Re: [Apps-Script] Is Google as a platform losing relevance in the realm of education?

[Jon Couch]

I was recently speaking with a member of this group about this very issue. I work in higher education and about 10 years ago our university moved to Google as the primary provider of email and cloud storage. Apparently, at the time, Google was offering no and low cost options as a way to break into an area controlled by Microsoft. Shortly after that transition I began my foray into Google app development with my first script being a form that submitted a PO request to a spreadsheet and automatically replied with the next number on the sheet. That application is still running today and I'm not sure my skill level has advanced much since then :). However, a couple of months ago the university announced that we would be transitioning to Microsoft cloud storage, Outlook would become the default email client and our storage on Google Drive would be dramatically reduced. I believe the default allocation will become 5gb of storage on Drive - I currently use nearly 2TB. We have been "encouraged" to move from Google Chat to MS Teams, do document collaboration on Office365 and embrace Power Automate for task automation. Having spent several years assisting one large administrative unit move all their paper forms to Google forms supported by Apps Script applications, this was disappointing news. I'm not privy to all the high-level negotiations involved in these agreements but from what I can gather, Google's original approach was to give away the razor and the blades, in hopes of one day dramatically raising the cost of the blades. It seems we've arrived at that day.

It doesn't appear that we will lose our Google functionality and there will be ways to pool storage to continue doing what we need. But the fact is, units that are accustomed to using applications "off the shelf" are already moving into Power Automate (not actually a scripting application as I understand it) and migrating to Teams and O365 to do collaborative activities which will require us playing in that sandbox. It's obvious I will need to improve my VBA and TypeScript skills and possibly convert some applications. The frustrating thought is that at some time in the future, Microsoft will likely raise prices on their razor blades and Google will offer them at a steep discount and we'll go full circle.

If your organization has gone through this scenario before, I would be interested in your observations of how to best navigate the process.

I appreciate the help this group has provided over these many years,

Jon

On Fri, Jun 23, 2023 at 8:50 PM DimuDesigns <dimud...@gmail.com> wrote:

Saw this video recently:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FjFg_5st8w

Not in total agreement with all the point made by the author but is does gives me pause. Would anyone here in the education space like to chime in?

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[Keith Andersen]

Google's unwillingness to listen to consumer input is a serious problem too. Customer service, getting actual help from Google is also a problem. More and more organizations rely on educated employees to implement data solutions rather than outright professionals. So a migration where customer service resolutions are easier to aquire will also be a driving force in determining which ecosystem to use. 

Google (sheets) steadfast refuses to shore up it's security of app scripts. There is simply no avenue to keep a shared sheet with editor privileges from doing unwanted changes to the script or unwanted access to the script itself. If you share a script,  you have to share the sheet that script is bound to.... this in many instances is unacceptable.

For these reasons I believe people will migrate away unless Google makes inroads to sheet user permissions and script access and permissions.

Just my uneducated ¢.02 😁

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[Kim Nilsson]

Video and comments "read" like a standard PR campaign from Microsoft, just like the ones they have run countless times before.

I haven't heard of a single teacher in any school around the world that are actively asking to switch away from Google to Microsoft.

Adding access to some MS stuff also, yes, that I've heard. Mainly because of Minecraft, but almost never to get any of the other MS tools.

Only time it ever happens, it's because of some of the higher-ups in the district and/or IT-chiefs were replaced or changed their minds. Never heard of a bottom-up reason for change. Never.

Security... nobody outside the IT-department (and more often than not, not even there) cares about security, for real. The only priority is ease of use and ease of integration. Nobody wants to keep track of several logins and passwords. Only when organisations are forced to comply is security even brought to the table.

[Keith Andersen]

Kim,

Are you posting in response to my and Jon's comments? I asked because I'm unsure where you get "videos" from. Up until your comment I thought Jon and I were the only ones on this thread. 

Referencing switch to Microsoft products and security definitely appear to be in response to my and Jon's comments.

Keith

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[Keith Andersen]

Hey Kim, 

Nevermind - I found the video. 

I had deleted the original thread so didn't see the video under Jon's comment.