Value4Money VPS+Email+FlexibleStaticSites (withOrWithout Shared/Cloud workspace), SinglePersonSetup

[HanishKVC]

Hi,

My thoughts after looking at Google Workspace + Cloud offering

Below are some of the use cases that any entities may look for wrt online services

a) web presense through a web site

b) emails for easily filterable structured non-live communication 

c) access to a shared/cloud workspace, meeting place, ...

d) vps for online services and beyond

e) social media engagement, ...

Today the offerings from Google satisfy needs wrt above for many (definetely for medium to large) as well as non-tech savy entities. However for small developers based tech entities, which may be looking for value for money solutions,

a) WebSites: they may ideally prefer access to a hosting provider which provides them flexibility to deploy their web sites raw (generated using what ever flow they may prefer) rather than predefined templates driven setup. NOTE: The existing embedding of pages supported by google sites is not flexible enough and equally carries unneeded baggage wrt the site.

b) Email: they would want a email service. However given that the scope of customisation and advantages or flexibilities emanating from them beyond what is already provided as standard is not that huge, many may prefer to stick to a standard offering.

c) Cloud workspace, Meeting place: they wouldnt mind these, but at same time are savy and resourced enough (with linux and open source in general, as well as live offerings) to survive without one.

d) vps: if they dable with online space/services++ and or even otherwise, they may want a value for money all inclusive vps plan (like those provided by ovh, ionos, linode, digital ocean, aws lightsail, godaddy, google ???? 😞 , so that they dont have to worry about heart attacks due to egress costs. Do note that even the basic entry plans from one of these providers is good enough to spin ones own site, email and beyond, if needed, given the tech progress over the last decade plus.

e) ...

And this is a space for which I dont see a value for money solution from google.

Also on a kind of related note for a single person entity the google workspaces setup+flow currently forces a two user cost, if one wants to keep their admin role decoupled from their daily use flow.

If google were to ponder over these and provide sensible solutions/bundles, few more drops may join the google ocean, if not anything else.

[KAM]

@HanishKVC this is what the Google Partner ecosystem is for!  See https://cloud.google.com/find-a-partner/

For example, at my $dayjob at Ditoweb.com, we offer our INaBOX solutions solving real world issues with an easy button for things such bare metal systems and BigQuery.

I also often recommend hybrid solutions and every single enterprise customer I work with is in multiple clouds.  This is where partners shine!  My $0.02 -KAM

[HanishKVC]

Hi KAM,

Thanks for the response, however I assume there is some confusion, what I am talking about is Google having simple sensible - practical - flexible - value-for-money flows/options by default wrt _basic_ usage flows of their product.

These basic features/mechanisms shouldnt require any 3rd party involvment, eitherway. And also I dont see a 3rd party solution solving these problems other than spining/running their own instance of vps/... and providing equivalent functionality or so ... and or inturn adding on unneeded costs as well as layers on top ...

ie be it wrt

• google sites supporting raw static site related files directly without requiring embedding etal
• having mechanism to decouple admin role actions from normal email usage flow in a single user profile, so that one doesnt have to pay for two users to achieve seperation between roles, for a single user entity
• having a all-inclusive vps bundle at sensible rates for simple setups and beyond

Hope this conveys my thoughts/issues wrt what google provides currently, more clearly.

[HanishKVC]

Hi Google team,

On looking into the VPS options available out there, the value for money options to keep in mind, if you decide to come with your own plans could be

• Ionos VPS - S : 1 vCPU, 0.5 GB Ram, 10 GB Storage, Unlimited Nw ($2/Month)
• Ovh VPS Starter: 1 vCPU, 2 GB Ram, 20 GB Storage, Unlimited 100 Mbps ($4.2/Month)
• Ionos VPS - M: 2 vCPU, 2 GB Ram, 80 GB Storage, Unlimited Nw ($7/Month)
• ...
• NOTE: For anyone who may not mind a container based VPS rather than a VM based VPS, hostinger may have some decent options, provided if they reduce their cost by around 20-25%.

NOTE: Hope it also helps anyone else that may be looking for a Value for Money VPS option.

NOTE: The above prices are what I found when I was looking into them currently, chances are the plans may change in future, so do cross check across all providers before deciding.

[KAM]

@HanishKVC I'd recommend you post a feature idea for Google to consider this idea.  @icrew can you share that information, please? -KAM

[icrew]

Sure, here you go:

You might want to post this to the Feature Ideas section here. Doing so will allow it to be upvoted by others and possibly considered as a future feature enhancement.

If you do not already have access, you need to request it first. See https://www.googlecloudcommunity.com/gc/custom/page/page-id/Workspace-Feature-Ideas-FAQ for how to do that.

Once you have access, go to https://www.googlecloudcommunity.com/gc/Feature-Ideas/gh-p/workspace-ideas-group . There, you can upvote and comment on any similar idea, or post a new idea.

If you are submitting a feature idea, be sure to explain the problem that you're trying to solve with the feature idea, not just the idea itself. For example, saying "when my users are trying to do 'A', they often get confused by the fact that the buttons to do 'X' and to do 'Y' look quite similar to each other, which leads to this unintended consequence" is far more likely to get fixed than a feature idea that just says "change the color of the button 'Y'".

Cheers,

Ian