Google Vault Reviews

A few use cases for Google Vault involve using it for custodian purposes where we have to store their mails, calendars, and mostly the mails, which we have done as a custodian process in order to share it with our clients.

What I appreciate about Google Vault is that one of the best features is the ability to use retention policies. It covers mail, chat groups, calendars, sites, Drive, and Google Voice. All of the data which we want to retain for three years, five years, or 10 years as per compliance and security standards will not be deleted even if it gets deleted by the user accidentally or intentionally. The data will remain in Google Vault, which is one of the best aspects.

Another good feature is that if there is a request from the client side wanting to retain the whole mailbox of a particular user, I can create a Google hold. I first create a matter, and inside that matter, I create the hold. These are excellent features in Google Vault, and the export feature is also beneficial because it supports PST and other formats to download the data.

In terms of missing features in Google Vault that I would want to see included in the future, I don't think there are any as it covers everything adequately. Most of the core services of Google apps are already included, and Google might also be working at the back end, though I don't have a clear picture regarding the product or its current stage.

If we can have more APIs open for Google Vault, that would be great, and instead of doing it manually, it would be better to do it programmatically. I think there is an API available with Google Vault, though I'm not certain about it. I have never used Vault programmatically, but if APIs exist, then it's beneficial, and if there aren't any, we should have the capability for programmers to create some sort of scripting so they can fetch the data.

I assess the export feature in Google Vault in terms of ease and efficiency as quite efficient because most of the data we want to see is available in MBOX and PST formats. If possible, I would want to see Google Vault support additional formats such as iCal, iCad, or CardDAV, which are for iPhone users.

I have been working with Google Vault for the last 12 years.

Regarding technical support experiences, I have never faced situations where I had to raise a case to Google, but if I recall correctly, it depends only if we cannot see the mails in a particular range while looking for mailbox data.

Negative

Having worked with competitors, the main competitor for Google Workspace is Microsoft, which provides Microsoft Purview, allowing for retention, in-place archive, or mailbox hold. All the features available in Google Vault are also presently available in Microsoft. Microsoft has features such as labels, where retention policies and in-place archive policies can be attached to labels, hence providing a different approach.

Regarding preference for Google versus Microsoft products, one of the biggest advantages of Google Workspace is its simplicity. Google Vault has a very user-friendly interface. On the Google interface, every setting and condition you want to implement is clearly available, so even a person from a non-tech perspective can easily understand Google Vault. Compared to Microsoft, they have more features in terms of compliance and retention policies. If Google could add more services of Google Workspace to Vault, that would be one of the biggest improvements.

The initial setup of Google Vault is quite straightforward. It is indeed approachable and easily accessible. Once you subscribe to Google Vault services, you just need to go to a web browser and write ediscovery.google.com or vault.google.com, then follow with your credentials, and you will see the home page of Google Vault.

There is no setup cost; it's only the pricing which one needs to pay upon subscribing to Google Vault services.

The main benefits I have seen from using Google Vault include the ability to utilize retention rules. Instead of keeping old emails, it is better to flush them off while still following compliance and security standards. If there is a custodian request where we need to export data or keep a hold on a mailbox or drive, this is one of the best functionalities that Google Vault provides to any organization.

I rate Google Vault as a product seven out of ten. There are additional features that need to be added to Google Vault.

My advice for other organizations considering Google Vault for their environment is to make their product as simple as possible because Google provides a very simple product. It is fully understandable, and they have done quite a good job with their source code.

Regarding metrics, I do not currently track any metrics to evaluate the effectiveness of Google Vault but I follow the GWS updates channel, which provides updates related to Google Vault and Google Workspace.

We originally got Google Vault because we were involved in an FTC suit and began using it to ensure we weren't deleting any emails that might be needed for discovery. The case got resolved, however, we kept Google Vault because it's useful for searching for specific issues historically. For instance, if a customer complained a year ago, we can find all the emails related to that for our internal use.

The ability to search all email accounts is a valuable feature. One of the noteworthy aspects is that nothing ever gets deleted, which is convenient. We use Google Vault to ensure we retain all email communications, which helps in using them for internal purposes and for specific issues like past customer complaints.

For us, Google Vault does what we need it to do. I haven't had really any complaints about it, so I can't pinpoint areas for improvement.

I have had experience with Google Vault for four or five years now.

For us, the stability has been very good. I would rate it a ten out of ten.

We are a small company, so I can't speak to Google Vault's scalability for larger companies. However, it fits great with a smaller organization, and I have no reason to think it wouldn't fit well with a large organization.

For us, customer service has been a bit lacking, probably with a rating of a five out of ten. We don't have a particular support package and aren't sure we're a good judge of that. There is room for improvement, especially with unpaid support packages.

Neutral

This is the only email archiving and e-discovery product we have used. We had Gmail, and Google Vault was the solution.

The initial setup was very simple.

Only one person was required to deploy Google Vault, and it took less than a day. I was the one who deployed it.

Pricing for Google Vault is very reasonable. We have a package, so I'm not sure of the exact cost. That said, it is considered reasonable.

We did not evaluate other options. We had Gmail, and Google Vault was the solution we chose.

I would recommend Google Vault to others if they need to keep track of all emails, including deletions. 

Overall, I would rate Google Vault a ten out of ten.

Google Vault is basically used as a backup solution. You can retrieve any type of data; for example, if a user accidentally deletes data, as an admin with access to Google Vault, you can easily restore the deleted data. 

Additionally, Google Vault allows you to check message headers to troubleshoot issues. If you need to retrieve any message header for troubleshooting, that's possible.

Furthermore, you can export the data to your system for backup purposes. The data can be exported in PST and MBOX formats. Google Vault also logs all admin actions, providing super admin or vault admin with a review of all performed actions. You can review all the details and logs captured there as well.

Moreover, Google Vault works for various Google services, including Gmail, Drive, Meet, and Chat (if the history is enabled). You can set the retention period in Google Vault, which defines how long data should be kept before being either purged or retained. This retention period is configurable in terms of the number of days.

Additionally, there are Holds and Matters in Google Vault. A Hold allows you to preserve specific data, overriding the retention period you've set. It ensures that the data is retained beyond the specified retention period. This is useful for legal holds or when data needs to be preserved for legal or compliance reasons. That's how Google Vault works.

One of the main advantages of Google Vault is that it simplifies the process of troubleshooting, especially when dealing with message headers. Sometimes, when we ask users to send us message headers for investigation, it can be a lengthy and delayed process. 

However, with access to Google Vault, we can easily retrieve the message headers ourselves. All we need to know is the subject line or any specific details related to the email. So, as super admins or admins with vault access, we can quickly fetch the required message headers. 

This feature is something I really appreciate as it reduces our dependency on the users to provide this information.

One thing I've noticed is that it splits the data files into multiple parts, like the PFT files. For example, when there is a large data size of any account, the backup process splits it into many files. This can be confusing and not very efficient when trying to manage the backups. It would be better if the backup process creates one or two files instead of numerous smaller ones. It should be easier for the admin to manage the data and perform imports or uploads to other accounts.

So the backup solution should be more streamlined and provide options for easier data management and import/export processes. There is room for improvement in this aspect. It would be great to see enhancements in this area to make the backup process more user-friendly and efficient.

Another area of improvement is support. Earlier, Google support used to be very attentive and responsible, but in the past few months, I've noticed delays in their responses, not only related to Google Vault but also to other products.

I have been using Google Vault for eight years now. 

I would rate the stability an eight out of ten. 

There are around 600 to 700 users using Google Vault in our organization. Our organization recently merged with a big MNC (Multinational Corporation), which has over 20,000 employees using Microsoft services.

However, we were using Google Workspace, and after the merger, our sub-organization now consists of approximately 600 to 700 employees. So, within our organization, we have people from various departments, including the CEO, IT departments, account departments, finance departments, and others. It's a comprehensive usage of Google Vault across all departments within our organization. No specific group dominates its usage.

I would rate the scalability a seven out of ten because of the backup feature; it conflicts a lot. That's the main reason. Due to the backup issues, our customers had a lot of complaints related to that.

So many PFT files get split, and it is not giving the exact match count or something like that. They face a lot of issues related to the backup process.  There should be some improvements in that aspect to enhance the overall experience.

Customer service and support are responsive most of the time, but the issue is that, as I mentioned earlier, many of our customers are facing problems related to backup and data splitting. When they ask Google technical support about the reason for the data splitting, they haven't received a proper answer. It seems they don't know why the data is getting split, and this is affecting the match count.

Due to this, the match count is not accurate. There is room for improvement in their support, and I hope to see some enhancements in the future.

Neutral

We have the IT department handling the maintenance for our organization. They take care of everything from the back end. As for me, I work in a team of Google WorkspaceSpot and deployment specialists. Our team deals with providing support and deployment to over a thousand customers. If any of these customers need help with implementation or any kind of assistance, I am responsible for that.

Around ten engineers/developers are on the maintenance team.

The pricing for Google Vault was INR1500 per user per month. However, the price has been increased, and now it's around INR2500 per user per ES (Enterprise Standard).

There are no additional costs. No extra expenses.

I will recommend it, but currently, I have some reservations about the product's completeness. I believe there should be improvements based on what I've understood from customer feedback.  Right now, Google Vault is good for accessing all the details and counts of emails, but there is room for enhancement. Once those improvements are made, it can be compared favorably with products like Microsoft. Overall, it's a very good product, and I recommend it with some consideration for future improvements.

Overall, I would rate the solution an eight out of ten.

We mainly use it for audit purposes. So, for mainly audit purposes and for us to be able to retain data for legal purposes. We also use it to purge data that is no longer needed in order to keep our users' storage healthy. So those are the three main cases we use it for.

The best feature is the fact that we are able to locate information effectively. Let's say we need to locate an email, there are many ways we can locate it effectively. The audit part of the tool is the most useful for me, at least.

The interface itself is very user-friendly, so unless you're not familiar with the tool, you might find it a little bit difficult to navigate through the terminology and or what needs to be done. 

So, when doing a search, perhaps in some instances when you use terms, the information is not very precise in the sense that I'm not getting what I'm looking for. And in some instances, the information, not all the time, but in some instances, it might not be accurate. For example, when doing a search, if you use too many terms, it might not return any results.  

In future releases, I would like to see an additional feature. When it comes to Drive, the search information is not always complete, or you don't have the option to search data individually per user, or at least not the last time I checked. So I would prefer that feature to be available to be able to get access to each individual user's Drive data.

I did provide support back in 2019. I was a Google Workspace specialist for Google directly. And currently, I'm working with many companies that use Google Workspace as their application provider. Most of them, if not all of them, use Google Vault. So I would say from 2019 until now, I have been using Google Vault.

It is a stable solution.

It is a scalable solution. Maybe 70% of our users have Google Vault enabled. I work with many clients, from different organizations, so that's the user base. And, the rest use Microsoft.

The first time, well, the first couple of times I learned about the tool, I did have to reach out a lot. Again, I did work as a specialist. So in my current workplace, so far, I haven't gotten to that point yet that I would need support.  

The main thing here is that based on the fact that we already have it integrated, so there is no need for us to go with a third party. That's the main reason.

The initial setup is fairly simple to set up.  

If you need to place retention, we are able to find documentation on how to do it. The same thing on how to place a hold on data; it's fairly simple to do. From start to finish, I would say it took about five minutes. It's pretty fast.

The pricing is fairly cheap. You can buy it in the case that it is not included in your license. I believe it is five dollars per license per user. I will say it's fairly cheap.

I will recommend that you use it. I will also recommend that you understand what a hold is, because if you are not familiar with the tool, you might end up purging data that you will not be able to recover. So, I would suggest reading a lot, getting familiar with the terminology, and yes, that will be it.

Overall, I would rate the solution an eight out of ten. The tool is very intuitive. You are able to find the information easily. You are able to navigate the tool easily. The only thing I will have to maybe complain about is when you do specific searches with specific terminology. To point it, when using search operators, sometimes it can become a little bit difficult. But other than that, the interface is super user-friendly. Again, it's super intuitive, and that will be the only downside when you use search operators; sometimes, it can become a little bit difficult to manage.

Google Vault is a solution we can use for the data export of end-users.

Suppose a user is sending emails to different customers to hamper your reputation. Using Google Vault, you can view the emails and also download them. It can be used for legal purposes or litigations.

Google Vault needs to improve its data export timing because sometimes, it takes a very long time to export the data.

I have been using Google Vault for more than five years.

I did not find any issues with the solution’s stability.

I rate Google Vault ten out of ten for stability.

Around 20,000 users are using Google Vault in our company. Google Vault is a cloud-based solution and not an end-user solution. Only administrators can access Google Vault, not the end users. It's just a monitoring tool or an archival tool for Google users. Users don't need access to Google Vault. Only administrators can do activities with the solution.

Suppose 20,000 is the capacity; then 20,000 user data can be viewed in the Google Vault. We can do nothing to increase the solution's usage for our site as of now.

I rate Google Vault a nine out of ten for scalability.

The solution's technical support is good as it is part of Google's tech support.

I have contacted Google tech support several times for Google Vault. They were always quite good enough, and they always helped us.

You don't need to set up Google Vault. If you have Google Workspace, Google Vault is active by default. You just have to turn on or turn off the button, and it's quite easy.

Just one administrator is needed to turn on the button for Google Vault.

If you have Google Enterprise, then Google Vault is free to use. You may need to pay for Google Vault if you don't have Google Enterprise. The cost for Google Vault varies for different countries.

If someone is using Google Workspace, then Google Vault is a great solution for them.

Overall, I rate Google Vault a nine out of ten.

Our primary use case for this solution is protection. This solution is definitely not just for enterprise companies, but also for small or medium-sized businesses because lawsuits can cost millions. In order for companies to protect themselves, they have to have data that has integrity, meaning it cannot be altered or changed. By the time you submit Google data to a litigation firm or a law firm, then you definitely know that your data is 100% legit and wasn't altered by an IT person or CEO or anybody in a position to do fraud.

Google Vault makes sure to store all the data in the cloud where it's going to be safe and unalterable. 

I would say that the most valuable feature of Google Vault is streamlined data collection and the fact that's easy to use.

My personal opinion is that Google Vault could improve if they could have a similar version to Microsoft 365 where you can have an eDiscovery manager account. With this, you can separate a regular person from an organization and just transfer the specific files. For example, you can pull out the data from a specific employee via email address. Google Vault does not have that feature. Currently, you only have the option to give a forensic examiner have access to it.

In the next release, I would add a project manager to take care of the eDiscovery side of the solution. I would have built-in support of a PM who would take care of things like litigation. Instead of chasing after a lawsuit or litigation and chasing additional lawyers, I would like to have support from their side, so I can focus on my business.

I have been using Google Vault solution since 2017.

My impression is that Google Apps are quite stable.

My impression is that this is a scalable product.

My impression is that the initial setup process is not that difficult. What can be difficult in this process is the budget part where medium-sized companies would pay for a certain amount of subscriptions and small businesses would rather save money.

Our model of deployment is the cloud.

The initial setup and implementation of Google Vault were done by our IT department.

I think that the monthly price is about 18 dollars. As a business owner, I do not want to pay for additional services, and monthly is what we call complex or operational expenses. Instead, I would use that budget to purchase a Capex that can last longer.

Personally, when it comes to Google Vault, I would advise small companies to go for Microsoft 365 if the high concern is protection from lawsuits, patents and trademarks.

When it comes to other people looking into this solution, I would say to first make sure that their product and solution are the best fit for this type of protection. I'd say if you have a product leaning toward creativity and intellectual property, you definitely need this solution.

I would rate this solution as a whole an eight, on a scale from one to 10, with one being the worst and 10 being the best.

I use Google Vault in my company to protect critical emails and for compliance purposes.

Fast email searching ability and the protection that the tool provides to emails are its most valuable features.

Google Vault can be described as a basic but not a complete solution.

It would be great if the product had the ability to export email results directly. Currently, Google Vault offers a print option only if it can export in an email format. The sharing of access or better access and permission for different email archives needs to be made available in the product, as currently, it is one of the areas of concern in the product.

Google Vault lacks speed. In the future, Google Vault could be faster.

I have been using Google Vault for five months. I am a customer of Google.

It is a very stable solution.

It is a very scalable solution.

Google Vault is a product that is usually needed by the IT manager in our company for special cases where there is a need to search for critical data or email history.

Google Vault's technical support is easy to communicate with via chat. I rate the technical support an eight out of ten.

Positive

In the past, I have worked with MailArchiva.

Google Vault is integrated within Google Workspace, which makes it very easy to implement in our company's infrastructure. Google Vault's features are very limited compared to MailArchiva. MailArchiva requires a lot of planning and implementation, which might result in higher costs, but it provides complete archiving functionality and compliance, making it a completely automated archiving and compliance-oriented tool.

Google Vault is a cloud-based software, so it doesn't really require an installation, as a user just needs to purchase a license and assign it to an email account, after which it works.

The solution can be deployed in a few minutes.

Google Vault is a cheaply priced product. Monthly payments are to be made towards the licensing costs attached to the solution. There are no extra costs apart from the licensing costs attached to the solution.

There is no maintenance required for Google Vault.

Google Vault would work well when you redirect emails into a journal mailbox account made for the company, which includes all the company emails. If you plan to keep your employees' emails in their own inboxes, then you would need to purchase a license from Google Vault for each inbox, which might make it a costly affair for your business. Depending on whether it is the time to implement or the solution's features that may cost your business more, you can pay extra for Google Vault or a little bit less with MailArchiva and have your email archive hosted separately from Google Workspace.

I rate the overall product a seven out of ten.

I use the product for my organization’s data retention and export. We can get any user’s information from the product if someone needs it. If a user leaves the company, we can export their data and download it in PST or MBOX format.

Earlier, when we needed any backup, we had to either configure the user’s account in another system or rely on third parties to do it for us. Third parties would charge a lot, so instead, we can use the product’s in-built features and use it seamlessly without giving access to any third-party apps.

Data retention is very valuable to us. The product enables us to retain users’ data, which is a very good feature.

It would be nice if Google would let us download the data in different formats. It would be nice to have formats like Excel or Word.

I have been using the solution for almost four years.

The product provides a seamless experience. I haven't received any errors or downtime. Sometimes it may give errors due to network or browser issues. The stability depends on how we use it.

The product is scalable. Around 400 people in our organization use the solution. It’s cloud-based so we can access it from anywhere.

There is no deployment process to deploy the solution. It is in-built in Google Workspace. We can just navigate to the website and start leveraging the product. You will have to set retention policies as part of the process. The tool does not require any maintenance.

Having a backup of the users' data is beneficial for any organization. Instead of paying a third party, it would be nice to pay Google and get the feature built within the product.

I evaluate Microsoft 365. They provide similar features, but I do not have any hands-on experience in it.

I use the solution frequently. I use it once every week or once in 15 days. The solution is cloud-based. There is no onboarding process since it is an in-built solution. Microsoft has a very large user base, and most organizations trust it. It is an admin product, so no users are involved in it directly. I will recommend the solution to others. The choice depends on each organization’s requirements. If our data is highly sensitive, we can definitely choose Google. Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

One of my main use cases for Google Vault is helping customers to export data from Gmail, whether they want to move the data from one Gmail account to another, or for other reasons. Another common use case is for searching for information within Gmail and other products in Google Workspace.

We often get users who are facing some kind of challenge like not having enough storage space to backup their Workspace data, and this situation might be better solved by using Google Vault. Thus, we come in and ask the customer if they would like us to upgrade their plan and enable Google Vault to help record and back up their data, and if they agree then we help them to get it working.

We are a reseller of Google products and we have 1000+ customers who use Google Workspace. Out of these customers, over 500 are now using Google Vault as well.

For our customers who have large companies or organizations with many employees, one of the biggest benefits of Google Vault is having a solution that helps them monitor and keep track of all their emails and user data in the cloud.

In my opinion, the search functionality is the best feature. With Google Vault, we can quickly search for any email within Gmail accounts. And then we can get further information, such as if you want the full header or want to know any extra details about the emails.

It's also user-friendly and I always have a great experience using it because it helps you to more easily search for data across different labels in Google Workspace. In addition, it's a great help when it comes to exporting data from Google.

I have tried to use as many features as I can, and all of them are very useful and I don't think there are any disadvantages in terms of features other than what I think about the export options.

Although it does a good job of searching through data and exporting it, I feel that Google Vault should have more export options available to the user. As a reseller, our customers demand a lot from their Google products, and exporting is one area where there's a lot of improvement needed.

For example, in some cases our customers want to export their Gmail data so that they can transfer it to a new Gmail account. Unfortunately, Google doesn't offer this kind of option, so there's no way to do this migration directly. Instead, the user has to download their exported data from Gmail in PST format and then use a third-party tool like GAMME which is able to move the PST data to another Gmail account. In an ideal world, this step shouldn't be required, and the data should be able to be directly uploaded. There should be no extra migration steps or setup needed for this process, in my view.

As for the interface, I suppose there is room for improvement here as well. To be clear, the interface is very basic and easy to use, but the dashboard could show more information to make it more usable. As an example of what I would like to see for the admin user, it could show how many exports have been done in a certain time frame and which admins have performed searches or other actions in Google Vault. So all the things an admin would want to know quickly should be right there on the dashboard. I think this would make using Google Vault much more convenient.

I have been using Google Vault for at least five years.

It's a stable solution. 

We try to resolve any customer issues on our own. If we come across any special challenges, we contact the Google Vault team. In a recent project a few months back, there was an issue exporting the data because the file was in waiting status. So the exported data was different from the data which was available in the account, and we had to contact Google Vault's support team to remedy this, and they helped us out personally. 

In terms of responsiveness, they are quick to reply but there's always the issue of different time zones to contend with. Sometimes they'll take a bit longer than usual to get back to us, but I understand that this is typically due to non-availability of their agents for valid reasons such as holidays, etc. Otherwise, they are very responsive.

I've been using Google's G Suite (now called Google Workspace) from the beginning, and as resellers we provide only Google support and deployment to our customers. So I have not used any other tool or solution in this type of work.

The overall setup is not complex, which is important. When it comes to migrating companies onto Google, there are, however, many other migrations that go along with it with regard to Google Workspace, and Google Vault is only a small part of the migration.

We have a team for deployment but this team is activated per project, as the project comes in. The initial implementation is done by either one or two people. So, I do this individually or I do this with the help of others. It depends upon the size of the project and the amount of users involved, but most of the time the implementation of Google Vault only requires one or two people.

Last year, the price was randomly increased and our customers were really facing a challenge around this. Google launched new pricing under different plans, where formerly there were only three plans, and now there are four, each with their own separate usage allowances. I think it's good, though. The basic plan is now the Business Starter plan, and many customers find this plan very convenient and minimal in price. Overall, the pricing for all the plans is good.

For us as resellers, in the annual plan subscription it's not possible to increase the license because it simply reverts back. I understand that it's not possible as this is an old commitment, and I don't know if they will change it, but I would like there to be some kind of option available at our end as a reseller to adjust the annual license. This might not be the case for newer licensing agreements, of course.

I would advise others who are using Google Workspace to get to know what's possible and what's not with regard to data backups from the beginning. When purchasing Google Workspace, you should know what your backup options are when it comes to Google Vault, and whether they are adequate, before it's too late. Rather than rushing at the last minute, it's better to get that feature and understand that feature from the get-go.

On a cautionary note, Google Vault captures all the data related to your mails, chats, Google Drive, and so on, so if you are sharing any personal or confidential information in chats that you don't want anyone to access, then you should turn off your chat history.

I would rate Google Vault an eight out of ten.

We use this solution for the storage and retention of emails and other data. We are a construction company and we store past emails as part of our security process. This is important because we don't always know what an employee is going to send. So, we keep everything backed up in the vault and it stays there for as long as we need it, to do any type of forensics work if needed.

Another use case that I was looking at is the storage of videos posted inside G Suite or Google Workspace. However, I have not yet started to work on that.

We had a rogue employee sending out emails. He was upset with the company and he was sending emails out with pricing. This may have been possible because he was allowed to have one of the devices by the owner, although we are not one hundred percent sure. In any case, he was still able to send out emails, and because of Vault, he wasn't able to remove them, or proof that he had sent them. This meant that we were able to catch sim sending them out and trying to sabotage our company.

He had been high up on the pole, so he had access to information. With his sending of emails, we were able to narrow it down to him and not someone else who was working there. It was a lot easier to do the forensics and track down to see what was going on, because of the Vault search feature.

The most valuable features are automatic document and email retention. If these are accidentally deleted then they are held in the vault.

The search feature is very helpful when you are trying to dive into the information. It's Google's search feature, so it's very good and I recommend using it.

The knowledge base is not as in-depth as it should be. The product offers a lot of functionality, but not a lot of people know about what it can do.

I have been using Google Vault personally for a few years. My company has been using it for six or seven months.

This product has been working consecutively for the entire time. There has never really been any downtime or outage or anything, except for the other week, when Gmail had an issue. That is something that affected all of Google.

This product is very scalable, for what it is intended to do. It is not used directly by the users because they don't understand it. However, the people that it's activated for range from the owner to the president, finance, HR, and the foreman. It is used pretty much across the board because of its retention policy.

We have about 100 users in total and we will increase our usage as the company grows. At this point, there are no users without an account, and as new people come on board, we add a new account with Vault.

I have not been in touch with Google support for this product. However, for other products, they have not been spectacular. When we needed assistance with Gmail or documents, they have been less than productive in their responses outside of just sending you a knowledge base.

Prior to Google Vault, we were on GoDaddy 365, which would have been Microsoft Outlook archive. They both operate the same for the intention that we have.

GoDaddy is a service that I am unhappy with, and they should never have had an Office 365 offering. It is terrible from an administrative standpoint.

To be clear, Office 365 is really good, but GoDaddy's implementation is not.

That said, Office 365 Archive is pretty much comparable to Google Vault. This is not the same as GoDaddy 365 Archive, as there are software limitations.

The initial configuration involved setting up all of the emails and because the people were aware of Vault, I set up the auto-retention. From that point, whenever a user email was set up, Vault was already activated for them to do the backup. Using Google PowerShell, I was able to automate part of that. Whenever a new user was made, it would go ahead and set everything else up.

The deployment took approximately three days for full, wide usage. 

Once it has been set up, it is good to go. There has not really been any maintenance outside of needed to do research or look into a specific email.

I deployed Vault for the company, as I was the only one with the knowledge.

Outside of risk mitigation and liability mitigation, there really isn't much that is a return on investment. However, those hold their own value, but it depends on the situation.

Google Vault comes as part of a package deal for us.

My advice is that if you have G Suite, then use Google Vault. It will certainly save you a headache. On the other handle, if you do not have the Google Suite then I would not recommend using it.

Early on, when I started using Google Vault, it taught me that it allows for risk mitigation and liability mitigation because you have exact copies of emails sent or documents that are sent out, and you have a paper trail that can be used if need be.

I would rate this solution a ten out of ten.