The French government has officially announced a plan to phase out the use of U.S.-based collaboration platforms, including Microsoft Teams and Zoom, in favour of a home-grown “sovereign” alternative.
The transition to the state-developed platform, named Visio, is part of a broader push to reclaim France’s digital independence and safeguard sensitive government data from foreign surveillance and legal reach.
David Amiel, Minister Delegate for the Public Service and State Reform, confirmed the move during a visit to a national research facility Monday, stating that the government aims to have the new tool fully deployed across all state services and ministries by 2027.
“We cannot take the risk of seeing our scientific exchanges, our sensitive data, and our strategic innovations exposed to non-European players,” Amiel said. “Digital sovereignty is both an imperative for our public services and an insurance against future threats.”
The decision stems from longstanding concerns over the U.S. CLOUD Act, which allows American authorities to request data from U.S. companies even if that information is stored on servers located abroad. By moving to a platform hosted on French soil and built with European technology, Paris aims to ensure that public sector communications remain under European legal jurisdiction.
Developed by the Interministerial Digital Directorate (DINUM), Visio is based on open-source technology and is hosted on infrastructure provided by Outscale, a subsidiary of Dassault Systèmes. The infrastructure meets the “SecNumCloud” certification, France’s highest security standard for cloud services.
The government also highlighted a significant financial incentive for the switch. Officials estimate the move will save approximately 1 million euros ($1.08 million) annually for every 100,000 users migrated off paid foreign licenses.
The rollout is already underway. The National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) is slated to replace its Zoom licenses with Visio by the end of March for its 34,000 employees and over 120,000 associated researchers. Other early adopters include the Ministry of the Armed Forces and the General Directorate of Public Finances.
The phase-out will also extend to other popular workplace tools. Under the government’s “Suite Numérique” project, officials intend to replace services like Slack and Gmail with sovereign alternatives such as Tchap for messaging and local email solutions in the coming years. (NewsWire)