Google rejigs Workspace and Cloud services

Google has announced changes to its pricing, commitment plans and term options for Workspace and Google Cloud services, aiming to provide customers with increased cost flexibility and choice.

Workspace is Google’s collaboration suite, including productivity apps like Gmail, Meet, Docs and Calendar and the company claims to have over eight million customers worldwide.

The Flexible Plan Workspace subscriptions for Business Starter, Business Standard and Business Plus editions have gone up in price.

“We’re announcing a few updates to our pricing to reflect the value in our products, alongside expanded commitment options to lock in the lowest pricing, providing our customers with more choice,” Google Workspace vice president of strategy Steve Holt said.

"These changes reflect the hundreds of new features that extend the value we provide to customers, as well as industry-standard pricing practices," Google cloud communications manager Mihika Gujral said.

"Google Workspace continues to be priced competitively, and we remain deeply committed to the success of our customers and partners," Gujrai added.

"To better align the prices of our services between regions, we are also modifying the local pricing of Google Workspace subscriptions in several currencies," she said.

Google is increasing the price for Google Workplace Enterprise Standard; the company has not said by how much.

The company has also revealed an annual plan option for Google Workspace, where organisations can commit to longer agreements to lock-in lowest prices per-user.

Business Starter is A$8.40 per month Business Standard is A$16.80 per month and Business Plus is A$25.20 per month.

However, Google is increasing the price of its Flexible Plan subscriptions, rolling out from April 2023, charging more per month than the annual plans.

These flexible Plans offer customers the option to pay-as-they-go, with no commitment, providing flexibility for businesses.

Google Cloud launched Flex Agreements, enabling customers to migrate workloads to the cloud without up-front commitments.

Three new tiers are added: Standard, Enterprise and Enterprise Plus.

The Standard tier will offer cost-efficient and easy-to-use managed services that include all essential capabilities, Google said.

Meanwhile, the Enterprise tier will include features designed for customers with workloads that require a high level of scalability, flexibility, and reliability.

Enterprise Plus will offer services with high availability, multi-region support, disaster recovery, advanced security, and a broad range of regulatory compliance support.