“There’s A Google Workspace Gap No One Talks About Enough,” Says Passwd CEO Marek Elznic

Google Workspace has become the default operating system for modern teams. From early-stage startups to distributed agencies and mid-sized companies, it handles identity, email, collaboration and user management in a way that feels clean and structured.

“For most teams, once they migrate to Google Workspace, it feels like the access problem is solved,” says Marek Elznic, CEO of Passwd. “Logins are centralised. Users can be added or removed in seconds. It creates a sense of control.”

But according to Elznic, that sense of control can be misleading. “There’s a Google Workspace gap no one talks about enough. Identity is solved. Shared access isn’t.”

The Gap Between Identity and Access

Google Workspace is built around individual identity. Every user has an account, groups define permissions and deactivating a user removes their access.

That system works extremely well, as long as access is tied directly to individual accounts. The problem is that growing teams rarely operate only with individual logins. They share platforms, client dashboards, infrastructure credentials, SaaS tools tied to generic company emails and subscriptions not suitable for personal accounts.

“These shared credentials live slightly outside the Google identity model,” Elznic explains. “They’re practical, sometimes unavoidable, but they’re not structurally tied to Google Groups.” Over time, that separation creates ambiguity.

What Passwd Saw Firsthand

Passwd itself started as an internal tool inside a development agency that struggled with exactly this issue. “We couldn’t find a solution that deeply integrated with Google Workspace,” says Elznic. “Most password managers require managing users twice, once in Google, once inside the password tool.” The team decided to build a system where shared access would mirror Google Groups and authentication directly, rather than introduce a parallel identity layer. That experience shaped the company’s view of the broader market.

“We realised the problem wasn’t a lack of security tools. It was a misalignment between identity and shared access.”

Growth Exposes the Weak Point

In small teams, shared passwords are often managed informally. A document, a spreadsheet, a vault, a message thread. “At five people, almost anything works,” Elznic says. “At thirty or fifty, the cracks start to show.” The moment that usually exposes the issue isn’t a breach. It’s offboarding.

“When someone leaves, you deactivate their Google account and feel confident. But shared credentials may have been copied, stored locally, or passed along months earlier.” SSO and MFA protect individual logins. They don’t automatically govern shared ones. That distinction becomes more important as organisations scale, hire contractors, and connect more SaaS and AI tools to internal workflows.

A Structural Rather Than Security Shift

The Passwd CEO is careful not to frame the issue as a flaw in Google Workspace.

“Google solved identity extremely well. But identity management and shared access governance are two different layers,” he says.

Passwd’s approach has been to extend Google’s structure rather than compete with it mirroring Google authentication, synchronising Google Groups, and even allowing companies to operate within their own Google Cloud environment.
“Increasingly, especially in Europe, companies want control not just over users, but over where their encrypted data lives,” Elznic notes. “That’s why we see demand for models where the application layer is provided by a vendor, but infrastructure and data remain in the company’s own cloud project.”

Why the Conversation Is Growing

The rise of AI tools has quietly intensified the issue. Each new platform connected to internal systems introduces another access point. Automation makes credentials more powerful and potentially more sensitive.

“The more tools you connect, the more shared access accumulates in the background, it’s rarely dramatic. It’s just unmanaged.”

As companies mature, operational clarity becomes as important as security compliance. The shift isn’t driven by fear, it’s driven by structure.

The Next Layer of Maturity

Google Workspace remains a powerful foundation for modern organisations. But as teams scale, identity alone is no longer enough.

“Shared access is the next layer companies need to think about, not because something is broken but because growth exposes what wasn’t designed to scale.”

For many Google-first teams, the question isn’t whether they use a password manager. It’s whether that tool truly reflects the structure of their identity system or quietly works around it. And that distinction, Elznic argues, is becoming harder to ignore.