How do you modernize digital collaboration in government without losing control over your data?
Austria’s Federal Ministry for Economy, Energy and Tourism (BMWET) faced this challenge in 2024 – and decided to take a clear, pragmatic step toward digital sovereignty. Within just four months between Proof of Concept and rollout, the ministry went live with a secure Nextcloud environment, operated on its own infrastructure in Austria and designed to meet strict transparency and compliance requirements.
Why the ministry decided to act
The BMWET faced the challenge of modernizing its collaboration tools at a time when questions around data protection, compliance, and technological dependency were becoming increasingly relevant.
A risk analysis showed that relying entirely on cloud services from non-European providers would introduce significant legal and security uncertainties. Especially regarding the protection of sensitive information under GDPR and the upcoming NIS2 directive.
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At the time of the project, BMWET was already in the process of adopting Microsoft 365 and Teams. Reversing that path wasn’t realistic. Instead, the ministry implemented a hybrid architecture: Nextcloud handles internal collaboration and secure data management, while Teams remains available for external meetings.
In collaboration with Nextcloud partner Sendent, Outlook integration ensured seamless email and calendar workflows, enabling employees to continue working with familiar tools while ensuring sensitive information stays within Austrian infrastructure.
A fast and well-coordinated rollout
From proof of concept to full deployment, the process took only a few months – an unusually fast timeline for a public sector ICT project. Working closely with Nextcloud and implementation partner Atos Austria, BMWET rolled out the new platform across 1,200 employees.
