Email, meetings, management: modern office work takes place in the digital space. Even when the system freezes for a moment, it causes a brief sense of frustration – but after a few seconds’ wait, you can usually get back to work. But what if the system stops responding altogether? In today’s world, scenarios such as a cyberattack or deliberately induced system failures must be factored in. To ensure their digital collaboration continues even in an emergency, German social security providers, together with the Centre for Digital Sovereignty in Public Administration (ZenDiS), have successfully tested the use of the openDesk office and collaboration suite as an emergency workspace.

As part of the ‘Cloud-based Communication in a Crisis’ (CKKI) project, the openDesk office and collaboration suite was tested in various scenarios. In business continuity management (BCM) scenarios under real-world conditions, test users assessed the openDesk modules – Files, Chat, Email and Video Conferencing – for their suitability in a crisis – with consistently positive results. The migration of instances between different cloud platforms was also carried out successfully, confirming the solution’s flexibility when used in conjunction with various cloud providers.

The project was carried out by ZenDiS in collaboration with the German Federal Pension Insurance Fund, the Federal Employment Agency, BITMARCK Holding GmbH and BG-Phoenics GmbH, together with IONOS, STACKIT and T-Systems, and was funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWE) with support from the European Union.

Visitors to the Smart Country Convention will have the opportunity to experience openDesk for themselves at the ZenDiS stand (Hall 27, Stand 103): all the functions of the open-source-based office and collaboration suite can be tried out at mock workstations. The openDesk team will be on hand to answer any questions – both regarding the use of the programme in a crisis and as a standard solution for everyday office work.

Centre for Digital Sovereignty (ZenDiS)
Bochum, Germany
Hub27, Stand 103
Website: https://www.zendis.de/