire among government agencies to reduce dependence on a single vendor — especially one with security challenges.
She added that Google will need to overcome cultural resistance, partly because many federal CIOs hold their positions only briefly and tend to avoid large-scale transformation projects.
“It is much easier to just stick with the current path,” she said.
Based on Bloomberg materials