- Office.eu runs entirely on European infrastructure to protect local data sovereignty
- The platform integrates document editing, email, calendars and calls in a single workspace.
- Collabora Online provides the office suite, derived from the LibreOffice code base
A new digital workspace called Office.eu has been launched in a bid to provide a European-controlled alternative to widely used office software platforms.
The platform is described as a cloud-based environment built entirely on European infrastructure and owned by a European company.
The company says its overall goal is to reduce long-standing dependence on software ecosystems dominated by American vendors.
Article continues below.
A boost for European control of digital infrastructure
“We have increasingly seen how essential it is to become independent from the cloud and rely on software built around European values,” said Maarten Roelfs, CEO of Office.eu.
“For many years, Europe has depended on American software and has therefore created a certain risk of dependency, but has also given up control over its own data. Office.eu demonstrates that we now have a strong European alternative, with sovereignty, privacy and transparency at its core.”
The service offers a collection of productivity tools that combines document editing, file storage, communication functions, calendars and email services within a single platform.
Although marketed as a new alternative to dominant office software ecosystems, the underlying technology appears to rely on existing open source collaboration frameworks.
Office.eu runs on an infrastructure built around Nextcloud Hub, which combines file management, messaging systems and collaborative workspaces.
Document editing within the platform appears to rely on Collabora Online, an office suite derived from the LibreOffice codebase, which allows users to create and edit documents directly through a browser interface while also supporting collaborative editing features.
Concerns about digital sovereignty have drawn attention among policymakers and organizations across Europe in recent years, as discussions focus on reducing reliance on platforms operated outside the European Union.
Projects like Office.eu try to address that concern by offering collaboration environments hosted entirely on European infrastructure.
Office.eu says the system integrates files, communication tools and collaborative editing capabilities into a single workspace.
“Office.eu is 100% European owned and runs entirely in European data centers. Data and applications stay exactly where they belong and are safe from non-European control,” Roelfs added.
“The office suite is very intuitive and easy to use, allowing for a seamless transition from US software to Office.eu. We also help customers migrate comfortably from Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace.”
However, the software architecture shows that the platform relies heavily on well-known open source building blocks rather than entirely new development.
The hosting infrastructure is based on European data centers operated by the German provider Hetzner.
The service is currently being rolled out across Europe through an invitation system for selected organizations that have requested access.
As for pricing, the company says it is comparable to existing offerings on the market and that migration tools are available to move data to the platform.
Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to receive news, reviews and opinions from our experts in your feeds. Be sure to click the Follow button!
And of course you can also follow TechRadar on TikTok for news, reviews, unboxings in video form and receive regular updates from us on WhatsApp also.
