Switzerland Builds Microsoft-Free Backup Plan for Federal Workstations

Switzerland's Federal Council has approved CHF 9 million to deploy openDesk on 3,000 federal workstations starting in 2027. The move is part of a broader European drive to reduce dependence on US cloud providers.

The parallel sovereign workplace, internally called BOSS (digital sovereign workplace), will run alongside Microsoft 365, not replace it. This pilot program is overseen by the Federal Chancellery and covers about 7% of the federal administration's 54,000 workstations.

Implementation begins in early 2027, with the sovereign environment targeted to be operational by end of 2027. Only after this evaluation will authorities decide whether to extend openDesk to more machines.