Google Workspace · Vancouver, BC

Google Workspace Vancouver

Hexafusion provides Google Workspace support in Vancouver for businesses running on Workspace or migrating from other platforms. Tenant admin, security hardening, Shared Drive architecture, and ongoing day-to-day support.

Google Workspace Services for Vancouver Businesses

Google Workspace (formerly G Suite) is the productivity platform of choice for many Vancouver startups, creative agencies, and tech-forward small and mid-sized businesses. Hexafusion manages your Workspace tenant: admin, security, migration, and ongoing support.

Workspace vs Microsoft 365: Which Is Right?

Most Vancouver businesses end up with one or the other. We help you make the choice based on your staff's preferred tools, integrations with your line-of-business software, compliance requirements, and budget. Hybrid environments (Workspace for some teams, M365 for others) are common and we support both.

Canadian Data Residency for Google Workspace

Google Workspace offers data-region policies on Business Plus and higher editions. Core data (Gmail, Drive, Docs, and similar) can be pinned to a specified region. For PIPEDA-regulated and BC's Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA) clients, we configure data-region policies where possible and document the services and metadata that still transit globally. Your privacy officer gets a written statement of cross-border flows to include in any audit response.

Workspace vs Microsoft 365: making the call

Both platforms cover the core productivity bases (email, calendar, file sharing, video meetings, messaging). They diverge in the details, and that is where the right choice shows up.

Hybrid environments (one platform per team) are common and fully supported. We manage both sides and the identity federation between them.

Security hardening for Google Workspace

Workspace includes strong built-in security, but most accounts we inherit have default settings that leave preventable gaps. Our baseline in the first ninety days:

• 2-Step Verification enforced for every user, not just opted-in. Security keys mandated for super-admins.
• Context-Aware Access policies by device trust, location, and session age.
• Advanced Protection Program for high-risk accounts (executives, finance, HR).
• Vault retention with separate admin credentials so a compromised admin cannot delete audit evidence.
• Alert Centre with automated response for phishing, malware, and account compromise signals.
• Data Loss Prevention (DLP (Data Loss Prevention)) rules on Gmail and Drive for clients with regulated data patterns.
• Third-party backup (SpinBackup, Afi, or equivalent) for any client with long retention or recovery requirements. Workspace Vault alone is not a backup product.

Migration methodology

Workspace migrations use the same six-phase methodology we apply across every productivity platform. The key difference on Workspace is that Gmail delta sync and Drive content sync can run in parallel, which compresses the timeline. A typical 10 to 50 user Vancouver business is off the old platform and stable on Workspace inside six weeks:

1. Discovery. Inventory users, aliases, shared mailboxes, Drive content, third-party SaaS integrations, calendaring patterns.
2. Design. Target org structure, shared drive architecture, identity model, security baseline. You approve before we start.
3. Pilot. Five to ten users move first. Two-week validation.
4. Migrate. Weekend cutover waves with zero-downtime delta sync on Gmail.
5. Stabilise. Thirty days of intensive support with direct engineer access.
6. Hand-off. Documentation, training, transition into managed operations.

Frequently asked questions

Google Workspace Support Across Metro Vancouver

Related services

Service areas across Metro Vancouver

Related Hexafusion resources

Deep-dive pages on the cybersecurity and compliance topics referenced above.

Compliance baseline behind every Hexafusion engagement

Google workspace administration and licensing is delivered against a documented baseline aligned to the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security baseline controls and current cyber-insurance underwriting expectations. The same baseline applies whether you are a five-person clinic or a 200-seat manufacturer.

• Identity and access: Microsoft Entra ID with Conditional Access, multi-factor authentication (MFA) enforced on every account, compliant-device sign-in.
• Endpoint protection: Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) on every device, deployed before the user receives the laptop.
• Disk encryption: BitLocker on Windows, FileVault on Mac, with central key escrow.
• Backup and recovery: Managed backups with documented retention and quarterly restore tests.
• BC PIPA and PIPEDA aware: Audit logging, role-based access, and breach-notification process kept current with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada guidance.

Hardware lifecycle and responsible disposal

Hexafusion is a Dell authorized reseller with Canadian distribution channels for Lenovo, Apple, Microsoft Surface, and networking gear. At end-of-life, drive sanitization follows NIST Special Publication 800-88, every retired device generates a serial-numbered certificate of destruction for your PIPEDA records, and devices are recycled through programs accredited by the Electronic Products Recycling Association (EPRA Canada).

Who you actually work with

Hexafusion is led by founder Alex Barari, a former PCI DSS Internal Security Assessor with 15+ years in enterprise IT and cybersecurity. Every engagement is supported by the same Vancouver-based team that designs the security baseline, reviews the alerts, and shows up on-site when remote troubleshooting reaches its limit. Our quarterly business review (QBR) turns the relationship into a real strategic conversation with cited numbers, not a marketing newsletter.

What our Google Workspace engagement actually looks like

Every new Google Workspace client follows the same documented onboarding. Day one is an environment discovery call where we map every account, device, license, and dependency. By the end of the first week we have a written security baseline diff (what is currently in place, what is missing, what gets remediated in which order). By day 30 you have a complete documentation bundle: network diagram, asset register, license inventory, MFA coverage report, backup test results, and incident response runbook. None of that is sold as an extra; it is the starting condition for every managed engagement.

During steady-state operations you can expect a 60-second initial ticket response and a 15-minute engineer reply during business hours, with after-hours emergency coverage available on Professional and Enterprise plans. Every quarter we deliver a Quarterly Business Review (QBR) as a PDF: engagement health score, financial recap, onboarding progress, renewal calendar, and an AI-summarized executive paragraph. The QBR makes drift impossible to hide: if a metric slides for two quarters in a row, you see it before we do, and we are already working on it by the time you read it.

Commitments we make in writing

• Flat monthly pricing. No hourly billing for in-scope work. The price you sign for is the price you pay until annual renewal.
• Documented service level agreements (SLAs). Initial response, engineer engagement, and resolution targets in writing for every plan tier.
• Transparent offboarding. If the relationship ever ends, you receive 30 days of transition support and full documentation handover. No hostage data, no exit fees.
• No surprise project invoices. Work outside scope is quoted in advance, with the option to approve, defer, or decline before any billable time accrues.
• Vendor-coordinated escalations. When the issue is on Microsoft, Telus, Rogers, Veeam, or any other vendor we manage on your behalf, we own the support case from open to resolved, not you.
• Continuity of the same team. The engineer who onboards you is the engineer who answers your tickets in month 12, barring unusual staff changes that are communicated in writing in advance.

Google Workspace questions Vancouver businesses ask us

How long until we are fully migrated to the new Google Workspace setup? Most Google Workspace engagements complete environment discovery, security baseline, and the bulk of remediation work within the first 30 days. Larger or more regulated environments (legal, healthcare, financial services) may stretch baseline tasks into a 60- or 90-day window so audit-quality documentation is built alongside the changes.

What if our existing IT person stays involved? Co-managed engagements are common. We document the boundary in your Statement of Work (SOW): which tickets we own, which they own, what escalation looks like, and which systems we both have administrative access to. The split shows up in your monthly invoice as named workstreams so nobody pays twice for the same coverage.

How do you measure whether Google Workspace is actually working for our business? The engagement health score on every QBR rolls up signal from invoice payment timing, ticket response adherence, backup test pass rate, MFA coverage, patch latency, and renewal cadence into a 0-100 indicator. Green is above 80, yellow is 60 to 79, red is below 60. If your score drops below 80 for two consecutive quarters we trigger an internal review and reach out before you do.