Matrix in Europe | Digital sovereignty

2 min read Original article ↗

Major Matrix-based public sector deployments in Europe.

Matrix prevents lock-in

European governments are adopting the Matrix open standard to ensure sovereign, resilient and secure communications.

It provides the digital commons to deliver genuine digital sovereignty. Governments and public sector organisations have complete ownership and control of their communications solutions, with the ability to easily choose and switch between vendors.

Matrix’s decentralised architecture lets organisations self-host and run resilient communications, even in the most challenging circumstances.

25+
governments
using Matrix

60M+
largest public
deployment

500K+
largest commercial deployment

Digital sovereignty means having choices, so no single technology and provider becomes a dependency that can be used against our interests. It is always good to have choices in order to avoid dependencies.

Karsten Wildberger summit european digital-sovereignty

Interoperability delivers choice

A vendor that is currently trusted cannot be trusted into an unseeable future.

Non-trusted country

A vendor can be acquired, and quite possibly by a company that’s headquartered in a non-trusted country.

Cyber attack

A vendor could be completely compromised as a result of a cyber attack, or nation-state sponsored malicious insider.

Monopolistic risk

A vendor could grow into a monopolistic position - especially if a government standardises on that vendor - and then abuse its dominant market position.

The competitive Matrix ecosystem

Matrix is an open source project. Governments can build on top of FOSS components, subscribe to vendor-backed professional software, hosted solutions or commission services services. Of most importance, the interoperability provided by Matrix means governments can easily mix and match between in-house, vendor and services solutions.

40+
software vendors in the Matrix ecosystem

30+
services firms and hosters offering Matrix-based solutions

150+
Matrix-based deployments

Sovereignty
without isolation

The Matrix open standard lets different vendors and in-house systems federate, without proprietary lock-in. All 27 EU states can run their own unique Matrix stacks, and federate securely for instant cross-border chat and collaboration.

European public institutions can create a sovereign, resilient and secure communications landscape, free from monopolistic dependencies or nation state digital coercion.

Responsible procurement

Sustainable decentralised communication requires structured investment in the Matrix open source project. Governments and large public sector organisations should only work with partners that make a direct monetary contribution to the Matrix ecosystem.

Read the Open Source Business Alliance’s ( OSBA ) Sustainable Procurement of Open-Source Software report .

Element’s commitment to Matix deployments.