A sovereign Microsoft 365 alternative: Nextcloud and IONOS join forces

As organizations are looking to reclaim their digital sovereignty, IONOS and Nextcloud are building the fully featured office suite “Nextcloud Workspace”: a powerful Microsoft 365 alternative. As long-standing partners, we have the expertise to enable large companies and organizations with an all-round office suite as European answer to US products. Announced at the Nextcloud Summit earlier this month, this collaboration for digitally sovereign office software that meets the highest data protection requirements will launch in 2025.

Nextcloud Workspace: what it will offer

To meet the rigorous needs of public institutions and enterprises, Nextcloud Workspace will integrate a full range of collaboration tools, including file storage and sharing, document editing, email, calendaring, video conferencing, chat, and AI-powered productivity features. Of course, this offering will be fully GDPR compliant and securely hosted in Europe.

Organizations can trust Nextcloud to deliver a fully integrated office and collaboration suite, thanks to the company’s experience in creating the world’s leading private cloud platform. IONOS, Europe’s largest cloud and hosting provider, is the ideal partner to ensure full GDPR compliance and protection from US legal exposure. Hosting will be managed exclusively in Germany, at IONOS’ extensive network of data centers.

We are currently seeing a strong demand for sovereign and secure workplace solutions. With the Nextcloud Workspace, we are building on this momentum and jointly developing the next level of true freedom of choice for European companies — with a full focus on digital sovereignty and open standards.

Markus Noga

CTO at IONOS

A digitally sovereign Microsoft 365 alternative: built by Europe and for Europe

Geopolitical tensions and legal uncertainties with the EU-US data privacy framework are spurring on the need for a Microsoft 365 alternative. With Big Tech players dominating the European market, organizations increasingly find themselves battling compliance, privacy, and vendor lock-in.

With Nextcloud Workspace, users can follow a new path: auditable, secure, and 100% digitally sovereign. With its long-standing relationship, IONOS and Nextcloud are ready to leverage their combined strengths for this “out-of-the-box” productivity environment, adapted to European regulations and values.

Until now, it was always said that there were no real alternatives to US solutions for large companies. Our collaboration with IONOS – already the world’s largest managed service provider for Nextcloud – proves the opposite: Together, we are offering, for the first time, a fully GDPR-compliant, cloud-based collaboration suite in which users retain full data sovereignty. This provides regulated industries and authorities, in particular, with a secure, practical option.

Frank Karlitschek

CEO and Founder of Nextcloud