en.Wedoany.com Reported - Europe plans to launch a fully localized, sovereign alternative to Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace this summer, named Euro-Office. This open-source-based office suite will integrate AI features, led by Nextcloud and Ionos, aiming to help European businesses and public institutions reduce their reliance on major US cloud platforms.
Andreas Nauerz, Member of the Executive Board and Product Director at Ionos, stated that the core advantage of Euro-Office lies in its operation on European infrastructure, specifically Ionos data centers. The former Chief Technology Officer of Bosch Digital explained: "Our goal is to provide businesses and public institutions with digital sovereignty without sacrificing productivity—through an open-source-based solution running on European infrastructure in Ionos data centers." This design helps companies reduce dependence on US vendors and avoid legal jurisdiction risks under the US Cloud Act or Patriot Act, ensuring all data storage remains within the EU.
In this solution, Nextcloud provides software technology support, while Ionos contributes its decades of experience in operating hyperscale infrastructure and serving 7 million customers. The project has also received support from several European companies focused on open source, free software, and digital sovereignty, including Swiss company Proton, French collaboration specialist XWiki, German open-source project management provider OpenProject, and Spanish consulting firm Btactic.
According to Nauerz, Euro-Office covers all office functions for documents, spreadsheets, and presentations, with high interoperability with competing platforms, allowing users to seamlessly open files created by Microsoft Office. Core features include comprehensive file management with version control, data loss prevention, cross-device synchronization, and end-to-end encryption, along with integrated communication and time management tools such as Ionos email accounts and team calendars. All features are provided as a fully managed solution.
Euro-Office also supports confidential collaboration features, including video conferencing seamlessly integrated with the Nextcloud environment, as well as real-time collaborative editing of documents, comments, and revision tracking. The platform is operating system-independent and runs on browsers, desktops, and mobile devices. Nauerz revealed that Ionos is gradually integrating AI features into the tool suite, such as email summaries and in-app auto-generated reply suggestions, but did not provide a specific release date.
The European software project also faces challenges. Euro-Office is a fork or derivative of OnlyOffice, an open-source office collaboration platform from Latvian company Ascensio System. The Euro-Office team decided to use OnlyOffice's open-source code to develop a version fully controlled by European institutions, against the backdrop of the project's affiliates having ties to Russia. Although Ascensio System is registered in Riga, company structure investigations revealed direct links to Russia, with the project's founder and major shareholder being Russian businessman Lev Bannov. Following EU sanctions on Russia, OnlyOffice restructured, coming under the control of a UK company, and subsequently managed by a Singapore holding company.
After Euro-Office's announcement, Ascensio System quickly accused it of intellectual property infringement, claiming "serious violations" of license terms and international copyright law, demanding that all derivative versions retain OnlyOffice's trademarks and logo, and terminating the existing cooperation between OnlyOffice and Nextcloud. Nauerz responded: "We don't see this as a major issue." He emphasized that Euro-Office complies with AGPL (Affero General Public License) requirements and follows the guidelines of the Free Software Foundation. He said: "We will monitor developments but believe this will not affect our plans."
Another major challenge is competing with Microsoft and Google's market dominance in office software, cloud platforms, and infrastructure. Nauerz stressed that Euro-Office does not intend to compete on feature comparisons but focuses on digital sovereignty, security, and data protection, providing basic productivity workflows based on European infrastructure, giving customers full control over their data. He stated that the project strategically aligns with Ionos's positioning as a digitalization partner for small and medium-sized enterprises, naturally complementing its existing product portfolio from websites and email to productivity tools and secure conferencing solutions.
Nauerz noted that Euro-Office has garnered significant media attention since its announcement, with primary demand coming from the public sector handling highly sensitive and regulated data, as well as SMEs seeking to protect intellectual property and reduce reliance on large cloud vendors. He acknowledged that convincing European CIOs to abandon established platforms remains difficult, citing research from the Open Cloud Coalition showing Microsoft's market share in the public sector alone ranges from 73% to 80%. Nevertheless, he believes Euro-Office can succeed because Nextcloud's powerful and scalable open-source platform, combined with Ionos's managed infrastructure as an experienced European provider, can significantly reduce the risks of adopting a smaller alternative.
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