Workspace Business Continuity edition: nice marketing story, but not real continuity

When Google announced its new Workspace Business Continuity edition, it sounded like the perfect safety net:

“If Microsoft 365 goes down, your teams can switch to Google Workspace. No migration, no downtime.”

On paper, that’s a dream.
In reality, it’s mostly a nice marketing story.

What Google is selling

The idea:
Keep Google Workspace on standby while your organisation runs Microsoft 365.
If M365 suffers an outage or security issue, flip the switch — and continue working in Gmail, Docs, and Meet.

Two versions exist:

• Business Continuity (cold standby, 21 days/year)
• Business Continuity Plus (hot standby, 60 days/year)

The message lands perfectly:
✔ Avoid vendor lock-in
✔ Reduce downtime risk
✔ Use Google’s “battle-tested” cloud

A textbook marketing story.
But when you strip away the storytelling, you realise: this isn’t continuity — it’s duplication.

A standby platform ≠ a continuity plan

Offering a standby platform gives a nice marketing story, but organisations may fall into the trap of “we’ve got it, so we don’t need to invest further.”

And that’s the danger.
Because real continuity isn’t about having two logos on your vendor list.
It’s about tested processes, fresh data, trained users, and operational discipline.

Running Google Workspace as a backup to Microsoft 365 sounds simple until you list what’s actually required:

• Syncing every user, group, and permission.
• Replicating mail, calendar, and files.
• Maintaining integrations with CRM, HR, and device policies.
• Training staff who live in Outlook and Teams.
• Testing switch-over and rollback procedures.

That’s not plug-and-play.
That’s a parallel environment … with all the complexity that entails.

The illusion of resilience

The biggest risk here isn’t technical.
It’s psychological.

When organisations believe “we have a backup platform,” they often stop testing, stop training, and stop investing.
A second suite becomes a comfort blanket, rarely touched until it’s too late.

And when disaster strikes, you find:

• The directory wasn’t synced.
• Files weren’t current.
• Users don’t know where to log in.

That’s not continuity. That’s chaos with good intentions.

Operational reality

Even if Google’s cloud is more stable, maintaining two collaboration ecosystems means:

• Double the cost (licences, storage, admin time)
• Double the governance (security, retention, compliance)
• Double the training (two toolsets, two behaviours)

You don’t get resilience for free.
You get duplication and... a false sense of security.

To Google’s credit…

This offer does highlight a genuine concern:
Over-reliance on Microsoft 365 is a single point of failure.

That’s a fair message and Google delivers it brilliantly.
But the solution isn’t buying another suite.
The solution is building operational maturity around the one you already have.

That means:

• Verified, off-platform backups
• Documented failover procedures
• Regular continuity tests
• Clear communication plans
• Trained, empowered users

A standby platform can support those goals but it can’t replace them.

The consultant’s lens

If you’re advising clients or managing IT strategy, treat this as a conversation starter, not a solution.

Ask your leadership team:

• What’s our real Recovery Point Objective (RPO) and Recovery Time Objective (RTO) targets for collaboration?
• When did we last simulate a productivity outage?
• Do we have playbooks for switching tools or providers?
• Are our users ready to operate under pressure?

If you can’t answer those questions confidently, you don’t need a “hot standby.”
You need a tested continuity plan.

Final thought(s)

Google’s new edition is clever marketing.
It creates doubt about Microsoft’s reliability and positions Workspace as the safer bet.
But resilience isn’t something you subscribe to — it’s something you build.

Buying a backup suite might reassure the board, but without training, governance, and testing, it’s only a story.

And when the real outage comes, you’ll discover whether it was a good story, or a costly one.

Your turn:
Would your organisation actually know how to operate if Microsoft 365 went offline for 48 hours?Or would “the backup plan” be just another unchecked box on a spreadsheet?