Question 1

What is digital sovereignty and why does it matter for European businesses?

Accepted Answer

Digital sovereignty is the ability to control your own digital infrastructure, data, and technology choices without dependency on foreign governments or corporations. For European businesses, it matters because US laws like the CLOUD Act allow American authorities to access data held by US tech companies anywhere in the world, potentially compromising GDPR compliance and business confidentiality.

Question 2

Do European alternatives cost less than US software?

Accepted Answer

Licence cost differs sharply by category: replacing Windows with Linux typically removes the licence line entirely, while the gap for office suites and ERP systems depends heavily on the specific tier being replaced. Licence cost is also not total cost of ownership - migration, training, hosting and support all count, and can shift the balance either way. AltLibre publishes per-category comparisons with assumptions stated in its evidence base at /evidence.

Question 3

What are the best European alternatives to Microsoft 365?

Accepted Answer

European alternatives to Microsoft 365 include Collabora Office for document editing, Nextcloud for file storage and collaboration, Proton Mail for encrypted email, and Proton Meet for video conferencing. These tools are built for GDPR compliance and EU data residency; how they compare on cost depends on the deployment and the licence tier being replaced.

Question 4

What does migrating from US tech to European alternatives involve?

Accepted Answer

AltLibre's migration guide sets out six steps: inventory every US-origin service along with its data, users and contract renewal date; classify each workload by consequence rather than by vendor; choose a European or open-source replacement per workload; pilot with real work for four to six weeks; run the old and new systems in parallel through a full business cycle before migrating team by team; then decommission the old system and document what moved. There is no single fixed timeline for the whole programme - it depends on how much of the estate is classified as critical and how contract renewals line up. The full walkthrough is at /migration-guide.

Question 5

Is open-source software secure enough for enterprise use?

Accepted Answer

Open-source software is widely regarded as more secure than proprietary alternatives. The source code can be publicly audited, vulnerabilities are found and fixed faster by the community, and there are no hidden backdoors. Linux, for example, powers the majority of the world's servers, supercomputers, and cloud infrastructure.

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