Update: Rackspace’s hosted Exchange experienced a catastrophic outage on December 2, 2022, reportedly due to a security incident.
Rackspace has offered licenses on Microsoft 365 at no charge as a workaround until they can fix the problem.
In the meantime, some users are moving to Google Workspace:
When a small business owner or manager decides to move from free consumer email addresses (e.g., jake2874@comcast.net) to custom email addresses (e.g., jake@abbottsolar.com), there are several business email options.
Aside from Microsoft, Rackspace and Google are two of the most popular business email providers.
As service providers, Google and Rackspace differ in many ways. However, they do overlap in a couple of areas.
One area is IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service). Google Compute Engine and Rackspace Public Cloud are competing offerings. However, neither one of these apply to small business.
The second area, which does apply to small businesses, is email.
Why would a business use Rackspace Webmail over Google Workspace?
The main reason is the price. At $2.99 per user per month, Rackspace is an affordable email hosting service for small businesses. Rackspace’s site also promotes a high level of free hand-holding.
At $6 per user per month for the Basic version, Google Workspace is twice the price of Rackspace Webmail.
Why would a business use Google Workspace over Rackspace Webmail?
There are several reasons. The first is to preserve a familiar user experience for employees accustomed to consumer Gmail and Calendar.
The second reason is the set of applications included with Google Workspace. In addition to email, Google Workspace users can access various business productivity apps, including Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings, My Maps, and Sites.
These applications allow employees to create, share and collaborate in various ways without installing desktop software.
A third reason is to potentially take advantage of a Google Workspace-compatible CRM such as Copper or to have an integrated Salesforce and webmail.
A business owner on a tight budget should assess whether the additional $3 per user per month for Google Workspace would provide commensurate value for their type of business and current circumstances.