‘With Nextcloud, we have now an alternative to the big collaboration platforms from the United States’

What does ‘digital sovereignty’ mean, in your view? Why is digital sovereignty important, both for individuals and for Europe?

In my opinion, sovereignty means the absence of strong dependencies on third parties. The more sovereignty we gain, the more it allows us to change our software or cloud provider whenever we think it is necessary. This makes us less open to blackmail. In the end it is a question of freedom.

What do you think needs to happen for Europe to achieve meaningful digital sovereignty? What role should companies, policy makers, etc. play in this?

We all should act strategically and improve our digital sovereignty. Governments need to act as anchor clients for digital open-source products coming from Europe. We see a lot of political initiatives which aim for more sovereignty, but we know that these take time. It is the local private sector that has to promote our economic independence in a bottom-up approach.

What role does open source play in sovereignty? Do you think open source is important for technological development in Europe? If so, why?

Only open-source software prevents dependencies on individual providers and allows independent security audits. Everyone can take the source code and build its own solution if he or she wants to. If your cloud or software provider increases the prices, you can run it on your own servers. If you are not happy with what the provider does, you can take it and fork the project. You will always have the full choice of options.

In addition, you can rely on a community which has a constant eye on the code, improves it and spots vulnerabilities very quickly.

What inspired you to start Nextcloud? What makes Nextcloud unique, and why would you encourage people to use it?

I have been working with open source for over 25 years now and always wanted to create something that gives people back the control over their data. With Nextcloud, we have now an alternative to the big collaboration platforms from the United States. The main differentiator is that Nextcloud is 100% open source. For anyone who thinks data privacy is important, Nextcloud is the tool they should use.

What have you learned during the process of building the company?

There are a lot of important learnings, but I will pick three of them. First, I think it is important to have an ethical purpose for the company and not only increase shareholder value. This keeps you and your employees motivated even during rough seas and helps to build up a sustainable business. Second, in the open-source world the business model is an important choice to make. For us, the only feasible model is to sell enterprise subscriptions, as this does not compromise open source. The third learning is to value the community. It is the engine room of our product, and generates huge value. If you put effort into your community, it is a major differentiator.

The Nextcloud Community Conference in September 2025

What are the characteristics of your ideal cloud services, from the user perspective?

The core idea of the internet is decentralization. I think the perfect cloud service would need to work this way, too. You should be able to host software on your own server if you want to but collaborate with others through federation. Nextcloud, for example, is hosted on over 500,000 servers across the internet.

The second core aspect is open source. If you know the source code, you have the full control, and that is what counts.

What changes would you like to see in the technology sector in Europe 10 years from now?

We should start to value our own technology industry and stop saying that Europe can’t do it. There are plenty of great tech companies which deliver alternatives to US products. If Europe had faith in its own solutions, this would be a huge push for our innovation ecosystem. Politicians can make a massive difference by actively advocating for open source and governments who implement it.