Public service turns away from big names as part of decoupling from US
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In order to become less dependent on US tech suppliers, the French government is throwing out Microsoft Teams and Zoom by the end of 2027.
At all departments, they will be replaced for the local, in-house-developed video platform Visio. This is already in use at 15 ministries and will become the standard from now on. Non-European suppliers, including, for example, Webex, will be shown the door.
Deputy Minister for the Civil Service and State Reform David Amiel explained: “Many government departments currently use too many different tools, a situation that undermines data security, creates strategic dependencies on external infrastructures, imposes additional financial costs and complicates cooperation between ministries.”
The French National Centre for Scientific Research, the National Health Insurance Fund, the DG Public Finance and the Ministry of Defence are among the first government agencies to implement the solution nationwide in the first quarter of 2026.
Visio was developed by the inter-ministerial Directorate for Digital Affairs (DINUM). It already has 40,000 users and is being rolled out to 200,000.
The video system is based on WebRTC, operates with an open source codebase and is hosted at ANSSI’s SecNumCloud at Outscale, a subsidiary of Dassault.
The video system is based on WebRTC, operates with an open source codebase and is hosted at ANSSI’s SecNumCloud at Outscale, a subsidiary of Dassault.
In the Netherlands the House of Representatives is beginning to consider scenarios that could disconnect the country from dominant US tech suppliers.
The GoEuropean website offers a large overview of local digital tech suppliers.
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