What you need to know about... Nextcloud

What is this episode about?

This episode covers, among other things:

• What Nextcloud is and which functionalities it offers
• Why the conversation is not only about software, but about freedom of choice
• The risks of strong dependence on a single market party
• What open source means for control and transparency
• Why self-hosting provides more control, but also requires responsibility
• How geopolitical developments are accelerating thinking about digital autonomy
• What institutions can already do today

What is Nextcloud?

Nextcloud is open-source software for an integrated collaboration environment. It offers, among other things, the ability to:

• Store, share and synchronise files
• Collaboratively edit documents in real time
• Use video conferencing, chat, email and calendars
• Extend functionality with additional apps, such as forms and mind maps

Because institutions can host Nextcloud themselves, they retain control over where data are stored and who has access to them.

Why is Nextcloud relevant now?

According to Claudia van Kruistum, the focus is not primarily on Nextcloud itself, but on having alternatives. Many institutions have become heavily dependent on a single ecosystem for communication and data, precisely in areas where education and research data are considered crown jewels.

Recent geopolitical developments have made this dependence more visible and more urgent. Risks that previously seemed theoretical are now being explicitly taken into account in strategic choices around digitalisation.

What does this mean for institutions?

Switching to or expanding with Nextcloud is not a simple one-to-one replacement. Institutions will have to deal with:

• Increased complexity in management
• Integration challenges with existing systems
• Changes in users’ ways of working

In return, institutions strengthen their negotiating position and become less vulnerable by having a genuine alternative for critical components.

What can you do right now?

Institutions that are members of SURF can already take steps today, for example by:

• Making more active use of SURFdrive as an alternative to commercial storage services
• Encouraging users to gain experience with this way of working
• Using the upcoming migration of SURFdrive to Nextcloud as a learning experience

In this way, Nextcloud is already being used in practice, without immediately requiring major changes from end users.

About SURFshort

SURFshort is SURF’s monthly podcast in which you are updated in around 15 minutes on current technological developments in education and research.

Recommendations for further reading

Would you like to know more about Nextcloud? Then take a look at SURF.nl or follow Claudia's tips:

• Read Bert Hubert's article: Mailing and communicating without Musk & Trump
• Time for a thought experiment: what would we miss if there were no foreign countries? Rob Wijnberg takes you through This is what would be left of us if there were no foreign countries
• Background article from the NRC (behind paywall) by Marloes de Koning: Researchers choose alternative cloud