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Austria's Ministry of Economy has transitioned 1,200 employees to a Nextcloud-based cloud and collaboration platform hosted on Austrian infrastructure, marking a significant move away from proprietary, foreign-owned cloud services such as Microsoft 365. This migration is part of a broader European trend emphasizing digital sovereignty, with governments and agencies seeking greater control over sensitive data and reducing reliance on US-based technology providers. The EuroStack Initiative, a non-profit foundation, has been established to promote European technology solutions, further supporting this movement.
France has adopted the Matrix protocol as the backbone of its secure instant messaging service, Tchap, which is now used by over 600,000 public officials. The French Interministerial Digital Directorate (DINUM) has also become a Silver member of the Matrix.org Foundation, reinforcing its commitment to open-source, European-based technologies. Other countries, including Germany and Sweden, are exploring or implementing similar solutions, driven by concerns over data sovereignty, security, and the unpredictability of foreign technology providers. These developments reflect a growing momentum across Europe to adopt homegrown or open alternatives for cloud and messaging services in both public and private sectors.
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Germany’s Sovereign Tech Fund announced an investment of more than €1 million in KDE to strengthen its testing infrastructure, security architecture, communication-service frameworks, and KDE Linux distribution. The funding was presented as support for sovereign open digital infrastructure used by public administrations, businesses, and individuals.
France required all government ministries to produce plans by fall 2026 for reducing reliance on non-European technology suppliers, expanding its digital sovereignty push beyond individual platform migrations. The policy could influence procurement across workstations, security tools, AI, databases, virtualization, networking, and collaboration systems.
France said it plans to move government computers from Microsoft Windows to Linux as part of its digital sovereignty strategy to reduce dependence on U.S. technology providers. Officials did not provide a migration timeline or specify which Linux distributions would be used.
A separate European public-sector agency was reported to be moving off large commercial technology platforms, reflecting growing momentum behind digital sovereignty initiatives across Europe.
France moved its official government messaging toward Tchap, a state communication platform built on the Matrix protocol, as part of a broader digital sovereignty effort to reduce reliance on major US technology providers.
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Switzerland’s Federal Chancellery is launching a follow-up program to deploy a sovereign, browser-based open-source digital workplace alongside Microsoft 365 for personnel conducting critical government processes. The platform will provide email, calendars, document editing, file storage, collaboration, telephony, and audio/video conferencing, aiming to reduce dependence on a single cloud provider and preserve operations during outages, supply-chain incidents, or geopolitical crises. About 3,000 employees are expected to receive access by the end of 2027, supported by an initial budget of roughly CHF 9 million. The program follows the BOSS proof-of-concept feasibility study, which found the platform adequate for standard office work but identified shortcomings in large video conferences. Authorities must further address interoperability, security, identity management, performance, user support, and integration with government-specific applications before broader use. The initiative is intended to strengthen digital sovereignty, resilience, and continuity for sensitive operations, not to immediately replace Microsoft 365 across the federal administration.
Sep 14, 2026
European governments and organizations are intensifying efforts to achieve digital sovereignty in cloud infrastructure, driven by geopolitical uncertainties and concerns over reliance on American hyperscalers such as Microsoft, Google, and Amazon Web Services. With U.S. policy shifts and potential transatlantic tensions, European leaders are prioritizing the development of domestic alternatives and strategies to ensure control over sensitive data and critical workloads. Despite these ambitions, local cloud providers currently hold only a small share of the market, and experts suggest that a new European hyperscaler is unlikely to emerge soon, with existing players like SAP and Deutsche Telekom each controlling only about 2% of the market. In response to these sovereignty concerns, cloud providers are expanding offerings tailored to regulatory and data residency requirements. Amazon Web Services, for example, has introduced Dedicated Local Zones to provide customers with greater control over data location, security, and compliance, supporting sensitive workloads for public sector and regulated industries. These initiatives reflect a broader trend of cloud service adaptation to meet the evolving needs of European customers seeking to balance operational flexibility with strict sovereignty and compliance mandates.
Jun 29, 2026
France’s Ministry of the Economy and Finance announced the generalization of **Visio**, a videoconferencing platform developed by the government’s Interministerial Directorate for Digital Affairs (**DINUM**), with the stated goal of making it the default—and ultimately exclusive—video meeting tool for French public servants by 2027. The policy aims to end reliance on “extra-European” services such as **Microsoft Teams**, **Zoom**, **Webex**, and **Google Meet**, citing concerns over **data sovereignty**, confidentiality of government communications, and exposure to foreign infrastructure, laws, and political pressure. French officials framed the move as part of a broader **digital sovereignty** strategy intended to reduce strategic dependencies and improve resilience across ministries and public bodies. Visio has already been piloted at scale (reported as tens of thousands of users, including ~40,000 regular users) and is being expanded toward broader adoption across the state; the plan includes not renewing external videoconferencing licenses once Visio is fully in routine use. The Register reporting echoes the government’s rationale and notes that major public-sector entities (including tax and social security bodies) have begun transitioning away from US-based platforms.
Jun 29, 2026