Estonia hedges its bets on US tech while going all-in on Microsoft
Riigi IT preps European escape plan as it herds civil servants into Redmond's cloud
An Estonian government IT agency is trialling European alternatives to US software providers, even as it moves many of the country’s civil servants to a centrally-managed cloud computing service provided by Microsoft.
Ergo Tars, the director of Riigi IT (RIT), told the country’s national broadcaster ERR that it has no plans to ditch Microsoft or other US-based suppliers but wants to be prepared in case it is forced to do so.
Tars said it was possible the European Union could decide that US technology products were no longer trustworthy.
“In that case there would not be much difference whether it is Microsoft, Amazon, or Google. Then we would have to look purely at Europe-based products,” he said.
Tars said he had discussed dependence on US IT infrastructure with his counterparts in other European countries over the last year, and was developing a European alternative that could be ready for testing in the second half of 2025. As well as regulatory action, reasons include cost and risks based on data being held outside the country.
According to RIT, around €400 of the €2,000 cost of each government agency workstation goes to Microsoft in licence fees. Tars said an open source alternative to Microsoft Office and Windows, such as LibreOffice or OpenOffice running on Linux, would be unlikely to save much money given the need for support, user management, and staff education.
RIT has so far moved about 8,500 of 25,000 government workstations to its cloud computing service and plans to increase this to 15,000 over the next two years. The higher-security defense, interior (home), and foreign ministries will continue to use alternatives.
Estonia takes its digital resilience seriously, although this has previously been due to fears of Russia rather than worries about America.
In 2007 the country was hit by waves of cyberattacks which took down government websites, media services, and cashpoints after it moved a Soviet-era statue out of central Tallinn. The steps it has taken since to toughen security include establishing a ‘data embassy’ – a secure data centre – in Luxembourg as a back-up for key digital services and datasets.
Countries across Europe look likely to spend more on technology to develop digital sovereignty and reduce dependence on US providers, according to analyst firm Forrester.
In December, European aerospace giant Airbus told The Register that it wants to use a cloud provider based in its home continent to support a move away from on-premises applications. ®