A group of agencies in Sweden have set up a project to find cloud providers who can provide an alternative to MS Teams/O365 following the Schrems2 decision [1]. Similar work is ongoing in other EU countries. Will more US software providers find partners in the EU to run cloud services in a way that doesn't involve risk of handing over customer data under FISA 702? There is definitely a huge need for compliant cloud solutions in the EU.<p>[1]: https://computersweden.idg.se/2.2683/1.754943/swedish-gov-teams-alternative
O365 is a big pain point for Swiss banks. It's tremendous work to even assess the situation and you have to try to get straight answers out of MS in regards to every last detail of every feature.<p>From the little knowledge I have about this, it might not even be enough for MS to guarantee that the no data leaves EU borders but simply the fact that MS is a US company could be enough for US courts to force them to exfiltrate data. Not sure if this is correct or if they already have a company structure in place that would prevent this.<p>As much as I would like to see more competition thanks to this, I think at the end MS will figure it out and they will remain the dominant force.
Jitsi?[0] It was european at one point.
And online LibreOffice from Collabora?[1]<p>[0] <a href="https://jitsi.org" rel="nofollow">https://jitsi.org</a><p>[1] <a href="https://www.collaboraoffice.com" rel="nofollow">https://www.collaboraoffice.com</a>
For MS teams, many other alternatives like Element.io exists.<p>For 365 that's a lot harder, mostly because nobody has come close to what Outlook and Exchange can do in large orgs.
Word, Excel, PP are somewhat replaceable and 80% of ppl in those orgs would probably be ok with the alternatives. It is the 20% that uses more niche features that may or may not work as expected in competing products.
In conjunction with recently announced subsidies and government spending to jumpstart the economy after Covid, I see this more as a strategy announcement, similar to the Chinese 2025 plan.<p>It'll be quite fruitless in the short term, because already nobody really likes Office 365. Everyone just uses it for lack of better options.<p>But in the long term, governments announcing their intent to purchase should be quite the incentive for startups to replicate the core Office365 functionality. Of course, that's not going to be feature compete, but AFAIK most people only use a tiny subset of what Word / Excel can do.
During my journey to break up with Google, I found Infomaniak is another option for EU countries.<p><a href="https://www.infomaniak.com/en/kdrive/apps" rel="nofollow">https://www.infomaniak.com/en/kdrive/apps</a>
Very interestingly, most comments seem to focus on trying to propose you a "magic" product. The problem you are trying to solve is not a technology but a human issue: most organizations don't have the resources anymore to handle the technical complexity required to operate an integrated collaboration platform that is fully interoperable both within the organization and outside.<p>The shortest answer is that Microsoft solved this problem by hiring lots of people and making it possible (Google, too, but that keeps you with the same compliance issue).<p>The first problem EU States need to solve is human resources. Then they will be able to discuss possible solutions.<p>Starting the discussion on how to replace Microsoft by looking for products is basically running into a 100% failure trajectory.<p>My 2 cents.
I wish they considered ONLYOFFICE. Nice online document and sheet editor, company is based in Latvia, an EU and Eurozone member. And since it's AGPL, any govt can hire a team and fork it, to tailor it to their liking.
Depending on what they are seeking, Zoho [1] might be a good choice (has most pieces of the office/apps/IT suite).<p>I've also heard that Zoho has been having very good traction in Europe, especially among users looking to avoid the MS/Goog duopoly and stay on the right side of data sovereignty requirements.<p>[1] <a href="https://www.zoho.com/" rel="nofollow">https://www.zoho.com/</a>
This is a fairly good idea. I think funding OS Office solutions would be feasible. It would be the cheapest thing any government ever did when it approached software.<p>And no, the average clerk can just a well use Word 95 and Libre Office is often just as feature rich as the MS alternative. The largest difference is Excel I believe. Well, then use Excel, but the rest isn't needed for anything.
The interesting thing is, that in Germany Microsoft and Deutsche Telekom used to have a set up, where you could buy O365 hosted by Telekom, without Microsoft (as a US company) having access to the data if they are asked for it, via the Cloud Act.<p>But as they had many integration problems, they stopped offering this service in 2018[1] (German).<p>I think looking at GDPR and Schrems2 requirements, this would have been a viable model.<p>[1]: <a href="https://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Auslaufmodell-Microsoft-Cloud-Deutschland-4152650.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Auslaufmodell-Micros...</a>
Friend OS is a great open source platform, with shared storage, document collaboration and video conferencing.<p><a href="https://friendsky.cloud/" rel="nofollow">https://friendsky.cloud/</a>
This is the reason I'm, and a group of people develop deployment methods for NEXTCLOUD.<p>We want to be able to offer PRIVATE solution that will be able to deliver both secure and private cloud infrastructure at scale to organizations that can't affort placing their data in the hands of neither Donald Trump or Xi Jinping.<p><a href="https://charmhub.io/nextcloud" rel="nofollow">https://charmhub.io/nextcloud</a>