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The pull of paper books is pretty incredible given the digital-heavy world we live in.

And the potential reading list for an IT pros continues to grow, offering a wealth of knowledge from well-known tech giants and industry experts.

We offer a list of books designed to inspire, educate and thrill IT pros.

Read on for the best books for IT pros 2017...

Read next: 12 best iPhone apps for IT professionals: Apps for IT pros

1. The Road Ahead by Bill Gates, Nathan Myhrvold and Peter Rinearson

The Road Ahead written by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Microsoft executive Nathan Myhrvold and journalist Peter Rinearson cuts straight to the heart of the personal computing revolution, which at the time was just starting to gather immense speed.

First released in 1995, The Road Ahead is still very much relevant today, depicting a 'global information superhighway', in which the internet is bursting at the seams with information which impacts our lives daily from the first personal computers.

The predictions that Gates makes in the book have largely come true, for example, regarding the music industry: "Record companies, or even individual recording artists, might choose to sell music a new way. The music will be stored as bits of information on a server on the highway."

2. How Google Works by Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg

Coming from well-established careers within Silicon Valley, both Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg had a challenge on their hands when they joined Google in its infancy.

Schmidt and Rosenberg had to relearn what they knew about IT business management and help Google grow from a small startup to what we know today and How Google Works shares just how they did that.

In this book, the authors explain how big milestones such as the internet, the mobile revolution and of course the cloud meant that they had to move their focus from companies to the consumer.

How Google Works offers great insight into Google's growth, how it has innovated and become one of the world's biggest global icons.

3. The Age of Cryptocurrency by Paul Vigna and Michael J. Casey

Packed full of anecdotes and spirited metaphors, The Age of Cryptocurrency explains the digital currency landscape and how the current system governing money with its middlemen and "coined liberty" was first disrupted in 2008 with the introduction of Bitcoin.

Cryptocurrencies could cut out the unnecessary brokers and the elite gatekeepers and instead provide a way to transform the way we perceive and use money, creating a totally digital and democratic monetary system.

The Age of Cryptocurrency offers a complete guide to Bitcoin, its pros and cons, its origins and how a cybereconomy could work.

4. The Intel Trinity by Michael S. Malone

The Intel Trinity tells the story of Intel's co-founders Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore, and Andy Grove, Intel's third employee who later ran the company through much of its growth period.

Author Michael S. Malone sifts through Intel's archives, providing a detailed and encapsulating company history surrounding each of the men, highlighting not only their influence and hard work but also their personalities and challenges along the way.

The Intel Trinity is a great base for getting to know the three visionaries, legendary in Silicon Valley.

5. iWoz: __computer Geek to Cult Icon by Gina Smith and Steve Wozniak

To give it its full name 'iWoz: From Computer Geek to Cult Icon: How I Invented the Personal Computer, Co-Founded Apple, and Had Fun Doing It', offers an insight into Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Wozniak's life, career and the Apple computer.

The book also sheds light on his relationship with Steve Jobs and his feelings towards Apple as a whole.

The book concludes with Wozniak offering advice to aspiring programmers and young people to pursue their own inventions and prioritise their passions over the mainstream.

6. Just For Fun: The Story Of An Accidental Revolutionary by Linus Torvalds and David Diamond

In this humorous book, Linux kernel creator Linus Torvalds and Just For Fun co-author David Diamond provide a history of the Linux operating system and highlights the principles found in Law of Linus, named in honour of Linus Torvalds.

Just For Fun also tells the story of Torvald's early life, his passion for programming and his belief in open source software and the free software movement.

7. Chaos Monkeys: Inside the Silicon Valley money machine

The life of the high-powered tech elite working in Silicon Valley is something that can intrigue, baffle and infuriate a lot of people outside of it and Chaos Monkeys offers a guide for navigation, stripping back the facade and revealing its dark side.

Former Facebook and Twitter advisor Antonio García Martínez tells of his time in the Californian tech bubble and looks at how tech can and should disrupt all if not every part of modern life.

In this fast-paced book, García explains how to succeed in the digital sector, from startups and digital marketing to social media and digital privacy, helping us understand the wealthy and insular world within Silicon Valley.

8. Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt by Michael Lewis

In this bestseller, Michael Lewis tells the infamous tale of the multi-millionaire high-frequency traders (HFT) working in the US finance market on Wall Street and the programmers that scammed the banking system.

Centering on former Goldman Sachs programmer, Sergey Aleynikov and founder of IEX, the Investors' Exchange, Bradley Katsuyama, the book describes how electronic trading replaced countless jobs and changed the way the whole market was run.

Lewis then details Aleynikov's conviction for stealing Goldman Sachs' high-frequency trading source code before joining a rival firm.

9. Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

Written by Walter Isaacson at the request of Jobs, Steve Jobs takes an honest look at Jobs' life, and is based on countless interviews conducted by Isaacson over a two-year period. Isaacson pulled information from Jobs' friends, family, colleagues and even rivals.

The book, released in 2011, 19 days after Jobs' death, describes life all the way from childhood and school to his milestone moments at Apple and his relationship with Bill Gates.

A film adaptation of the book was released in 2015.

10. Turing’s Cathedral by George Dyson

Author George Dyson draws attention to the small but dedicated group of mathematicians and programmers that were tasked with creating the modern-day __computer after the second world war.

Asked to meet at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, and led by John von Neumann the group was set on making Alan Turing's 'universal machine' a reality. In fact, they successfully formulated the numerical framework that supports most if not all modern computers.

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Account management is necessary for an organisation's overall financial health.

And with most accounting tools out there providing custom invoicing, payment tracking and full financial reporting, choosing the right software for your business can become a mammoth task. To help, we've provided 13 account management tools designed for small businesses.

Here are 13 of the best accounting software tools for small businesses (listed in alphabetical order).

Read next: 13 best free and open source inventory management systems

1. ClearBooks

Cloud accounting software ClearBooks offers invoicing, banking, purchasing, expenses and tax management while also integrating multiple online payment systems such as PayPal, GoCardless and PayPoint.

Its invoicing generator enables users to create branded invoices, set reminders, prompt late paying customers and schedule multiple invoices to be sent out using multiple currencies. 

ClearBooks billing platform also lets users enter bills, set recurring bills and create purchase orders.

Sign up for ClearBooks.

2. FreshBooks

FreshBooks is a cloud-based accounting software designed specifically for small businesses, providing invoicing, expenses, time tracking, payments and detailed personalised financial reports over an online dashboard.

As FreshBooks is only offered via the cloud, users can access their accounts from multiple devices and locations while also ensuring data is backed-up regularly, and automatically. For a service-based business with frequent incoming and outgoing, this data security is an important factor.

All four packages on offer come with unlimited invoices, expenses, time tracking, PayPal, MailChimp and Basecamp integration (plus many more add-ons), credit card payments and branded customisable invoices. With its most expensive package providing team timesheets for an unlimited amount of billable clients.

Sign up for FreshBooks.

3. GoDaddy Bookkeeping

Best known for its web hosting services, GoDaddy has expanded and now houses a simple but effective accounting tool, GoDaddy Bookkeeping.

GoDaddy users will be able to link their accounts to popular ecommerce sites such as Amazon, eBay and Etsy, providing a big advantage over competitors such as FreshBooks.

In addition, GoDaddy lets you set recurring invoices, create client profiles and manage multiple accounts with PayPal and Stripe integration.

It also provides a clean dashboard compiling all of your invoicing, annual profit, loss, open invoices and your estimated expenses e.g. tax.

Sign up for GoDaddy.

4. KashFlow

KashFlow is a London-based online accounting software firm specialising in automated account handling for small businesses, initially developed as an alternative to legacy accountancy software from Sage and QuickBooks.

Offering over 85 possible integrations from PayPal and Stripe to Barclaycard MailChip and Dropbox, KashFlow also supports banking, quotes and estimates, customers and supplier information, purchases, payroll, full reports and automated invoicing. 

KashFlow also offers numerous templates for ease of use, from pre-written payment reminders to fully customisable invoicing.

Sign up for KashFlow.

5. Kashoo Online Accounting

Claiming to eliminate the 'frustration of QuickBooks', Kashoo offers a cloud-based accounting software firm providing its users with a totally online bookkeeping service for small businesses.

Kashoo provides financial reporting, bank imports, invoice and expense creation, tax reporting and claims to have 'bank-level security'. Kashoo can also integrate with pre-existing payroll systems including Freshbooks. What's more, Kashoo's offers an iPad and iPhone app that provides users with real-time dashboards and receipt capture.

What's more, in 2013, HR and payroll giant Paychex joined forces with Kashoo in an equity investment. Since then, Paychex has integrated Kashoo's accountancy platform, adding Kashoo's online accountancy services to its own payroll, insurance, HR and retirement services.

Sign up for Kashoo Online Accounting.

6. LessAccounting

LessAccounting offers a simple accounting application comprised of workflows, automation helpers and a simple bookkeeping service.

Users can record business expenses, create and send invoices, set expense reminders and expense by category, income type, project and due date.

Openly describing itself as a QuickBook alternative, LessAccounting claims QuickBook's business range is too large to cater for everyone, encouraging users to opt for LessAccounting for a simple accounting application.

While open to debate, LessAccounting does lack inventory management which may be a requirement for some businesses.

Sign up for LessAccounting.

7. NetSuite

NetSuite offers a variety of products for small businesses (and of course larger enterprises). Within its small business portal, NetSuite - which was recently acquired by Oracle - provides an online accounting software offering financial planning, recurring revenue management, order and billing management and inventory management and supply chain controls.

Depending on the size of your small business, if it's on the larger size, NetSuite has certain products that could be used in conjunction with
standard account management tools, such as SuiteBilling, an order-to-billing service.

Sign up for Netsuite.

8. One Up

One Up supports invoicing, accounting, inventory services and a CRM, so for businesses looking for a one-stop-shop, One Up is definitely one to consider.

Initially developed for Android devices, One UP now offers a full web version which lets its users manage records, transactions, sales orders and overall profit and loss.

Bank accounts are easily synced and the browser interface is simple, if not a little large. But this will be due to the move from mobile to web.

However, as One UP was created for Android, the mobile experience is full-featured and extremely well made.

Sign up to One UP.

9. QuickBooks

QuickBooks offers a well-rounded account management software package. With QuickBooks, users can estimate tax payments, track deductible mileage, create and send invoices, manage VAT, run payroll, provide multiple currencies and control stock levels.

All of QuickBook's claimed 1.5 million subscribers have access to a real-time dashboard offering both a desktop and mobile experience.
QuickBooks also offers a cloud accounting service providing business bookkeeping and full financial management, leveraging the collaborative nature of the cloud.

Sign up for QuickBooks.

10. Sage

Sage offers both desktop and online accounting programmes, enabling users to analyse and manage, VAT, invoices, stock, budgets and payroll.

Sage offers eight different, but similarly named, accounting packages, One Start, One Accounting, Sage Live, 50 Accounts Essential, 50 Accounts, 50 Accounts Plus, 50 Accounts Professional and Sage 200 Standard Online.

Typically aimed at small businesses, Sage One Accounting, 50 Accounts Essential, 50 Accounts and its extended version, 50
Accounts Plus - offer businesses with around 5 to 100 employees - bookkeeping software with cash flow, VAT, stock and sales management.

With Sage 50 Accounts and Plus offering remote access, intuitive project costing tool and day-to-day financial management.

Sign up fo Sage.

11. Wave Accounting

Wave Accounting offers free accounting software, aimed at micro businesses, freelancers and entrepreneurs.

Wave users will receive lots of useful and competitive features, including automatic billing and invoicing, automatic data sync, receipt scanning and PayPal integration. 

Wave also offers a handy dashboard providing a snapshot of your data from income, expenses and bank accounts to payables, receivables and all recent activity.

Like with most free applications, there are some drawbacks. Wave does rely on advertising revenue, which means you will see a few external ads from time to time and have Wave's own branding on your invoices and other accounting materials.

Payroll services are also not included, so you'll have to pay $4 (£3.11) per employee or go to a paid platform for this.

Sign up to Wave Accounting.

12. Xero

Aimed at small businesses, Xero offers an accounting software that enables users to create and customise invoices, payroll and expense
reports. In addition, users can create a tracked inventory, create purchase orders and connect to over 500 third-party apps (most of which
centre on invoicing, time tracking and expanse claims).

Claiming to have over 700,000 subscribers, Xero provides account management across smartphone, tablet and PCs

Sign up for Xero.

13. Zoho Books

Zoho also offers a comprehensive online accounting suite for small businesses. Users can track expenses, inventory and clients across
mobile, tablet, laptop and PC.

Zoho Books can integrate other popular Zoho software to create a custom business package, these include Zoho CRM, Expense, subscriptions, Reports , Inventory and Projects.

Sign up for Zoho Books.

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Late last year, hackers seized control of a Brazilian bank's DNS hosting service, 36 domains and its corporate email – siphoning off details from customers who logged in to the legitimate-looking operations that were in fact being run by the hackers.

Kaspersky detailed the process in a blog post – and noted the homepage was showing a valid SSL certificate from Let's Encrypt, a free Certificate Authority. The heist highlights the dangers of improperly securing machine identities, a topic that's lately attracted rigorous debate from the web browser communities, arguing Symantec's tranche of certificates are unsafe, with both Google and Mozilla wading in.

Put crudely, machine identities can be compared to usernames and passwords used by people – when machines communicate with one another, they rely on certificates that confirm each machine is trusted.

Computerworld UK reported in March that nearly a quarter of all public websites were still using the insecure SHA-1 certificates, past the migration deadline after Google researchers proved it was possible to compromise them with a collision attack.

"You can't have security unless you have identity, and if you don't protect your identities, your identities aren't valuable," says Jeff Hudson, CEO of Venafi, a keys and certificates security business for private networks that  counts many of the world's top banks as its customers.

According to Hudson, a lot of industries have started to wake up to the threats that come with not properly securing machine identities. But there are still many other businesses where certificates and keys are treated solely as an instance for network engineers to work with.

He explains why, in Venafi's view, machine identity is a fundamental part of internet security: "We spend a lot of time, money, and energy protecting usernames and passwords and all the rotation stuff but we hardly spend any protecting machine identities. If you look at the number of people in the world it's kind of flat, but the number of machines is going through the roof."

Take the passport as an example: an expiration date is good security because every so often that identity has to be reconfirmed. Machine identities also have expiration dates, and as machines grow exponentially so do their identities – but Hudson believes people are at risk of losing track of these.

"People create machine identities because they can, and what happens is that machine identity expires," he says. "You may have seen it when you go to a website – it says the certificate is expired. Do you want to proceed anyway? Most people do. You see that little thing and you click proceed anyway.

"On the other hand, if machines are talking and one expires, the machine won't respond anymore – they stop – and big systems break. The big wakeup call is somebody says a certificate expired and all of a sudden an airline doesn't fly for four hours. But that's not the problem, that's the symptom. A lot of people don't even know where these machine identities are: they couldn't keep track of where they were on the date, much less has it been forged? Has it been stolen? Is it about to be cracked like SHA-1, SHA-2?

"Twenty-five percent of the world's certificates today still use SHA-1 and we know that these things are vulnerable. People just don't know."

Symantec first issued a statement of confidence in its certificates and has since released its messages to customers about its ongoing meetings with Google to address the latter's proposals. The company said that meeting Google's initial proposal of a maximum nine-month validity to newly issued certificates could cause significant business disruption to customers, but that talks are ongoing.

"Symantec issues machine identities and we've all agreed there's a policy it needs to follow to keep them safe," says Hudson. "Google, which arguably knows more about the internet than anybody, has said: ‘you know those 35,000 machine identities you created? They're not safe and we're not going to trust them anymore.'

"Google has said those are really important but they're no good and we're not going to trust them – that is huge. Now, all of a sudden, somebody that really knows a lot about how the world works is saying these things are really important, and they went after the world's largest creator of certificates and said, ‘don't do that anymore, in fact, we're not even going to trust those because you haven't been following the policy'."

 "Every large corporation will have to sneak around inside their organisation and see where all the certificates are that don't conform to policy, and not trust them," Hudson says. "Google is leading the way, we all have to pay attention to that."

But according to Hudson, there are plenty of CISOs in both small and large organisations that aren't paying attention to machine identity.

Yet this problem is only set to be compounded with the twin trends of an emerging internet of things and the exponential growth of on-demand software-powered compute. The vast new networks of virtual machines being created will also create vast new networks of machine identities. And the IoT is creating its own set of enormous networks, sometimes without security as a first consideration.

Hudson explains: "If you look at the infrastructure that creates virtual machines and containers, that is code. You push a button and these machines run off and create other machines, so the speed at which new things get created and the numbers at which they get created in the virtual world – I'm talking about software that runs on AWS or Azure or an internal data centre – boom, you can create 10,000 machines.

"You used to have to get the purchasing guy, do the budgeting, get the money, and six months later a __computer warehouse would deliver a server. You had all that time to get ready to secure it. Now, within minutes you can get 10,000 servers running. The speed at which machines are being created, software defined machines and virtual machines, is just like nothing anybody had ever thought about. The opportunity for chaos to explode is huge, and we see it happening."

Docker is offering enterprises an easier on-ramp to using containers with a new consulting program aimed at taking a legacy application and migrating it to a container in five days.

The idea behind the program is to show companies the concrete benefits of moving older applications over to containers, without asking them to undergo a massive transformation effort. Docker is working with Cisco, Avanade, Microsoft, and Hewlett Packard Enterprise on the Modernize Traditional Applications program, which will focus on migrating an application to modern infrastructure and getting it set up inside a containerised environment.

Customers pay a flat fee for the service, which starts with the migration and then moves on to a set of homework assignments for key employees aimed at educating them about migrating the rest of their environment to containers. That way, they're not left with a single migrated application and no way to move others.

It's a move that may help businesses get away from their old way of doing things, and open up containers for a new set of applications that companies have been reluctant to touch. Most container development thus far has been focused on new applications, not old ones, according to RedMonk industry analyst Fintan Ryan.

"The vast majority of applications are years old, and enterprises are reluctant to touch them," he said in an email. "Creating a migration path which allows companies adopt modern development practices and release management approaches across their legacy estate is something companies in almost every industry vertical are looking for."

While the program is a good first step, Ryan is concerned that enterprises will just see containers as a replacement for traditional virtual machines, and not take the opportunity to start building applications in a new way that takes advantage of other containerization benefits, like the ability to decompose applications into a set of smaller services.

In another nod to enterprises, Oracle is also making several of its marquee applications available in containers through the Docker Store, starting Wednesday. That means customers running one of Docker's commercial editions will have an easy way to provision versions of software like Oracle Database, Oracle Java SE 8, and Oracle WebLogic Server.

Wednesday's news comes as part of DockerCon, the container software company's annual conference. On Tuesday, Docker announced a pair of new open[source projects aimed at helping businesses tailor container environments and development tools for different uses.

When people think of an office productivity suite, both Microsoft and Google tend to spring to mind. And for good reason: while there are other alternatives on the market, they remain the top software tools for business users across the country.

Both offer similar functionality - such as word processing, file storage and spreadsheet applications - but differ in many respects. For example, Microsoft offers both desktop and cloud deployments of its Office365 suite, while Google's G Suite - formerly Google Apps - deals exclusively with cloud-driven apps and integrations. 

Choosing between the two companies ultimately depends on the needs of individual businesses. Price, storage and ease of use will be big deciding factors, and making that decision isn't always straight forward. To help, we look at which office suite is the best for business users.

Read next: Nine free and open source Microsoft Excel alternatives business users should consider

G Suite Vs Microsoft Office 365: Overview

Both productivity suites have a range of features. G Suite covers a range of applications, the most widely used of which are its Slides presentation app, Sheets spreadsheet editor, Docs word processor and file storage platform Drive. It also offers excellent integration of third-party apps which can be downloaded from the Google Web Store.

Microsoft Office 365 also comes equipped with a range of well-known tools. This includes Word, Excel, Powerpoint, email client Outlook and cloud storage platform OneDrive, along with other features such as Skype and Microsoft Teams, its instant messaging and collaboration tool.

Both Microsoft Office 365 and G Suite come packed with lots of additional features not mentioned here, but these are the main ones that the majority of business users will look for when choosing a new productivity suite.

In terms of deployment options, G Suite can be accessed via the internet and while shortcuts can be made for the desktop. There is no downloadable software. Clicking on one of these icons will open our web browser and open whatever application you choose in G Suite. On the other hand, Microsoft's Office suite has historically been downloaded to the desktop and accessed offline via Microsoft's software on your PC or laptop. However, in an attempt to take on Google's cloud suite, Microsoft Office 365 packages contain both, so users can choose and switch between the desktop and online Office. 

Another area where the two suites differ somewhat is in design and usability. Some businesses will prefer the simple and clean feel of G Suite, while others will be drawn to the more feature-heavy Office365. For example. Microsoft's flagship programmes, Excel and Word are packed with useful features, but this can make navigating its desktop software tricky for light users. However if you like the overall feel of Microsoft's applications, perhaps try its online version of Word or Excel as this offers a more simplistic suite.

G Suite apps are simple and while it lacks some of the features and functions of Office 365, you can download browser add-ons for most tasks that aren't internally supported by Google Docs, Sheets or Slides.

G Suite Vs Microsoft Office 365: Word and document processing

Google Docs takes a minimalist approach to word processing by providing a simple document creator, unlike Microsoft Word which enables heavy-duty document creation.

As mentioned, Microsoft's flagship Word desktop processor, is feature-rich and able to do a massive range of things, that Google Docs can't. However, for some, a lot of the features offered by Microsoft will go unused and are not necessary. In fact, sometimes Word can seem over-complicated and bloated with features.  

Google really outperforms Microsoft's desktop version of Word with its real-time document editing and sharing capabilities. For example, Google Docs users can access a document, make changes or suggest edits and each change will be flagged or highlighted, and even send notifications to other members of the shared document. Microsoft Word, can't perform those actions to the same degree. What it can do is offer suggested edits via the 'review' tab, although this is not real-time or as simple as Google's efforts. 

What it can do is offer suggested edits via the 'review' tab, although this is not real-time or as simple as Google's efforts. 

Google Docs users can even look back at previous edits, so no information is lost or overwritten.

For those looking for convenience, Google's Docs is the better of the two. Docs will automatically save work, integrate common add-ons and can be accessed from any device with an internet connection.

Microsoft Word offers a familiar interface and is packed with features that can handle huge documents and files. The desktop version of Word is better suited to those that require substantial document editing and processing. While it might not be as responsive, or collaborative as Google Docs, people are familiar with its design and features, so moving to Microsoft is often a simple process, in this respect.

While it might not be as responsive, or collaborative as Google Docs, people are familiar with its design and features, so moving to Microsoft is often a simple process, in this respect.

G Suite Vs Microsoft Office 365: Spreadsheets

Microsoft's Excel is superior to Google's offering when it comes to spreadsheet tools. It is made for complex number crunching and sizeable data imports and exports. 

This isn't to say that Google Sheet's is a total write-off. While Sheets won't be able to handle to sheer amount of data that Excel will, it does still offer good functionality, providing only light tasks are being performed.  

Sheets is able to create graphs, calculate auto-fill sums and through eligible add-ons, Sheets can create maps and convert simple data into meaningful insights. 

However, it does lack the power of Excel, so for those who use an office suite primarily for number crunching, you're better off going with Microsoft. 

G Suite Vs Microsoft Office 365: Email client 

Both Microsoft Office 365 and G Suite offer strong email clients. However, their pricing structure and features do differ greatly. 

If we specifically look at Microsoft Office 365 Business Essentials, users will receive 50 GB of mailbox storage, 1 TB of file storage and access for up to 300 users. Microsoft does offer a premium business option, but we thought that the Business Essentials package was the most comparable to G Suite's Business plan.

With Google, you'll get a lot more, however as always, it's only an online package. G Suite Business users will receive unlimited mailbox storage, 1 TB of cloud storage and unlimited user access.

Aesthetically, both clients look very different. Google's is simple and functional. While Microsoft's desktop client is feature-heavy and this can sometimes slow down your machine, depending on its age. Although, it's worth noting that Business Essential users will also have access to a browser client.

Gmail's speed and search functionality is something that Outlook can't quite match, with users being able to navigate the online client with relative ease. And, while Outlook's desktop software may seem to lag, it offers lots of features that Gmail appears to have missed, such as an integrated photo viewer, instant actions (for quickly marking or deleting an email) and social media integration.

Outlook users can also create countless 'rules', which can perfectly tailor how your incoming and outgoing emails are managed. 

Both email clients provide calendars that are linked to their accounts and to others in the workplace. Gmail and Outlook calendars can also keep a record of meetings, schedule meetings and even book meeting rooms, once this function is properly set up. 

Microsoft Outlook's web email client does give Gmail a run for its money. It's stripped back approach means that it's easy to use, even for first-time users and the search and sorting capabilities are quick and responsive.

Outlook has been a solid part of Office 365 and Microsoft's business offering for years, and its move into an online client looks to be following suit. However, Google is still definitely king in this department, even if it's not 100 percent perfect.

Read next: Google vs Microsoft vs Amazon: What's the best email provider for business?

G Suite Vs Microsoft Office 365: Collaboration tools

No business suite would be complete without collaboration tools and Microsoft and Google offer two solid options.

Microsoft Teams is an instant chat-based workspace that lets users create group chats, send private messages and send files instantly. Teams is very similar to Slack in that you will be notified if your name is directly mentioned in a chat (or channel). You'll also see a red flag or exclamation point next to the message you're mentioned in to get your attention.

Google's alternative, Google Hangouts offers instant messaging, group chats and built-in screen sharing. However, like with most comparisons made between Google and Microsoft's products, Google's minimalist approach means that Google Hangouts does miss out on some of the features that Teams has on offer. 

For example, Microsoft Teams allows users to create multiple channels which anyone can join, one for marketing perhaps, another for sales, whereas, Google Hangouts can only create group chats which have to be set up by someone and only that person can add more people. 

Google Hangouts are good for a quick message or chat, but it seems that it lacks the complexity to perform other tasks that Microsoft Teams can. The user experience is also very simplistic, which is good if you don't expect much, but Teams is a better choice for people who often work on group projects or need constant collaboration.

Let's not forget, Microsoft also offers Skype for Business, which is great for group conference calls and video meetings. And while Google Hangouts does offer its own video calling capabilities, Skype for Business have greater user uptake and is well established in the video conferencing arena.

G Suite Vs Microsoft Office 365: Price

Price is probably one of the biggest deciding factors when purchasing any business software and Google and Microsoft are priced competitively. 

Google offers a three-tiered pricing option for business users; Basic, Business or Enterprise.

Small businesses could comfortably go for the Basic option, which offers 30 GB of storage, business email address, video and voice conferencing, shared calendars and Docs, Sheets and Slides for £3.60 per user per month. 

For larger ones the Business option will suit, it offers all the above features but unlimited cloud storage, audit reports, e-discovery for emails and chats and archiving policies for £6.60 per user per month. In addition, its enterprise model requires a bespoke quote and offers advanced security features.

Microsoft Office 365 also offers three pricing options, Business Essentials, Business and Business Premium. 

Business Essentials gives users access to Microsoft's online Office 365, a 50 GB mailbox, 1 TB of file storage, Skype and Microsoft Teams for £3.80 per user per month. The next package up, Business offers the full desktop version of Office 365, 1 TB of file storage and tablet/phone apps but does not include email for £7.90.

The Business Premium package offers all the features of Business and Business Essentials for £9.40.

Microsoft also offers a range of enterprise packages offering different sizes of mailboxes and storage. 

We've compared both G Suite Business and Microsoft Office 365 Business Essentials, back to back, on storage, price, users and applications.

As there are plenty of options out there, we found that G Suite Business and Microsoft Office 365 Business Essentials were the most comparable for medium sized businesses as both offer online-only suites.

Read next: Microsoft Azure vs Amazon AWS public cloud comparison

G Suite Vs Microsoft Office 365: Verdict 

Both G Suite and Microsoft Office 365 can compete with one another across the board. 

Google comes out on top in terms of collaboration and easy of use, while Microsoft strengths lie in offering a suite that is feature rich and capable of processing detailed documents and large amounts of data.

Organisations currently using Google's email client will find it an easy transition to move further down the G Suite path, with the same being relevant for those currently using Microsoft's Outlook email client. 

For businesses wanting an online suite that is most simple to use, Google is the ideal option. Its one-stop-shop approach is particularly attractive to businesses starting out and those looking for a clean and responsive productivity suite. Yet Office 365's user interface is one that most will be familiar with, drawing on Microsoft's extensive experience with productivity tools. 

Read next: Windows 10 for business: Pros and cons for enterprise users

Read next: Microsoft launches training programme to boost digital skills in the UK

Read next: 10 Google Apps add-ons for business users

Retailers who want to know what brought people to shop in their physical retail stores have a new tool to try. Facebook has revised its analytics tools for businesses to show how user behaviour online translates into brick-and-mortar purchases.

The new capability entered open beta Tuesday as part of updates Facebook made to its Analytics product for developers. Previously called Analytics for Apps, it’s designed to be an all-in-one tool for helping businesses understand user behaviour across mobile apps, websites, Messenger bots and the big blue social network.

Facebook already offered businesses a set of different analytics for measuring user behaviour, but this launch brings the tools into one service. In order to use the purchase tracking service, companies have to upload their transaction data to Facebook’s servers, which is then used to determine how purchasing matches up with online activity.

Connecting online and offline behaviour is something that retailers have been looking for as advertising and commerce have increasingly moved online.

“This is really interesting because it connects [information about consumers] from the store to online,” Gartner Research Vice President Brian Blau said. “I think that’s going to be interesting to retailers who [want] to understand demographics — who’s coming onto their store, who isn’t, and how effective [retailers are] being in their messaging.”

Facebook’s support for in-store sales appears similar to Google’s AdWords store visit conversions feature. That tool gives a limited set of advertisers the ability to see if the advertisements they run through Google’s network lead to in-person sales.

One of the benefits Facebook has over other advertising providers is that the social network can track users wherever they log in. That makes it a more appealing target for advertisers.

“Because people often log into Facebook on different devices and channels, we understand when different devices and channels are used by the same person,” Facebook said in an emailed statement.

Facebook refused to say how it determines users’ location for the sake of these analytics, and also wouldn’t say how users could opt out of being tracked.

Measuring user behaviour offline dovetails nicely with Facebook’s other tools, which are designed to help companies track their users in aggregate across a variety of digital platforms. The Analytics tool received a number of additional features Tuesday as part of the F8 developer conference in San Jose.

Analytics from Pages, which companies can use to track users’ interactions with brand profiles, have now been integrated into the rest of the measurement service. That integration also means it’s possible for businesses to see things like what percentage of users who like a post go on to make an online purchase.

Facebook has built a new automated insights feature into the Analytics service that automatically detects and highlights anomalies in companies’ data. For example, the service will highlight changes in users purchases after an app update. Right now, it’s available in open beta.

Companies can also set up their own custom dashboards to combine all the metrics they consider to be important.

The new Analytics service has another benefit: it’s free. Facebook stands to make money when businesses purchase the myriad types of advertisements that the company sells.