When businesses move their company work offsite and online, collaboration software is a necessity. Although staff are working remotely, it remains vitally important to maintain the ability to collaborate, hold meetings, and work on projects. The team of technicians at SDCC conducted an evaluation of the two most widely used videoconferencing programs, Microsoft Teams and Zoom, to determine which better fulfills our client’s needs.  Both programs share many similar features, including the ability to have multiple attendees in a video conference, being able to chat with each other, send files through a meeting, and the ability to join a meeting from a mobile device.

From a business standpoint there are many areas where Teams greatly excels over Zoom.

Zoom is a stand-alone program that requires ancillary 3^rd party apps to be downloaded to use much of its capabilities. That means more software on top of the program, more of a learning curve, and more steps to transfer data and files from one program to another. Teams meanwhile is part of the Microsoft ecosystem. You can send a Teams Meeting directly from Outlook and seamlessly transfer data from Outlook, Word, Excel, or any other Microsoft program, all without having to download any additional apps. Further, as a Microsoft program, Team’s user interface is similar to other programs in the Microsoft Office suite, which means a smaller learning curve for all employees. With Teams, Microsoft has truly provided a one-stop-shop for all of your businesses work and collaboration needs.

During the summer of 2020, CitizenLab – a security research organization, found numerous security exploits in Zoom’s encryption standards when they were able to hack into Zoom’s data storage. CitizenLab issued a report stating that due to these flaws, Zoom is not suitable for government or business use, or for sharing sensitive information. Zoom’s CEO admitted such stating that they were working on these security concerns. Moreover, questions continue to abound about China’s involvement with the company after testing in late summer revealed that user data is transmitted through servers based in China even when all the meeting users are based in North America. Zoom’s software development is also outsourced to China, leading to concerns about the potential for pressure from Chinese authorities to share company secrets and data. These concerns are amplified by the fact that Zoom has not yet released a transparency report detailing what they do with user data and who they use for their software development.

Microsoft on the other hand is the gold standard for business software and employs some of the most rigorous encryption standards found anywhere in the world. Microsoft Teams encrypts data in transit and at rest, storing user data In Microsoft’s secure network of data centers. With a multi-decade history of serving businesses large and small, Microsoft has developed a robust security ecosystem for its customers.

Related:More About Teams

Zoom and Teams differ in their pricing for access to the full program. Zoom starts at $15 per month for a Pro Account. You can only run one meeting at a time with each account, limiting its use for a company. Teams meanwhile is $6 per user. With the Teams license, each user can run a meeting concurrently, and files can be easily transferred between programs and during meetings.

Related:Teams Promotional Pricing

At the end of the day, it is our Firm’s opinion that Zoom caters more to social teleconferencing between friends and family, while Teams is better suited for business collaboration. We based our decision on the serious security concerns that have been raised over Zoom’s encryption standards and software development practices, as well as consumer watchdog reports recommending businesses avoid Zoom. After intensive testing, we are confident that Teams provides businesses with everything they could need out of their collaboration software while enjoying Microsoft’s top-notch security.

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