Popular, but controversial – and probably not always legal to use: the perfect description for the rise of Microsoft Teams in recent years. And the controversy about the lack of data protection in collaboration software continues unabated, especially in German schools. In addition, the German Data Protection Conference (DSK) repeatedly denied the closely related Microsoft 365 GDPR conformity in November 2022. In addition, Microsoft is openly exploiting the dependency of its users with the new premium extension at the latest. Many companies are therefore looking for an alternative – but which ones are there and which ones should they avoid?
Although Microsoft is the focus of the current data protection debate about cloud applications, there are two other popular providers, Slack from Salesforce and Google Workspace, which do not opt for suitable for use in German companies or authorities. Nevertheless, like teams, they are increasingly represented in European offices and administrations. The reasons for this are certainly understandable, but often fall short.
Convenience: Many IT decision-makers are already familiar with the applications – for example because they also use them privately – and are reluctant to learn a new administration environment and user interface for professional use. In fact, most of the functions and processes have now been standardized across all applications and platforms, and the learning effort is being reduced accordingly.
