In response to anxieties over digital independence caused by US sanctions, the Dutch government is drastically reducing its reliance on Microsoft and building a new government work environment based on NixOS. This is not merely a technical replacement but a strategic decision to secure sovereignty over core digital infrastructure from a national security perspective. The direct trigger was the incident where the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) was blocked from accessing essential work tools, such as email, due to US government sanctions. If basic work systems are paralyzed due to the political judgments of a specific country, it cannot be viewed as a simple technical failure but must be recognized as a critical flaw at the national level. In this article, we examine the specific details of the DAWO project being pursued by the Netherlands and the technical reasons for choosing NixOS. Additionally, by looking at similar movements in other European countries and the roadmap through 2027, we will outline the trends of the digital sovereignty era. Through this, we hope to help you understand the risks that can arise from relying solely on specific foreign technologies and to seek voluntary alternatives.
US Sanctions Fears: Why the Netherlands Is Switching to NixOS and Its Future Roadmap
1. Digital Sovereignty Crisis Triggered by ICC Sanctions
The US government recently imposed sanctions on the International Criminal Court located in The Hague, Netherlands, blocking access to the Chief Prosecutor’s Microsoft Azure account. As a result, the Chief Prosecutor’s essential email transmission and document sharing functions were immediately suspended, a consequence of administrative sanctions that could not be resolved even by using a high-end premium plan. The Dutch government used this incident as an opportunity to reflect on the significant risks included in its involuntary dependence on US software and cloud infrastructure. It has come to realize that stability is no longer guaranteed by technical goodwill alone, as in the past, and that geopolitical conflicts can determine the lifespan of technical infrastructure. To prevent such situations, the government has resolved not to entrust its business continuity to the decision-making of specific foreign companies anymore. This is evaluated as an essential defensive measure to ensure the continuity of national operations, going beyond merely resolving inconveniences.
Following this incident, the Dutch Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations urgently formed an expert committee to diagnose vulnerabilities across the entire technology ecosystem. The investigation revealed that a significant portion of the government’s daily work processes runs on the servers of a company headquartered in California, USA. This implies a scenario where administrative paralysis could become reality immediately if relations between the two countries deteriorate, potentially leading to public dissatisfaction and social chaos. Therefore, the government has established a legal basis to promote the migration to a fully controllable environment starting from core work areas and has significantly increased the related budget. A transition to a technology stack that allows for direct control, moving away from the existing outsourcing model, has become inevitable. This suggests that infrastructure investment on par with strengthening defense capabilities is taking place in the digital space.
Due to concerns over administrative paralysis, the Netherlands has decided on an urgent transition to an independent technology stack that it can directly control.
The incident where MS access was blocked due to US ICC sanctions was the decisive trigger for the Netherlands to seriously consider digital independence.
2. Technical Advantages of NixOS-based DAWO
The new foundation chosen by the Netherlands is NixOS, an operating system centered on the Nix package manager. The Nix manager installs packages in isolated directories and protects all files with cryptographic signatures, fundamentally blocking arbitrary changes. This not only prevents malicious program intrusions but also provides strong guarantees that once-deployed environments maintain the same state over time. It is a dreamlike environment for security personnel, much like having the confidence that Lego blocks fit with precise specifications. Additionally, replicating the same environment across multiple computers has become very easy, maximizing the efficiency of large-scale deployments for massive .gov organizational units. Thanks to these characteristics, complex configuration conflict issues have been fundamentally eliminated, allowing for the construction of a stable operational foundation.
The DAWO (Digital Autonomous Work Office) project redesigns the operating system, office software, and cloud architecture entirely on domestic or open-source bases. To avoid being tied to the existing Windows ecosystem, subtitles, document creation, spreadsheets, etc., are being transitioned to open-source alternatives like LibreOffice. In the cloud sector, the strategy is to physically install servers in data centers within the territory to physically block the possibility of enforcement by US courts. This serves as a double safety device that minimizes legal risks by simultaneously controlling the physical location of data and jurisdictional law. Furthermore, by leveraging the vast open-source library of the Nix ecosystem, it achieves the effect of implementing maximum functionality with minimal code. This integrated approach is predicted to have a positive impact on reducing future maintenance costs.
DAWO redesigns the entire range from hardware to software based on open source and domestic infrastructure to eliminate legal risks.
NixOS’s declarative management approach and immutable nature maximize stability and security in enterprise and government environments.
3. Joint Development Structure Led by SSC-ICT
This massive transition effort is being carried out jointly by three state-owned technology institutions in the Netherlands, rather than a single company. The three institutions—SSC-ICT, DICTU, and DUO-ICT—leverage their respective expertise to handle different modules of platform development. SSC-ICT has primarily been in charge of central government personnel management and IT infrastructure, while DICTU’s strength lies in its experience operating special communication networks related to national defense. DUO-ICT understands the daily user experience of numerous users through digital processing in the education and vocational training sectors. By collaborating, these three institutions with different backgrounds are creating synergy to integrate the diverse needs of government work into a single standardized platform. Finding the balance point between technical standardization and business relevance is the core task of this joint effort.
The Dutch Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations supervises the entire project and sets the policy direction. It provides guidelines to maintain consistency at the national level while reflecting the characteristics of each local government. Unique deployment issues arising from the use of the Nix package manager and security patch management processes are also being standardized centrally. This is to prevent individual ministries or local governments from independently building systems and falling into errors and maintenance difficulties. The central-local cooperation model is evaluated as the optimal combination that secures both technical insight and field applicability. It is attracting attention as a benchmarking target when other European countries pursue similar projects in the future.
A harmonious governance structure is operating under the unified supervision of central ministries, reflecting the practical work of local governments.
It is a cooperation model where three major government IT institutions collaborate to promote functional integration and standardization.
4. Pilot Operation Status of 8 Local Governments
Currently, eight Dutch local governments are actively adopting the pilot program for the DAWO system. They are applying NixOS-based workstations and cloud services to the work environments of actual civil servants to test daily reliability. The initial firewall setup was more complex than expected, and compatibility issues with printer drivers or specific financial transaction software were pointed out as bugs. However, thanks to Nix’s powerful dependency resolution capabilities, they successfully contained and resolved these bottlenecks without spreading the impact. Local government feedback is transmitted in real-time to the central development team and is immediately reflected in the next build, operating an agile development cycle. As a result of the pilot operation, network resource efficiency has increased, and the malware detection rate has improved noticeably compared to the existing system. Although the learning curve for employees is steep, it is reported that once adapted, they experience a more intuitive workflow.
The first stable release is scheduled for the end of 2027, making the current time very important. Important processes remain, such as verifying all hardware specifications and perfectly supporting essential work offline modes. During this period, dual operation with the existing Windows environment will proceed in parallel to prevent data loss or work interruptions. Transition tasks are also being prepared step by step to reduce employees’ psychological anxiety. Support documents and training videos are provided in both Dutch and English, opening up possibilities for international cooperation. After the stable release, distribution is planned to be gradually expanded to all government agencies nationwide.
To achieve the final goal by the end of 2027, a transition period involving dual operation and educational support must be endured.
The iterative process of identifying and correcting issues through real-world application is progressing faster than planned.
5. Movements in Europe, Including Germany and France
This is not just a Dutch story; major European countries like Germany and France are also showing similar movements to reduce their dependence on US technology. Germany is already moving away from Microsoft-based systems in some federal agencies and is reviewing domestic cloud solutions. France is also expanding discussions on restructuring the infrastructure of key ministries on a domestic basis to strengthen digital sovereignty centered on its own country. This shows that as geopolitical instability increases, technology sovereignty is becoming a new security asset that replaces military power. Governments of each country are significantly raising their vigilance regarding their data being stored in repositories outside the jurisdiction of foreign governments. It is indicative that the European Union has also begun developing a standard framework to coordinate these individual efforts.
Denmark has already completed projects replacing Windows and Microsoft Office with Linux and LibreOffice in some local governments. Their experience has proven a virtuous cycle effect where it does not stop at simple replacement but also increases contributions to the open-source ecosystem. As these cases accumulate, US technology companies are forced to reconsider their business models in the European market. This is because when customers value sovereign completeness, dependent cloud services are no longer an attractive option. This means that software, like semiconductor or nuclear technology, can become a strategic control target. An era is coming where technical superiority can be used as a card for diplomatic pressure.
Success stories from individual countries are causing a domino effect, triggering cracks in the global ecosystem centered on US tech companies.
Major European countries show a trend of collectively moving away from US-made technology from the perspective of national security and data sovereignty.
6. Outlook and Proposals for Digital Independence
This trend is highly likely to spread beyond nations to large corporations and research institutions. Relying on foreign clouds for core intelligence and trade secrets will no longer be a basic premise of modern corporate management. We must recognize that we now need a “digital geopolitical economic” perspective that considers supply chain safety and legal jurisdiction when choosing software. Investment in the open-source ecosystem should be understood not as an immediate cost but as insurance to secure future autonomy. Korea must also seriously review scenarios where the semiconductor and software industries could suffer damage if the US strengthens sanctions against China. It is time to formulate a strategy that moves beyond uncritical acceptance of specific foreign technologies and pursues multi-party supply chains and open-source standardization in parallel.
For individual developers or startups, it is beneficial to learn declarative infrastructure management tools like Nix or Vagrant in advance. In future cloud engineering interviews, the ability to resolve heterogeneity in multi-cloud environments will become more important than simple operation of AWS or Azure. Additionally, contributing to open-source communities to acquire technical flexibility that can escape dependence on specific vendors is a wise approach. The flow of change cannot be resisted, and if we do not prepare for it, we will inevitably fall behind in competitiveness. What is needed now is not panic but systematic preparation. To prepare for the reality of “digital proficiency” that your organization may face, take a moment today to focus your thoughts on technical independence. Freedom from future anxiety is given only to those who prepare today.
It is a time when strengthening individual capabilities and formulating long-term technology independence strategies for organizations are urgently needed.
Technology choices at the enterprise and national level should now prioritize supply chain safety and sovereignty over economic efficiency.
Frequently Asked Questions
A: It aims to transform the entire IT infrastructure, including the operating system, cloud, and office software, into a controllable form.
A: It is also a strategic decision to reduce dependence on specific companies and escape from political risks.
A: However, full compatibility with existing Windows environments is still limited, so careful consideration is needed for important work PCs.
A: Additionally, using open standards can significantly reduce lock-in costs caused by future vendor dependence.
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