Alternative to Exchange Public Calendar

I have migrated public folders to shared calendars in O365,

But your question seems to migrate PF to Google. I think its possible as per below article from Google Workspace, however I have not done it so you have to give it a try.

https://support.google.com/a/answer/2840803?hl=en 

You may also refer the PDF document for the same.

https://static.googleusercontent.com/media/www.google.com/en//support/enterprise/static/gapps/docs/admin/en/gapps_exchange_migration/gamme_admin.pdf

They do not use Office 365 at this time. Would a google calendar work? Anyone have experiences?

My suggestion is to get them on M365.  Utilize Exchange online for email, Calendaring as if it were local and Sharepoint in place of a local server.  Google does offer similar services via Workspace and I have clients that use both.  I much prefer working with Microsoft. The main reason is support. You can call MS 365 support and the person that helps you is going to be the person that most likely will work with you through the end of the solution. It can take 10 to 30 minutes for a call back, but they are very helpful.  Because it is Microsoft, they sometimes can differentiate when the issue is the machine and not the service and will continue to assist in most cases.

With google, you can tell the person that is trying to help is just searching for the answer and giving you suggestions without having been fully trained or have experience using the system. If you have a slightly complex issue, you have to go through low level support to be referred to somebody else that will call you back within 12 hours. It is rare you run into this type of situation, but when you do, it is upsetting.

As the person that is assisting your client, you can create a non-paying user to help manage the service and initiate help calls. Especially with Microsoft, I find this is a much better option than signing on as a partner unless this is your main business and you handle a lot of clients.

I know that answer gets a bit off topic, but trying to manage one Google calendar for a team get's messy. I have had a client try that and it is hard to manage compared to working with the calendars as they are meant to where you share/give access.  Plus you also get good spam control, use of OneDrive/Google Drive and potentially desktop software.

For small offices, I find going to the cloud like this has been the best solution compared to trying to keep up with server hardware and offering a secure way to manage files from offsite.

Hi burkem3434,

I ran into a small 6 person office still using a shared public calendar from Exchange 2010 on their 2011 SBS. They are ready for the server upgrade but have no other use for exchange other than that shared calendar (hosting email externally for 10 years). A cost they can save.

Anyone have experiences?

I have two medical surgeries as clients that I get called on to look after IT wise occasionally and one of them didn't like using the built-in calendar and scheduling tool included in Medical Director about a year or so ago. MD is a software package that is an all in one medical practice management suite. They too were very price-conscious!

After looking at a lot of different possible alternatives, I eventually settled on recommending and installing the following software on their on-premise server and workstations and they're loving it.

• Cogsworth Smart Scheduling

It's scalable, intuitive to use and (IMO) very reasonably priced, so is ideal for smaller companies. Not sure if it's what you're looking for or if it will be ideal to meet your client's needs, but thought I'd mention it as something to look at and check out for yourself.

Hope that's helpful.

Regards, Andrew