The initiative, announced on 23 September, is called "Tchap for the territories" and builds on the French government's existing Tchap messaging platform, which runs on Matrix. Arawa, a French open-source software firm, will deploy Element Server Suite Pro inside its customers' own infrastructure, keeping communications data under each authority's direct control. Adullact, the non-profit coordinating open-source adoption across French local authorities, and Declic, the federation of Public Digital Service Operators, are also involved.
The architecture is a closed Matrix-based federation for local governments that can, at a later stage, federate with DINUM (France's interministerial digital directorate) Tchap and LaSuite if both parties agree. Each organisation in the network runs its own server and retains full administrative sovereignty, meaning it can change service providers without losing access to its communications history or its connections to other authorities in the network.
"We are delighted to be working with Arawa, a company with a genuine commitment to open source software and to the ecosystem around it. Local authorities have been asking for a messaging tool they actually control, and that means more than self-hosting: because Matrix is an open standard, they can choose their supplier, change their mind later, and still talk to everyone else," said Amandine Le Pape, Chief Operating Officer and co-founder of Element.
"Element has generated a great deal of interest among our customers and prospects. Genuine control, the encryption features, the ability to federate with other instances and our associated support offerings all point to one thing: Element is the best choice for organisations looking for a modern, secure, free and open instant messaging tool," said Jean-Philippe Porcherot, President of Arawa.
Arawa is one of more than 70 Matrix-based vendors using Element Server Suite Pro as the basis for their own offering. More than a dozen European government bodies have adopted Matrix deployments since 2022, with the German Federal Administration, the French state and several Nordic ministries among the named deployments on record. The common thread across those decisions is the requirement for infrastructure that sits within a given jurisdiction's own data perimeter while still allowing cross-agency communication.
To stay across the latest in cloud, AI and enterprise tech analysis from Compare the Cloud, subscribe to our weekly newsletter at https://www.comparethecloud.net/newsletter
