Dutch tax authorities cancel Microsoft 365 cloud rollout – and turn toward open source
Source: ZDNet ·
Another European move toward digital sovereignty has curtailed adopting the US workplace suite.
From the source
The Netherlands’ Tax and Customs Administration has abandoned its planned Microsoft 365 public-cloud rollout . Why? The reasons were clear at the Open Source Summit Europe conference, where the Linux Foundation (LF) released the 2026 State of Open Source in Europe . In it, the nonprofit, pro-open-source organization revealed that 94% of European Union (EU) organizations say digital sovereignty is important, with 61% considering it very important. As Thierry Carrez, the Linux Foundation Europe GM, said in his keynote, “Europe has clearly heard the message on digital sovereignty.” In an interview onstage at the summit, Nithya Ruff, chair of the LF board, added that it’s not just Europe: “Digital sovereignty is a need that the entire world feels, whether it’s Sierra Leone or the US or China.” It’s not just the Dutch tax collectors, though. The Netherlands is also exploring switching from Windows and proprietary software to Linux and open-source programs across the board . That follows…
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