One of the bugbears of the Google Apps ecosystem is being addressed with the launch of Google Drive for Work, which promise the ability to open Microsoft Office documents natively without the need to translate into Google Docs format.

So now Google's office suite will also be able to edit and save Microsoft Office documents.

Priced at $US10/user/month, Google Drive for Work includes unlimited storage (allowing up to 5TB file uploads), advanced audit reporting and new security controls.

The ability to work in a similar way to Microsoft Office Track Changes also comes via a new feature called "Suggest Edit" mode. This enhances collaboration in Drive so that collaborators can suggest a change to a shared document, which can then be accepted or rejected with a single click. 

The Office Compatibility Mode is currently available on Android and Chrome browsers with iOS support promised. 

New fine-grained controls let admins manage which employees can install the desktop sync client. Also, a new audit view provides analysis of who is moving, deleting or sharing a file within or outside the company, and an audit API will also be available for developers. Apps Vault, Google’s solution for search and discovery for compliance needs, is also included with Drive for Work, expanding to cover all content stored in Drive, including Docs, Sheets and Slides, as well as any other file type.