A new framework agreement makes sovereign, open-source collaboration technology available to schools across six German federal states. The solution is based on Nextcloud and provided by IONOS.
Digital sovereignty has become a political priority across Europe. For public institutions, however, what matters is having access to alternatives they can actually use.
In Germany, that choice is now expanding. Following a public procurement process by govdigital eG, IONOS has been awarded a four-year framework contract for a cloud-based collaboration solution built on Nextcloud technology.
The agreement covers Berlin, Bremen, Hamburg, Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate, with other German states able to join. Schools and school authorities can access the solution according to their needs, without any obligation to adopt it.
A sovereign digital workspace for education
Digital collaboration has become part of everyday school life. Teachers and students need reliable tools to store and share files, work together on documents and communicate securely.
IONOS Nextcloud Workspace brings these capabilities together in one environment. Built on Nextcloud, the solution combines file management, online document collaboration and communication tools.
IONOS, as the main contractor, is responsible for delivering and operating the service, including the underlying cloud infrastructure in German data centers.
Nextcloud provides the open-source collaboration technology at the heart of the solution. Its open architecture gives organizations greater transparency and control over their digital tools, helping them reduce their dependence on proprietary platforms.
Making digital sovereignty a practical option
Digital sovereignty depends on having real alternatives to proprietary platforms, and the freedom to choose them. The KoDaS framework agreement gives schools and school authorities across six German federal states the option to use a sovereign, open-source collaboration solution based on Nextcloud.
For public institutions, this choice is essential: it allows them to select technology that meets their needs while maintaining control over their data and digital infrastructure.
This is particularly important in education, where students develop not only digital skills but also habits and expectations about the technologies they use. When their experience is limited to the products of a few major technology companies, those products can become the default choice later in their professional lives. This familiarity, in turn, makes switching to other solutions more difficult, as organizations face concerns about user acceptance, training and change management.
“Schools should teach digital skills, not dependency on individual technology providers,” says Frank Karlitschek, CEO of Nextcloud. “If we want future generations to make independent decisions about technology, we need to familiarize them with open source technologies from an early age.”
European technology working together
The project also highlights the role of cooperation between European technology providers.
By combining IONOS’ cloud infrastructure and operational expertise with Nextcloud’s open-source collaboration platform, the new offering brings together the components needed for a sovereign digital workspace.
For Nextcloud, the agreement represents another opportunity to make open-source collaboration technology accessible to public institutions.
