Microsoft is one of the world's largest technology companies due to the dependence of a large number of corners of the world on the use of the Windows operating system, services and productivity software for offices, schools and homes, and also their IT infrastructure.
Recently, it was reported that the Danish government has begun a process to reduce dependence on IT services from the company. As a first step, their Ministry of Digitisation will stop using Microsoft Office productivity software and switch to Libre Office, an open source office productivity software.
Danish Minister of Digitisation, Caroline Stage, said that this change was initiated because they want to implement the concept of digital sovereignty at the government level. The Danish government wants to reduce dependence on the infrastructure of IT giants such as Microsoft.
In Europe, especially the European Union countries already have existing laws such as GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) which stipulates that the data of citizens in the union must be stored in the union countries.
This latest decision is seen as the next step to see whether the Danish government can continue to operate without having to rely on Microsoft's IT services. For now, only the Ministry of Digitalization is taking the initiative, and it is expected that all government employees under that ministry will switch to Libre Office by the end of this year.
Interestingly, the Danish central government is not the first in the country to make this decision. The municipalities of Copenhagen and Aarhus, the two largest cities in Denmark, have also previously announced that they will stop using Microsoft as their local IT service provider.
For these cities, especially Copenhagen, the increasing cost of IT services and infrastructure is among the reasons why they are seen to want to stop using it. The cost of Microsoft software subscriptions has reportedly increased from 313 million kroner (~RM131 million) in 2018 to 538 million kroner (~RM226 million) in 2023, which is a 72 percent increase in just five years.
Denmark is seen as one of the most digital countries in the world, and much of the country's digital infrastructure is heavily reliant on Microsoft's offerings. This is seen as a monopoly, and as a sovereign country, reliance on just one type of business for the development of such important infrastructure is not a good thing.