France replaces MS Teams and Zoom with its own video conferencing software

France is expanding its sovereign video conferencing software Visio to all government services. By 2027, around 200,000 civil servants are to switch to the platform. Visio is developed by the Direction Interministérielle du Numérique (DINUM) and aims to end the dependence on non-European providers such as Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Google Meet, Webex, and GoTo Meeting.

Following a one-year pilot phase with 40,000 users, the rollout for 200,000 users is now underway. The French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) with 34,000 employees and 120,000 associated researchers, the health insurance provider Assurance Maladie, and the Directorate-General for Public Finance (DGFiP) are among the first to adopt it. The Ministry of Defence is scheduled to follow in the first quarter of 2026. The CNRS has already announced its intention to terminate its current Zoom contract by the end of March 2026.

"This project concretely demonstrates how determined the Prime Minister and the government are to reclaim the country's digital independence," explained David Amiel, Minister for Public Service and Government Reform, during a visit to the CNRS laboratory I2BC in Gif-sur-Yvette. "We cannot afford the risk of our scientific exchanges, our sensitive data, and our strategic innovations being exposed to non-European actors."

Open Source and French Hosting

Visio is based on open-source components and is hosted in France. The infrastructure is operated by Outscale, a subsidiary of Dassault Systèmes, which holds the SecNumCloud certification from the French cybersecurity agency ANSSI. This certification guarantees that all data remains on French soil and is not subject to US jurisdiction. The platform is GDPR-compliant and has been specifically developed for use in public service.

The software supports video conferences with up to 150 participants and offers features such as recording, screen sharing, chat, and reactions. A special feature is the automatic transcription with speaker diarization, developed by the French startup Pyannote. Real-time subtitles are planned for summer 2026, developed by the AI lab Kyutai. Kyutai is financed with around 300 million euros by investors such as Xavier Niel and Rodolphe Saadé.

Part of the Digital Sovereignty Strategy

Visio is integrated into the La Suite work environment, which includes other sovereign tools such as the secure messaging service Tchap and Docs. According to user feedback from the pilot phase, the platform functions "performantly and without errors." A researcher from INRAE praised: "A really great tool, thank you very much for this development!"

The French government anticipates significant cost savings from the transition: for every 100,000 users, around one million euros in license fees for commercial providers are expected to be saved annually. This calculation is based on the current costs for licenses from Teams, Zoom, and other services. Details can be found in the press release from the Ministry of Economy on the Visio initiative.

France's initiative is part of a broader European movement for greater digital sovereignty. The EU Parliament recently called for a detachment from US tech giants and increased investment in domestic AI and open-source applications. Germany and France are also collaborating on cloud security standards, as became clear at the German-French Digital Summit. A Bitkom study shows the scale of the undertaking: 62 percent of German companies transfer personal data abroad – 90 percent of these use video conferencing systems, and 61 percent transfer data to the USA.

(fo)