Another German state is weaning off Microsoft
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is embracing open source.
Microsoft Deutschland GmbH headquarters building. Sven Hoppe/picture alliance/Getty.
- The German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is rolling out its open-source collaboration platform, which will enable a transition away from Microsoft software.
- The government plans to move over 50,000 public sector employees to the new platform, operated by the state’s own IT service provider, DVZ M-V GmbH.
- The platform is currently used for file sharing, and it is planned to be expanded to include chat, videoconferencing, and groupware applications.
German state Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is rolling out an open-source collaboration platform as part of broader efforts to reduce the public administration’s dependence on Microsoft and other proprietary software.
The state government plans to move more than 50,000 public-sector employees – from ministries to municipal institutions – to its sovereign collaboration platform.
Based on Nextcloud, the platform is operated by the state’s own IT service provider, DVZ M-V GmbH, on its own infrastructure, which is fully under its own control.
Currently, around 5,000 employees use the collaboration platform for file sharing, and it is planned to be expanded to include chat, videoconferencing, and groupware applications.
“The transition away from Microsoft SharePoint has been completed step by step, without disruption or data loss for employees. Together with DVZ M-V, we have built a platform that runs reliably today and continues to expand step by step," says Marco Anschütz, chief information officer of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
Dr. Heiko Geue, Minister of Finance and Digitalization of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, says the state government plans to continue expanding the use of open source and to promote common standards and open interfaces for IT solutions in the public sector.
“This is the only way for the state and municipalities to have the power to act in the future,” he is quoted as saying in a press release.
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The software runs under the free GNU AGPLv3 license. The state can review and audit the source code at any time and adapt it according to its own security and functional requirements.
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is following the footsteps of another German state, Schleswig-Holstein, where nearly 80% of workplaces in the state government migrated from Microsoft Office to LibreOffice.
The transition from Microsoft to open-source software reflects a broader European trend, in which an increasing number of national and state governments are replacing American technologies with local alternatives.