G Suite Review: New Releases & Updates

SADA Says | Cloud Computing Blog

By SADA Says | Cloud Computing Blog

Over four million American companies use G Suite as of January, 2018, and in the prior 15 months, three major enterprise businesses signed on, bringing 250,000 employees with them. Google recently released their best G Suite  updates yet. Here’s a review of how they’ll drive productivity forward.

In Beta: G Suite’s Alert Center

Alert Center “provides admins with a comprehensive view on essential notifications, and allows them to easily take actions to better serve and protect their organizations,” according to Google’s recent announcement. Generally, these alerts will come in three forms: security threats, monitoring, and critical system alerts.

This feature helps IT professionals better asses security threats at both the domain and user levels. Launched to all G Suite customers, alerts and notifications fall into three different categories:

  • Google Operations – details on G Suite security and privacy issues that Google is investigating
  • Gmail phishing and spam – spikes in user-reported phishing
  • Mobile device management – information on devices that are exhibiting suspicious behavior or have been compromised
alert-center-animated

When integrated with G Suite security center, IT teams can get integrated steps on how to resolve potential threats.

Better Security with G Suite Admin

Further, Google has also rolled out new security features designed to aid G Suite administrators with identifying suspicious activity and the impact of any policy changes.

A new G Suite audit tool enables security admins to view and actionize new reporting features that set additional alerts for critical, protection-focused user actions, including:

  • Password changes
  • Two-step verification enabling or disabling
  • Account recovery info changes (phone number, security questions, and recovery email)

These are all administered through the G Suite Admin Console, which will let users monitor and set alerts for suspicious account activity. Taking it one step further, and possibly in light of recent global security events, admins are now informed of any security attacks that are potentially backed by governments.

Below is a summary of the above-mentioned additions:

Console Feature 1: Users receive an email alert when a user’s account has been targeted by a possible government-backed entity using phishing, malware, or other malicious tool.

Console Feature 2: Admins can see, for example, whether a user has changed their password and password recovery info. If it’s deemed that this is possibly the work of a hijacker, admins can track the time and IP of the change, then take the appropriate steps to restore the user’s account. At this point, IT teams can leverage two-step verification or password resets, and do so at a company-wide level, to ensure a higher level of security.

Hangouts Updates Evolving Communication

G Suite has also released new features for Hangouts and Calendar. Hangouts is a tool that lets workers engage in video calls, phone calls, and standard text chats; it now enables users to livestream to up to 100,000 in-domain users. This capability is perfect for company-wide, all-hands meetings, onboarding, training, or even new product launches. Users can set up these large meeting streams in Calendar to invite all required parties.

Hangouts is also rolling out the ability to add emojis to conversations, allowing users to add their own personality and individuality into their chats. Using something like a smiley face, rather than having to type out a positive response, allows employees to respond more quickly. It may also help employees communicate their thoughts, even when they’re in a hurry and can’t type a longer message. Workplace communication styles have changed, and Hangouts is providing employees with the features they want.

This G Suite productivity tool will enable Google to become more competitive with Slack. Further, these features will be available for all desktop and mobile devices.

Business travel is expected to cost $1.6 trillion by 2020, so smart companies are being proactive about how they can boost face-to-face collaboration and communication without devoting major resources to it.

G Suite Recap

G Suite enterprise tools have grabbed a foothold of the consumer market, but many of these applications have become must-haves for enterprise organizations. Google routinely comes out with updates and new releases that make them critical for a wide range of verticals.

Vault: This tool lets users archive, search, and export files for future use.
Gmail: Recent updates give access to certain Gmail functionalities, even when there is no internet connection, and new AI integrations suggest possible responses for users.
Calendar: Helping users manage schedules and plan meetings, new G Suite add ons integrate it directly into Gmail, increasing workforce efficiency.
Hangouts: Users can call, video chat, and even send chat messages; new updates enable videos to be streamed to up to 100,000 people.
Drive: Similar to Vault in its storage capabilities, employees can store work-in-progress files in Drive, and transfer them to Vault once they’re finalized. Admins can control permission settings and create team drives.
Docs/Sheets/Slides/Forms: These tools let users create the files that drive business forward, analyze data, collect customer info, and more.
Plus: Google’s social media platform, employees can use this to share articles, post about their interests, and collaborate with colleagues.

G Suite solves many of the enterprise world’s biggest challenges, and with new features being released throughout the year, it will only become a more important tool for driving growth.

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