Compare the Networking/Communication Technology of Microsoft Teams, Discord, Skype, and Google Workspace
Each of the platforms presented is a service that allows users to communicate online with each other from various locations. Communication technologies include text-to-speech tools, although programs are predominantly used to make video and audio calls between users. As the programs compete with each other, providing largely interchangeable features, each strives to build into the architecture tools that its competitors already have, such as making group calls, file-sharing features, and working with AR for effects and backgrounds during a video call. In addition, each app has a paid version of advanced features, including the ability to text and call phones, use additional emoticons and channel moderation features, and increase capacity on file uploads. The communication focus of the apps differs: for example, Skype, Google Workspace, and Microsoft Teams are predominantly focused on work/study purposes, meaning they are used chiefly for non-entertainment calls (What is Skype, 2022). These can be interviews, work conferences, online lectures at a university, or private sessions with a teacher. However, this does not mean that the platforms mentioned above cannot be used for personal purposes, such as calling relatives. By contrast, Discord is focused initially on the gamer community (Discord, 2022). Although it can also be used for other purposes, for example, personal communication
Compare Databases of Microsoft Teams, Discord, Skype, and Google Workspace
Since these platforms are used by many people daily, they must have advanced databases to store and process information about calls and files efficiently. Until recently, Skype had a SQL Server database, which quickly proved operationally inefficient due to expansion; therefore, the platform moved to Microsoft’s globally distributed NoSQL (Anderson, 2019). Discord-it uses the same database from a different vendor, allows companies to use data intensively with minimal latency and scale efficiently (Scylla DB, Inc., 2020). Unlike non-relational databases, Microsoft Teams uses relational Dataflex; this means that information in Microsoft Teams is stored in orderly tables and lists, unlike Skype and Discord. Google Workspace also uses a relational database, namely Airtable (Google Workspace actions, 2022). Thus, the main differences in the databases between the platforms are the ordering of the information, the flexibility of management, and the ability to define relationships between points.
References
Anderson, K. (2019). Here’s how Skype manages the data of 4 billion users leveraging Azure Cosmos DB. OnMSFT. Web.
Discord. (2022). Cloudflare. Web.
Google Workspace actions. (2022). Airtable. Web.
Scylla DB, Inc. (2020). Discord chooses Scylla as its core storage layer. GNW. Web.
What is Skype? (2022). Microsoft. Web.