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You read about digital sovereignty, decoupling from US tech, and new document format mandates — and wonder: What does this mean for my business?

In March 2026, Germany’s IT-Planungsrat — the steering body for public sector digitalisation — mandated the Open Document Format (ODF) for document exchange across all government agencies. From 2027, .docx will be phased out in favour of .odt. The digital future of Germany’s municipalities, cities, and public institutions runs without Microsoft formats.

At the same time, pressure is mounting to reduce dependency on US cloud providers like Amazon, Microsoft, and Google. The sovereign cloud is no longer a vision — Schleswig-Holstein has already migrated 30,000 workstations and saves 15 million euros per year in licence costs.

This doesn’t only affect government. Every organisation that exchanges documents with public institutions needs to handle ODF. And every organisation that entrusts its data to a single foreign provider carries a risk that deepens with every political crisis.

We help small and medium-sized businesses make the transition — from individual workstations to complete infrastructure. You decide the scope:

• Office only: Replace Microsoft Office with LibreOffice, convert documents
• Mail and calendar: Replace Exchange with European groupware
• Cloud: Move files and collaboration to your own or European infrastructure
• Complete: Workstations, servers, identity — everything on Open Source

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Why Open Source?

Every dependency on a single provider is a business risk. With Open Source, you stay in control of your IT:

• No dependency on individual cloud providers, their licensing terms, or jurisdiction
• GDPR compliance through transparent, auditable software
• Cost efficiency without license fees and vendor lock-in
• Future-proof through open standards and interoperability

Background analyses and risk assessments on digital independence: digital-independence.org