Quick wins for a faster PC:
Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Companies move from Google Workspace to Microsoft 365 when their needs fit Microsoft’s Office tools, workflows, administration or deployment options better. Historical customer accounts have cited familiarity with Office, email and calendar requirements, offline work, and specific security or data-control needs. Those examples explain possible reasons—not how common they are today or whether Microsoft 365 is universally better.
Why do companies switch?
The reasons differ by organization. The clearest directly relevant examples are customer accounts Microsoft published in 2013. They are useful illustrations, but they are not a current survey or an independent comparison of the two platforms.
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Familiarity with Office and established workflows
In a 2013 Microsoft announcement, Arysta LifeScience’s global head of IT infrastructure, Dustin Collins, said employees were accustomed to Office and found Google Apps difficult to use. His statement reflects that organization’s experience at the time; it does not establish how current products compare. Microsoft’s 2013 customer announcement.
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1Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches2Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors3Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteEmail, calendars and offline work
The same announcement reported that Arysta employees had difficulty sharing calendars and had limited offline capabilities. It also described SEPCOIII staff as finding Gmail unreliable, calendars cumbersome and offline use limited. These are historical reports from individual companies, not evidence that present-day Google Workspace has those shortcomings generally.
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- Power that lasts all day – With 20 hours of battery life[3], the new Surface Laptop powers through your entire day, so you can create, work and stream from morning to night without reaching for a charger.
- Work at the speed of your ideas – Built with the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite (12 Core) processors, Surface Laptop delivers fast, AI‑accelerated performance—making it the most powerful Surface laptop for everything from multitasking to demanding workloads.
- The ports you need – Charge on-the-go, transfer data fast, or create the ultimate desktop set up with two USB-C / USB4[4] ports.
- Built-in AI Companion – Work smarter, create freely, and communicate with confidence—Copilot[5] on Windows 11 is always there to help.
Security, privacy and data control
FHI 360 said it chose Office 365 because it met the organization’s security and privacy requirements. Its IT infrastructure director, Douglas Wilkins, said the organization valued knowing where data was stored and being able to set parameters for access. That is Wilkins’s account of FHI 360’s assessment in 2013, not proof that Microsoft 365 is categorically more secure or offers better controls for every organization.
Deployment flexibility
The FHI 360 account also cited a need to balance cloud and in-house deployment because broadband and cloud availability varied across some locations. That describes the organization’s circumstances at the time; it should not be treated as a current comparison of deployment options.
Rank #2
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Consolidation and AI strategy
A February 2026 Microsoft customer story describes PwC’s Microsoft 365 and Copilot rollout as part of modernization and platform consolidation. It is an example of a large enterprise investing in Microsoft’s ecosystem, but the story does not say PwC switched from Google Workspace. Its reported scale—more than 364,000 people across 130-plus countries—describes PwC, not the number of companies switching.
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What the PwC example does—and does not—show
Microsoft’s February 25, 2026 story says PwC moved more than 15 petabytes of data and over 500,000 mailboxes to Microsoft 365, at a pace of about 20,000 users per day on weekends. It does not identify Google Workspace as the source platform. Microsoft also attributes more than $25 million in savings to platform consolidation and $150 million in savings to Copilot use. These are vendor-published, case-specific claims—not typical outcomes or savings caused by switching from Workspace. Read Microsoft’s PwC customer story.
Rank #3
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- WITH AI BUILT IN — With a dedicated AI chip (Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite), this Copilot+ PC[5] on Windows 11 helps you work smarter and faster. Prompt, create, and automate with ease - ready for even your most demanding tasks.
- A 13.8" TOUCHSCREEN YOU'LL ACTUALLY USE — Sharp colors, real detail, smooth 120Hz scrolling on the PixelSense touchscreen[1] with LCD display[2]. Tap, scroll, or pinch to zoom - whichever feels right for streaming, editing photos, or daily work.
- 20 HOURS OF BATTERY (LEAVE THE CHARGER) — Up to 20 hours of video playback[3] on a single charge. Work from a coffee shop, take it to class/work, or binge an entire season on a long flight — it'll keep up.
- THE PORTS YOU NEED — Two USB-C / USB4[4] ports for fast charging, big file transfers, or hooking up to three 4K monitors when you want a full desktop. Wi-Fi 7 keeps you online and fast wherever you are.
How to decide if switching fits your organization
Start with the work people actually do and the requirements IT must meet. A platform decision should be based on your own workflows and controls, not a historical customer quote or a broad claim about one brand being better.
- Office and file workflows: Identify work that depends on desktop Office applications, complex Office documents or existing Microsoft processes. Check compatibility and user needs rather than assuming the older case accounts apply to your environment.
- Email, calendars and offline access: List specific problems users face, then test the current services against representative tasks and connectivity conditions.
- Security, privacy and administration: Map requirements for data location, access, retention and administration to the particular services and plan tiers you would purchase. The FHI 360 account is evidence of one organization’s historical fit, not a current comparative audit.
- Identity, devices and integrations: Inventory the identity, endpoint, document and collaboration systems that must keep working. Plan how users and workloads will coexist during the transition.
- Total change cost: Account for licensing, migration work, training, temporary coexistence, support and changes to retention or records-management policies. The cited sources do not establish a current, typical cost advantage for switching.
What a move involves
Migration is a separate project from choosing a platform. Microsoft’s migration overview describes preparing the destination tenant and users, verifying the business domain, preparing devices and apps, moving email and calendars, changing mail routing, transferring Drive files to OneDrive and SharePoint, and discontinuing Workspace only after the move is complete. Mail and Drive are separate workstreams, so a mailbox migration alone does not complete the job. Microsoft’s overview of switching from Google Workspace.
Rank #4
- A PREMIUM PERFORMANCE LAPTOP — Ready for work, school, and creativity. Built for busy days, big projects, and nonstop multitasking. Run video calls, school and work apps, 20+ browser tabs, and AI tools at the same time without slowing down.
- WITH AI BUILT IN — With a dedicated AI chip (Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite), this Copilot+ PC[5] on Windows 11 helps you work smarter and faster. Prompt, create, and automate with ease - ready for even your most demanding tasks.
- A 15" TOUCHSCREEN YOU'LL ACTUALLY USE — Sharp colors, real detail, smooth 120Hz scrolling on the PixelSense touchscreen[1] with LCD display[2]. Tap, scroll, or pinch to zoom - whichever feels right for streaming, editing photos, or daily work.
- 19 HOURS OF BATTERY (LEAVE THE CHARGER) — Up to 19 hours of video playback[3] on a single charge. Work from a coffee shop, take it to class/work, or binge an entire season on a long flight — it'll keep up.
- Two USB-C / USB4[4] ports and a microSD card reader for fast charging, big file transfers, or hooking up to three 4K monitors when you want a full desktop. Wi-Fi 7 keeps you online and fast wherever you are.
Mail, calendars and contacts need validation
Microsoft’s mailbox guidance lists mail and rules, calendars and contacts as migration categories, and describes migrating users in batches. It also lists prerequisites such as verifying the domain and provisioning users. Some items do not transfer exactly: the guidance says meeting-room bookings, shared calendars and calendar event colors do not migrate; no more than three email addresses per contact migrate; and Gmail tags, contact URLs and custom tags do not migrate. Rules transfer disabled by default, so review them before users enable them. Microsoft also warns that messaging-records-management or archive policies can make items appear missing in migration checks and advises disabling those policies before migration. Check the current guidance before acting because tooling and limits can change. Microsoft’s Google Workspace mailbox migration guidance.
Drive files require a separate plan
Microsoft’s consolidated guidance describes distinct migration paths for personal Google Drive files to OneDrive and shared-drive files to SharePoint. It also described a simplified Gmail migration experience for small and medium businesses with up to 1,000 seats, while larger mail tenants used a large-tenant experience. That page was last updated October 31, 2024, and its workflow details—including the Google Admin Console apps it referenced—may have changed. Confirm the current admin-center process before planning around them. Microsoft’s consolidated Google Workspace migration guidance.
Best Value
- Brilliant Display – Stunning 13.8" PixelSense touchscreen[1], with brilliant LCD display[2], unleashes luminous whites, deeper blacks and colors so richly saturated bringing vivid life into every frame – perfect for work, school, streaming and creative tasks.
- Power that lasts all day – With 20 hours of battery life[3], the new Surface Laptop powers through your entire day, so you can create, work and stream from morning to night without reaching for a charger.
- Work at the speed of your ideas – Built with the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite (12 Core) processors, Surface Laptop delivers fast, AI‑accelerated performance—making it the most powerful Surface laptop for everything from multitasking to demanding workloads.
- The ports you need – Charge on-the-go, transfer data fast, or create the ultimate desktop set up with two USB-C / USB4[4] ports.
- Built-in AI Companion – Work smarter, create freely, and communicate with confidence—Copilot[5] on Windows 11 is always there to help.
What the available evidence can support
The direct reasons described here come mainly from Microsoft-published customer statements from 2013. They show why particular organizations said they chose Office 365 at that time; they do not rank current switching motives or prove a general product advantage. The newer PwC account documents a large Microsoft 365 modernization, not a confirmed move from Workspace. Treat each example as context, then validate your own needs, migration scope and costs.
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