France Dumps Teams And Zoom For Sovereign Visio

France has begun replacing Microsoft Teams and Zoom across its public sector with Visio, a homegrown, open-source videoconferencing platform built for government use. The decision doubles down on Europe’s push for digital sovereignty, with a nationwide rollout aiming to make Visio the default by 2027.

Why Paris Is Making the Switch to a Sovereign Platform

French officials frame the move as a matter of strategic autonomy. The government wants critical communications handled by European software, under European law, and on infrastructure it controls. Leaders have been explicit: sensitive research, internal deliberations, and state operations shouldn’t hinge on foreign platforms governed by non‑EU regulations.

Legal exposure is central. The 2018 US Cloud Act permits US authorities to demand data from US providers even when it’s stored in Europe. Combined with the EU’s stringent data protection regime and the Court of Justice’s Schrems II ruling, which heightened scrutiny of transatlantic data transfers, the case for sovereign collaboration tools has only strengthened.

Inside Visio, the Homegrown Platform for Government

Visio is developed by the Interministerial Directorate for Digital Affairs (DINUM) with contributions from partners in the Netherlands and Germany. It’s MIT‑licensed, signaling a commitment to transparency and reuse across the public sector. The stack blends Django for backend workflows, React for the interface, and LiveKit for low‑latency, scalable media.

Feature parity is a priority. Visio supports HD video, screen sharing, chat, and AI‑assisted meeting notes with transcription and speaker identification built on tech from French start‑up Pyannote. It integrates with Tchap, the government’s secure messaging app built on the Matrix protocol, enabling authenticated room creation and policy‑controlled sharing.

Security hardening has been guided by ANSSI, France’s cybersecurity agency, to meet national security requirements for encryption and identity management. The platform is designed to run on sovereign cloud or on‑premises infrastructure, with room for ministries to tailor access controls. And to avoid confusion, Visio bears no relation to Microsoft’s diagramming software of the same name.

Rollout Timeline, Costs, and Scale Across Ministries

France is phasing out renewals for Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, Webex, and other non‑European tools as departments migrate. After a year of pilots, roughly 40,000 public servants use Visio regularly, with a near‑term target of around 200,000 accounts and full coverage slated by 2027.

Cost discipline is part of the pitch. Government estimates indicate savings of about 1 million euros annually for every 100,000 users who switch, thanks to eliminated license fees and reduced reliance on external vendors. Those savings scale quickly as Visio becomes the default across ministries, and they compound with adjacent projects in the broader Suite Numérique, which aims to replace email, chat, and collaboration tools now dominated by US providers.

The EU Digital Sovereignty Push Gains Momentum

France’s pivot aligns with a wider European movement to curb dependence on dominant US cloud and software platforms. The European Parliament has urged more control over critical digital infrastructure and AI systems, while national bodies from Austria to Denmark test or adopt local alternatives. In Germany, the state of Schleswig‑Holstein is migrating public administration to open‑source stacks; in France, the city of Lyon has moved away from Microsoft suites.

The philosophy is consistent: leverage open standards and open source, keep sensitive data within European legal jurisdiction, and cultivate a regional software ecosystem capable of meeting public‑sector needs at scale.

Concerns, Adoption, and Market Impact for Vendors

Not everyone is convinced. Some industry leaders warn sovereignty drives can fragment markets and raise costs, with Ericsson’s CEO calling parts of the debate “dangerous.” The counterview in Paris is that open‑source foundations, shared development across EU states, and sovereign hosting can deliver lower total cost of ownership while reducing lock‑in risk.

Execution will decide the outcome. Visio must match the reliability, usability, and interoperability that users expect from mature platforms. DINUM’s roadmap emphasizes uptime, identity federation, and accessible interfaces, alongside rigorous security audits. If those metrics hold, France could set a repeatable template for public‑sector collaboration at European scale.

What to Watch Next as France Scales Sovereign Visio

Key signals will include user satisfaction among heavy conference hosts, integration depth with document‑sharing and messaging tools in the Suite Numérique, and SLAs on latency and availability across government networks. Also watch whether other EU administrations reuse Visio’s codebase, reinforcing a shared, sovereign layer for videoconferencing rather than a patchwork of bespoke solutions.

For now, France is betting that controlling the pipes for official conversations is worth the short‑term disruption—and that a European, open‑source stack can meet modern collaboration needs without compromising on law, security, or cost.