Social insurance companies prepare for the crisis with openDesk

Bochum/Berlin, 21.01.2026. Digital collaboration is the linchpin of modern administrative action. If it fails, the authority comes to a standstill. In the new pilot project "Cloud-based communication in a crisis (CKKI)", Deutsche Rentenversicherung Bund and other social insurance providers are testing the openDesk office and collaboration suite from the Center for Digital Sovereignty in Public Administration (ZenDiS). The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWE) is funding the project from January to April 2026.

Digital services have become another critical infrastructure alongside water, electricity and transport routes. In order to be prepared for a crisis - such as a failure or compromise of existing digital systems - an additional communication channel is required: the Center for Digital Sovereignty's sovereign office and collaboration suite openDesk is being established as an emergency workstation. OpenDesk is a fully comprehensive digital workplace solution based on open source. It contains classic functions such as e-mail, calendar, contacts, task and project management, video and chat functions as well as note and knowledge databases. OpenDesk is browser-based. Users can log in at any time and from anywhere via a secure login and work together.

Four openDesk instances will be installed for Deutsche Rentenversicherung Bund, the Federal Employment Agency, BITMARCK Holding GmbH and BG-Phoenics GmbH. Scenarios will be used to test interoperability, connectivity and the overarching benefits of different cloud infrastructures. Alexander Pockrandt, Managing Director of the Zentrum Digitale Souveränität, says: "openDesk proves to be a reliable workplace solution even in extreme situations. The flexibility of our solution means that the operation of critical infrastructure is also supported in the event of a crisis."

The project is being managed by ZenDiS and implemented together with the partners IONOS, STACKIT and T-Systems. The project is supported by Deutsche Rentenversicherung Bund, the Federal Employment Agency, BITMARCK Holding GmbH and BG-Phoenics GmbH.

The project will run from January to April 2026. The participants also want to scale the project: The findings will flow directly into the 8ra initiative. The aim of this is to establish a secure and sovereign cloud and edge infrastructure in Europe in which different providers can work together without any problems. Harald Joos, Cloud Officer at Deutsche Rentenversicherung Bund, explains: "By using openDesk, we are increasing our resilience and strengthening our digital sovereignty at the same time. At the same time, we are showing our European partners that sovereign cloud infrastructure can also be used successfully at EU level."

About ZenDiS

The Center for Digital Sovereignty in Public Administration (ZenDiS) was founded by the German government in 2022. As a competence and service center, ZenDiS supports public administration at federal, state and municipal level in securing its ability to act in the digital space in the long term - above all by eliminating critical dependencies on individual technology providers. To this end, ZenDiS is concentrating on promoting the use of open source software in public administration in the first expansion phase. ZenDiS is a limited liability company and is currently wholly owned by the federal government. The Federal Ministry for Digital and State Modernization (BMDS) manages the investment. ZenDiS is based in Bochum.