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ZDNET’s key takeaways
Two Swiss government groups are moving from Microsoft 365 to openDesk.
The Swiss Federal Chancellery and Swiss Armed Forces are moving at different paces.
It’s mostly about protecting Swiss data from American snoopers.
Switzerland’s federal government is moving to create an open-source, digitally sovereign workplace for thousands of employees, while the Swiss Armed Forces’ Cyber Command is moving much faster to replace Microsoft 365, especially for sensitive work.
They’re joining numerous other European government agencies, such as those in Austria, France, Germany, and Ireland, that are also cutting out Microsoft 365 and Windows in favor of open-source office suites and Linux.
After a feasibility study, the Swiss Federal Chancellery concluded that an open-source browser-based office suite could handle core administrative functions. So, it has started deploying an independently operated office-and-collaboration platform that will run in parallel with Microsoft 365. By the end of 2027, the government expects the platform to serve about 3,000 of its 47,000 employees involved in critical business processes across federal departments.
Also: Digital sovereignty at the UN: Inside the global push to replace US cloud giants with open-source tech
The proposed platform, openDesk, a German-developed open-source workplace platform, covers email, calendars, documents, presentations, telephony, and audio and video conferencing. Besides Switzerland, Germany, and the International Criminal Court have adopted openDesk.
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