Estonia is analyzing the possibility of reducing dependence on American technology companies, such as Microsoft, Google and Amazon, in public sector information technology (IT) systems, reports Anadolu.

Public broadcaster ERR reported that this review comes at a time when the State IT Center (RIT) is continuing to transfer government and state agency workstations to a centrally managed, cloud-based system, which is currently built primarily on Microsoft 365.

RIT Director Ergo Tars said there are no plans to completely abandon US providers, but alternative solutions will be tested in a pilot project to be launched this fall.

Tars said the assessment is linked to wider European discussions on digital sovereignty and the potential risks associated with dependence on non-European IT infrastructure, including data security, costs and disruptions. services.

“If a decision was made in the EU that American products are no longer reliable, then what situation would we be in. In that case it wouldn’t make much difference whether it is Microsoft, Amazon or Google. Then we would have to look only at products based in Europe,” Tars said.

This move is in line with similar initiatives in other parts of Europe. France has announced plans to replace Microsoft Teams, Zoom and other foreign videoconferencing tools with its Visio platform in all government departments by 2027, citing reasons for security, cost savings and digital independence.

RIT estimates that about 15,000 of Estonia’s nearly 25,000 government workstations could switch to its centralized management system within two years, though officials say a complete disconnection from American technology remains impossible in the short term.

Source: prizrenpost