Schleswig-Holstein says goodbye to Microsoft

The digital workplace in Schleswig-Holstein must be autonomous, sustainable and secure, which is why the German state decided to switch to the open source office suite LibreOffice. With the Cabinet decision to introduce open source software across the board as a standard office solution, the first step towards full digital sovereignty has been taken, authorities say. notice Announce.

But that's not all: the state of Schleswig-Holstein wants to say goodbye to the Microsoft world completely. The decision to change office software is just the beginning of the transformation: the shift to free software for the operating system, collaboration platform, directory service, specialized process and telephony will follow. The decision represents a move away from proprietary software toward free, open source systems for about 30,000 state government employees.

The shift to open source solutions has been planned for a long time in the state of Schleswig-Holstein. Information about the project was first published at the end of 2021 (reported by the “Swiss IT Magazine”).

Specifically, the following phases are planned for a digitally sovereign IT workplace:

• Switching from Microsoft Office to LibreOffice
• Switching from Windows to Linux
• Switch from Sharepoint and Exchange to Nextcloud, open Xchange/Thunderbird in conjunction with the Univention AD connector for collaboration
• Envision an open source directory service to replace Active Directory
• Inventory of specialized procedures related to compatibility and interoperability with LibreOffice and Linux
• Development of an open source telephony solution to replace Telekom-Flexport

The switch to LibreOffice planned in the first phase should take place in a short time and be mandatory. The timetable for further steps has not been announced.

“The future of management is cloud-based, automated, algorithm-driven and data-driven. Therefore, our IT applications will operate as cloud services on the Internet in the future. Accordingly, major manufacturers of popular IT products are increasingly moving their applications to the Internet. Dirk Schroedter said, Minister of Digitalization of Schleswig-Holstein, explaining the project: “With regard to the operational processes of such solutions and how they are used, we have no influence on the data, including the possible flow of data to third countries.” (Research and Development)