Dutch tax office ditches Microsoft 365 cloud for on-premises alternative

The Dutch tax authority is reversing its Microsoft 365 cloud migration in favor of on-premises mail and calendar services, followed by European open-source storage and collaboration tools, signaling a stronger push for digital sovereignty and reduced dependence on U.S. cloud providers. For CIOs and IT leaders, this underscores that security, regulatory exposure, exit strategy, and vendor lock-in are now board-level considerations that can outweigh cloud standardization benefits—especially in public sector and highly regulated environments.