About the programme

Editorial by Ludovic Dubost, Chairman of the 2025 Programme Committee

Open source, the key to Europe’s strategic autonomy

The Open Source Experience 2025 (OSXP) will be held this December, marking a crucial milestone in our quest to redefine Europe’s digital future. In a world where technology plays a central role in our daily lives, our economy and our security, digital autonomy is becoming a strategic priority. Under the ambitious theme of “Open Source, the key to Europe’s strategic autonomy”, this conference is set to be a must-attend event for all those involved in the sector, whether they are decision-makers in business or the public sector, creators or developers of Open Source solutions, or IT project managers responsible for implementing Open Source in their organisations.

Strategic autonomy in the digital field

Strategic autonomy in the digital field has become a crucial priority for Europe, particularly given the current geopolitical situation. Dependence on foreign suppliers, particularly American, exposes Europe to significant risks. Trade tensions and sanctions can be used as levers of power, affecting the stability and security of Europe’s digital infrastructures, and in turn destabilising the functioning of the entire economy. By developing its own technological capabilities, Europe can protect itself against these risks and guarantee the sovereignty of its data and critical infrastructures. In addition, greater autonomy would enable Europe to better protect its citizens against cyberthreats, which doubled in 2024, and to promote democratic values in cyberspace.

A strategic dependency that also comes at a significant cost

Solutions such as Microsoft 365, VMware or hyperscaler cloud services, which have become strategic tools for European businesses and administrations, also represent a considerable economic burden. Although precise figures are not always published, estimates and market shares suggest that Microsoft 365 costs European users more than €20 billion a year, Hyperscalers nearly €30 billion and VMware more than €4 billion. This spending is all the more striking given that Hyperscalers’ revenues grew by 500% between 2017 and 2022, while all its services are still growing by more than 10% a year. So it’s easy to predict that the current situation of economic and strategic dependence will only get worse over the next decade.

This technological dependence on non-European players therefore raises a crucial question: that of the growing cost of an increasingly fragile digital autonomy.

Why Open Source is a key solution

But solutions do exist. In every field of technology, there are open source alternatives that are constantly improving. For example, during COVID, in record time, servers providing BigBlueButton (BBB) Open Source video conferencing software were deployed to enable the French to have a videoconferencing tool when companies were not providing it. Alternatives to VMware are already available, such as Proxmox, XCP-NG from Vates and OpenStack, and since Broadcom increased the price of VMware, demand has accelerated. In the area of collaborative tools, open source players have never accepted the domination of Microsoft 365 and have not stopped making progress, and projects to integrate complete suites have now been launched, such as the openDesk project in Germany. In the field of AI, the open source approach is not only in Europe but also in the USA, the alternative to the domination of the giants OpenAI, Google or Microsoft. French players such as HuggingFace and Mistral are at the forefront of innovation. Many specialists have pointed out that open source innovation outstrips the innovations of secret laboratories.

The strength of Open Source, but also of open standards, lies in the technical advantages inherent in this approach:

• Transparency, first and foremost, which enables rigorous verification of security and compliance with European standards.
• Reusability, offering players the opportunity to build solutions based on open bricks, without requesting prior authorisation, thus fostering a great capacity for innovation.
• The absence of dependency, protecting players against price rises or the formation of vertical monopolies.
• Collaboration, a key point, particularly on a European scale, which enables countries to guarantee their digital autonomy without having to shoulder the investment in local players alone.

By investing in Open Source and open standards, Europe can accelerate its technological transformation and regain control of its digital future. It can also boost its economy, by enabling a wide range of players across the continent to leverage Open Source building blocks to develop new opportunities for local businesses, while attracting talent from all over the world.

Presentation of the Programme

So in this context, the conference will be a unique opportunity to showcase French and European know-how, demonstrating the breadth of Open Source solutions already available and marketed by players in the Open Source eco-system, while also demonstrating the capacity for innovation of our continent’s engineers.

The conference will give a significant place to artificial intelligence (AI), a key topic for the future of technology. Open Source plays a crucial role in this field, firstly through the open source technologies that enable development and innovation in AI, and secondly through the models themselves, for which an Open Source strategy is essential to meet the ethical, transparency and sovereignty challenges associated with AI.

In an international context marked by increased competition and complex geopolitical issues, Europe must more than ever assert its desire for digital autonomy. For years, Open Source advocates have been advocating its importance for Europe. Today, more than ever, the Open Source sector is ready to take up this challenge. The OSXP 2025 conference will be an opportunity to demonstrate how Open Source can meet the strategic challenges facing our continent, by demonstrating the success of existing solutions and offering new solutions that are innovative, transparent and collaborative.

Join us to make History

Open Source is at the rendezvous of history, ready to play a decisive role in Europe’s strategic autonomy. Join us at OSXP 2025 to take part in this collective adventure, interact with leading experts, and discover the innovations that will shape our digital future. Together, with Open Source, let’s open the door to our digital autonomy.