Why organizations migrate from Microsoft 365 in 2025

In 2025, public and private organizations across Europe are increasingly choosing to migrate away from Microsoft 365. The need for control over sensitive data, stronger compliance with European regulations, and the desire to escape costly vendor lock-in spur on this move.

Read on to explore the reasons why organizations migrate from Microsoft 365 products in 2025 and what solutions they choose as a part of their data sovereignty journey.

Notable examples of Microsoft 365 migrations

The federal Danish federal government is moving away from Microsoft software and cloud services, concerned about who controls the national data and who sets the rules.

The state administration of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, is aspiring to achieve digital independence similarly through its own migration strategy and free the state from the reliance on technology in foreign control.

In all cases, the ultimate reason for seeking an alternative is to achieve digital sovereignty — ensuring a more stable and independent future for individuals (users, citizens, public servants), national data, and the European continent as a whole — free from vendor lock-in and with full control over their own data.

The means? The new stack of collaboration tools based on locally hosted, transparent open source software.

Why move from Microsoft 365 now? Three key reasons to take action

At Nextcloud, since the beginning of 2025 we are seeing more than triple demand for our products. It is coming both from European organizations and governments, and global markets like Canada, the US and Latin American countries. Trying to find out what’s driving this surging demand, we have discovered three major reasons why those organizations decided to migrate from Microsoft 365.

1. Geopolitical risks and digital dependency with potential for blackmail

A shutdown of US-based services like Microsoft 365 anywhere in the world would have serious consequences. That would include both operational disruptions and monetary costs. Such a shutdown is possible in case of sanctions or a presidential order. And with new US administration and the ongoing internal instability, we cannot rule out new shifts in global political landscape.

2. Unpredictable costs outside control

Vendor lock-in is a part of the product strategy of the Big Tech. Microsoft has recently spiked its prices by 40%, while product portfolio undergoes constant rearrangement to optimize for a more profitable strategy. Their tools, like Windows operating system and Microsoft 365 suite, are essential to global infrastructure. And this dominance allows controlling the prices without the risk of losing customers.

3. Data protection and global compliance

The return of a Republican administration in the US has caused tensions with the EU, spilling over into both economic and business relations. Regulations like The Cloud Act already permit the US authorities to access data controlled by the US companies. That is, even outside of the US. Escaping the possibility of such access is the core reasons for public organizations, like the administration of Schleswig-Holstein, to make a move away from American tech. And new fears of espionage are rising, given how much control over global data the Silicon Valley companies already have.

Webinar: Nextcloud Hub 10 — the secure and private alternative to Microsoft 365

In this on-demand webinar, learn why businesses are moving away from Microsoft 365, compare Microsoft apps with Nextcloud Hub, dive deeper into the powerful features and watch the Q&A session.

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Why an open source alternative offers more control and resilience

Swapping the technology stack is not something a country’s government would do on a whim. When you are leaving something your entire operation depends on, there must be an alternative you trust enough. So what do those organizations leave Microsoft 365 for?

Should a US cloud vendor shut down a cloud service or end support for a product as a part of portfolio restructuring, whether due to shrinking demand or internal changes, customers are certain to face serious disruptions. Worst case, they may not even get their data out.

Open source breaks the cycle of dependence for businesses and public organizations. Should a solution vendor go bankrupt, another developer or even an entirely new entity, including the user organization itself, can take over the development of the product. This unique benefit of the open source model, the true independence, is only one of many reasons open source adoption is a future-proof strategy.

Choosing the right open source solution

Open source is, of course, a universe of its own. For example, there are over 100 licenses are officially approved by OSI. They all grant varying degrees of freedom when it comes to modifying, redistributing, rebranding, and commercializing the software — as well as how it can be combined with other codebases. Second, every open source project is unique. Its stability, development pace, and long-term viability depend heavily on the health of the community and the size of its contributor base. One app might be developed by a steady core team of 10, while another is maintained by hundreds over many years. Many years ago, we published a guide on choosing the right open source solution that is still very relevant.

In any case, a move away from proprietary tech and towards open source is always a positive change.

The open source and local technology has already inspired many successful projects in Europe. For instance, the open-source strategy of Schleswig-Holstein, the EuroStack initiative to promote EU-based IT solutions, and sovereign cloud infrastructures built by service providers like IONOS.

A look into Schleswig-Holstein’s open source journey

In Germany, the idea of European IT resiliency and digital sovereignty is becoming more and more central to public discourse. Among German states today, Schleswig-Holstein is the pioneer in adopting open standards, open source, and open interfaces.

As Schleswig-Holstein’s open source strategy reads, “The main goal in Schleswig-Holstein is to create a counter-offer to this proprietary software to ensure digital sovereignty. This way, citizens can retain sovereignty and control over their own and entrusted data, and they can independently design and use the IT they use for their own purposes.”

Learn more about Shchleswig-Holstein’s open source journey in the episode of Nextcloud Podcast with Sven Thomsen, Schleswig-Holstein CIO.

Take back control over your data with Nextcloud Hub

Nextcloud Hub is the world’s leading privacy-focused collaboration platform. It is a choice of many organizations that have broken free from the Big Tech. Among many others, the state administration of Schleswig-Holstein and the city of Lyon we mentioned earlier.

The extensive, modular ecosystem of apps includes secure document sharing and collaboration, chat and video meetings, email and calendars, project and team management and an ability to easily integrate other services and hundreds of applications. Nextcloud Hub is a private cloud solution you can run on private server or with a provider you trust. And it’s 100% open source:

• Own your software and fully control your data
• Be free to audit the code and offer transparency to your users
• Benefit from unmatched interoperability for optimal UX

Begin your digital sovereignty journey today! Try Nexcloud hub instantly in the cloud, and connect with our experts to map out your data resilience strategy.