Switzerland Deploys Open-Source Software to Diversify Microsoft Dependency

The Swiss Federal Council has approved CHF 9 million to deploy an open-source software suite on 3,000 federal workstations. This move is part of Switzerland's efforts to reduce its dependence on US cloud providers and comply with the EMBAG law, which pushes public authorities toward open-source software.

The program, called BOSS (digital sovereign workplace), will run alongside Microsoft 365 and allow users to switch between the two. The openDesk suite assembles several open-source tools into a single government-grade stack: Open-Xchange for email and calendars, Nextcloud for file storage and collaboration, Jitsi for video conferencing, and Element for messaging and chat.

A proof-of-concept pilot involving 172 federal employees tested the openDesk software against their daily Microsoft 365 workloads. The results showed that core productivity needs were met, but large-scale video conferencing remained noticeably weaker than Teams.