In this blog, we examine Zoom vs. Teams. We’ll discuss which video conferencing application best meets your business communication and collaboration needs.
Today, working from home is the new normal for many people. As a result, there has been a stampede for video conferencing software. Two of the most prominent and popular applications are Zoom and Microsoft Teams. However, they offer quite different services and user experiences.
Zoom growing exponentially
Video conferencing software is one of the main tools you will need if you intend to work remotely. The Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns saw the demand for the Zoom video conferencing app increase dramatically. Zoom increased its revenues by 53% between 2020 and 2021. meeting participants increased by 2900%, making Zoom one of the fastest growing apps of the pandemic.1
Zoom video conferencing
Zoom is ideal for meetings, presentations, webinars and online learning. It allows you to set up meetings, integrating with Outlook or Google calendar. You can hold large-scale meetings of 1000 participants and 10,000 attendees. You can record your video conferences and save them locally or in the Cloud. The Zoom app marketplace also lets you integrate with numerous (around 2,000) third-party applications. Zoom is available via your browser, a desktop client and mobile app. You can even use the Zoom bot to join meetings from inside Microsoft Teams. Zoom also offers a basic whiteboard feature and Cloud phone solution. For additional business features and functionality, simply upgrade your Zoom plan.
What about security?
Zoom received some negative publicity about security during the pandemic. Certainly, a few security vulnerabilities were discovered, which were quickly fixed. Even the world’s biggest software companies routinely find bugs and security vulnerabilities in their applications. That’s why they continually issue security patches and upgrades. Unfortunately, cyber-criminals will always be looking for weaknesses to exploit. Poor user training also contributed to some of Zoom’s more high-profile security breaches, where malicious participants disrupted meetings. Most of the so-called ‘Zoombombing’ incidents could have been avoided by enabling critical security features.
Security features
Zoom is equipped with a range of privacy and security features. For example, Zoom enables a host to lock a meeting, requiring password access. You can prevent attendees from sharing screens. You can set up secure meetings with end-to-end encryption. If you choose to record the voice or video content of your meetings, Zoom provides secure Cloud storage. Zoom also only retains the most basic user information to ensure privacy. There is also a range of access controls that can be centrally configured and administered by your service provider.
For casual business meetings, presentations, webinars and online learning, Zoom is a very good solution. However, you need to think carefully about the privacy and security of each video call you make before you make it. That’s why having clear privacy and security policies and the right IT safeguards in place is so important. You also need to ensure your staff are trained to use the application productively and safely.
Microsoft Teams collaboration platform
In January 2022, Microsoft announced that Teams had over 270-million active monthly users.2 Teams experienced a 40% increase in demand in just one week during the pandemic.3 Teams is a unified communications and collaboration platform. Microsoft Teams is quite a different animal from Zoom.
Teams overview
Microsoft Teams comes as part of Microsoft 365, which means it works with everything from Outlook, Word and Excel to SharePoint. Teams also integrates with over 700 third-party applications so you can customise it to meet your specific business needs. You can setup Channels for specific projects. You can share files, work on documents simultaneously, organise your Outlook calendar, make voice and video calls, schedule meetings and message colleagues. Teams also enable you to work from anywhere, on any device.
Teams security, privacy and compliance
Microsoft Teams enforces team-wide and organization-wide multifactor authentication (MFA), single sign-on through Active Directory, and encryption of data in transit and at rest. Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) is also available. Whatever your industry or sector, Teams is designed to meet the latest compliance obligations.4
A great place to work together
Microsoft Teams is all about working together. It enables you to set up secure collaborative workspaces known as Channels for internal staff and external third-parties. You can also set up private Channels. Anyone joining a Channel can see the full history of the project plus any shared documentation. You can also hold Chats, which are conversations among team members about various aspects of your project. Multiple Chats can take place simultaneously.
Naturally, you can make voice and video calls using Teams with up to 300 participants or 10,000 attendees for a live event.5 Teams is great for medium and larger enterprises, where different departments from sales and marketing to human resources and finance set up their own Channels. You can also assign specific apps to each Channel. For example, sales and marketing might have CRM and social media apps integrated within their Channel. For organisations already using the many benefits of Office 365, Teams is the perfect place to collaborate.
Zoom vs. Teams
As we have seen, Zoom and Microsoft Teams are very different apps. Zoom provides fast, reliable and easy to use video conferencing. It is also equipped with privacy and security features. Nevertheless, some caution and common sense should be used before sharing sensitive content. For many organisations, Microsoft is already the established provider and gold standard for office applications. If you want a platform that enables you to create collaborative workspaces for departments, projects and specific tasks then Microsoft Teams is the right choice. As we mentioned earlier, you can also integrate Zoom with Teams to get the best of both worlds.
To learn more about Zoom vs. Microsoft Teams, Microsoft 365 or improving the security of your people working remotely from home or elsewhere, contact us now.
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