The current global situation forces companies to consider how available their services and tools will be in different scenarios. Even if a business currently relies on non‑European services, it is wise to have contingency plans for various situations.
At Kvanttori we use many open‑source tools that we can run on rented virtual servers or even on our own office server if needed. Many of the tools we use are also European. Below I present some of the services we use and contingency plans for the non‑European services we currently rely on.
Operating system
Most Kvanttori team members use Linux‑based operating systems. The most commonly used setup at the moment is the US‑based Fedora distribution with KDE desktop environment, but some also use other distributions such as Arch and the Arch‑based CachyOS. We have also considered other European distributions like OpenSUSE, but because Linux is open by nature the country of origin of a distribution does not present the same kind of risk as closed, proprietary applications.
Virtual servers
We use virtual servers to run some of our own software and, in some cases, client project software. We use services from the German provider Hetzner and operate in their Helsinki datacenter.
In addition to Hetzner, the Finnish company Seclan provides datacenter services, and both of their datacenters are located in Finland. UpCloud is another a Finnish provider who offers cloud services and have servers both in Finland and around the world.
Time tracking
For time tracking we use the Austrian open‑source application Kimai. The service can be self‑hosted in your own infrastructure or used as a Cloud version, which runs on European servers.
Kimai has proven excellent for expert work thanks to its built‑in reporting features tied to customers and projects.
Kimai also offers a solid plugin system and a REST API for building features and integrations; we have experience developing these. These interfaces make it easy for companies to adapt the application to their workflows. There are also many plugins available for features such as sick leave, annual leave, public holidays and flex‑time calculations.
Website analytics
We use the Estonian analytics service Plausible to analyze visits to our websites. Plausible can be self‑hosted as a community edition or used as a paid cloud service, which runs on German servers.
Password management
We currently use the US‑based password manager Bitwarden. Although the application is not European, it has features that reduce risk: Bitwarden offers the option to use European servers and is largely open‑source, so it can be self‑hosted if desired.
Version control
At Kvanttori we use the US‑based GitHub service for version control but have researched alternative version control services we could migrate to if necessary. Forgejo is an open‑source Git service that can be run on your own servers. GitLab is another option that can be operated in your own infrastructure. In Europe there is also Codeberg, which is built on Forgejo, but it focuses mainly on hosting open‑source projects and may not be suitable for all client projects.
Project Management
In project management we have used open‑source Taiga application which is based in Spain. In addition to this, there are other open alternatives for project management, such as OpenProject, based in Germany. Hailer is a Finnish company whose product also offers features for project management.
Organizational Knowledge Management
At Kvanttori we use Outline, which is an open alternative to the US-based Confluence knowledge‑management tool. For example, we store in Outline information that is open to the entire organization about the company's operating practices and procedures. Although the tool is not European, its source code is open and it can be run on our own servers if desired.
Collaboration apps
We use Google Workspace for office apps, meetings, calendar and sending emails. We have, however, investigated alternatives we could migrate to if needed. In our view there are two European options that cover these needs: Proton which is based in Switzerland and Nextcloud which is based in Germany. Nextcloud can be self‑hosted and, in our experience, doing so is fast and fairly straightforward.
Nextcloud also provides APIs for integrations and app development, allowing companies to adapt the platform to their workflows. Nextcloud’s available integrations include Microsoft services which can help with gradual migration.
Internal communication
For internal communication we use Slack. We evaluated alternative platforms such as the US-based open‑source Mattermost and Rocket.chat, as well as Hailer which is based in Finland.
All of these are competent alternatives, but Slack’s biggest strength at the moment is its ubiquity and the ease of sharing channels with other companies that also use Slack when collaborating.
Design
Our main design tool is the US‑based Figma. Penpot could be used as an alternative, and it has become quite competitive feature‑wise with Figma.
Artificial intelligence
For AI tools we primarily use Google Gemini and the open‑source OpenCode with US based models such as GPT and Claude at least for now. We have, however, investigated European providers in this area as well. Proton’s Lumo could replace Gemini if needed, and the French company Mistral also offers capable AI models.
We have also explored open models that can be run in our own infrastructure. A suitable setup is combining Ollama with Open Web UI: Ollama runs the desired models in your own infrastructure and Open Web UI provides a smooth interface for using and managing models, including user management tools.
Summary
In the current global situation digital sovereignty is no longer just a rebellious stance by a few actors against large foreign tech companies — it is becoming a necessary part of corporate and national strategy. Fortunately, there are already many alternative solutions for commonly used software and tools. What is needed now is the courage to adopt these alternatives and either take back control of your digital infrastructure or move it to more trustworthy providers whose interests align with our own.
