Suitebriar Blog

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap August 31st - September 4th

jonathan@suitebriar.com (Jonathan Alvarez) — Fri, 11 Sep 2026 21:01:04 GMT

Previous announcements
The announcements below were published on the Workspace Updates blog earlier this week. Please refer to the original blog posts for complete details.

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap August 24th - 28th

jonathan@suitebriar.com (Jonathan Alvarez) — Fri, 04 Sep 2026 15:53:43 GMT

Previous announcements
The announcements below were published on the Workspace Updates blog earlier this week. Please refer to the original blog posts for complete details.

What a Google Technical Account Manager Does | Suitebriar

jonathan@suitebriar.com (Jonathan Alvarez) — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 10:59:59 GMT

Two Things Share the Name, and Conflating Them Costs You

The phrase "Google technical account manager" points to two genuinely different things depending on who's using it. One is a job title inside Google, a mid-level customer-facing role that requires at least five years of experience driving technical implementations or transformation programs. People searching for that title are usually evaluating a career move, and the Google Careers site lists the posting alongside minimum and preferred qualifications.

Google Admin Training vs Vendor Certification | Suitebriar

jonathan@suitebriar.com (Jonathan Alvarez) — Thu, 27 Aug 2026 13:15:00 GMT

The Real Decision Behind Google Admin Training

IT leaders filling a Workspace admin seat face a fork that looks simple on paper but plays out differently depending on the organization. One path is vendor certification: a structured, exam-oriented program that produces a portable credential. The other is internal enablement: role-based learning tied to the organization's own admin console, policies, and deployment stage. Both paths teach the admin console, but they optimize for different outcomes. Certification builds a standardized knowledge baseline and proves it to future employers. Enablement builds operational fluency in the environment the admin actually has to manage.

Google Security Checklist: What It Misses | Suitebriar

jonathan@suitebriar.com (Jonathan Alvarez) — Wed, 26 Aug 2026 10:00:00 GMT

When a Completed Checklist Still Leaves the Tenant Exposed

Google publishes two versions of its Workspace security checklist, one for small businesses with fewer than 100 users and another for medium and large organizations. Both are organized as feature inventories: lists of settings an admin can enable, grouped by product area, with links into the admin console. An admin who works through every item ends up with a tenant where the available controls are turned on, and that feels like progress. It is progress, but a completed Google security checklist is a setup inventory, while a security assessment is a different exercise entirely, and the difference matters.

Google Workspace Migration Without Mail Loss | Suitebriar

jonathan@suitebriar.com (Jonathan Alvarez) — Tue, 25 Aug 2026 15:00:00 GMT

What This Migration Actually Costs You Before the First User Moves

A Google Workspace migration is a multi-phase project that requires far more than a single click in the Admin Console. Before a single mailbox transfers, someone on the team needs super admin access to the destination Google Workspace account, valid credentials for the source environment (Exchange service account, Microsoft 365 global admin, or IMAP credentials per user), and DNS control for the domain. The edition matters too: the built-in data migration tool in the Admin Console is available on most Workspace plans, but Google Workspace Migrate, the standalone server-based product designed for large or complex environments, requires a Business Plus, Enterprise, or Education edition.

PDL vs Full Seat Licensing in Workspace | Suitebriar

jonathan@suitebriar.com (Jonathan Alvarez) — Mon, 24 Aug 2026 12:45:00 GMT

The Licensing Problem Mixed Workforces Actually Face

A hospital system with 800 clinical staff and 200 administrative knowledge workers pays the same per-user rate for every account on its Google Workspace domain. A logistics company with 2,000 warehouse associates and 150 office employees does the same. In both cases, the vast majority of users log in for email, maybe a shared calendar, and little else, yet they carry the same license cost as the power users running Sheets models, building Slides decks, and living inside Shared Drives eight hours a day.

Partial Domain Licensing in Google Workspace | Suitebriar

jonathan@suitebriar.com (Jonathan Alvarez) — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 09:37:48 GMT

PDL in the Google Workspace Context

If you've searched what PDL is and landed here expecting something about pregnancy leave or prescription drug lists, you're in a different lane entirely. In Google Workspace administration, PDL stands for Partial Domain Licensing, and it solves a problem that most growing organizations eventually hit: paying the same per-seat rate for every user in the domain, regardless of what those users actually need.

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap August 10th - 14th

jonathan@suitebriar.com (Jonathan Alvarez) — Mon, 17 Aug 2026 14:49:44 GMT

Previous announcements
The announcements below were published on the Workspace Updates blog earlier this week. Please refer to the original blog posts for complete details.

How to Use Google Workspace Effectively | Suitebriar

Andrew Fantone — Fri, 14 Aug 2026 12:59:59 GMT

The difference between a Google Workspace deployment that sticks and one that drifts back toward old habits usually comes down to decisions made before anyone opens a new tab. Choosing Shared Drives over My Drive, configuring Groups before sharing a single folder, and matching your Workspace edition to the collaboration patterns your team actually uses are structural choices that shape every workflow built afterward.