Interoperability is the ability to mix and match products and components from different vendors within your own communications infrastructure without being forced into a single supplier's ecosystem. In practice, it means a government can choose one vendor's server, another's client application, develop components in-house, and combine them into a solution that fits its specific requirements. On a proprietary platform, none of this is possible as the vendor decides what the stack looks like. On Matrix, interoperability is built into the standard itself: any compliant product works with any other, across a competitive ecosystem of 40+ vendors.

Most discussions of digital sovereignty focus on where data is stored or which vendor is chosen. But as Karsten Wildberger, Germany's Federal Minister for Digital, put it: "Digital sovereignty means having choices, so no single technology and provider becomes a dependency that can be used against our interests." That requires the structural freedom to leave - and to keep communicating if you do. Interoperability is what makes that possible. Without it, switching vendors means starting from zero: rebuilding connections, losing history, and breaking federation with partner organisations. With it, governments can move between vendors, develop components in-house, and federate with allies without disruption or dependency. Element is built on the Matrix open standard precisely so that governments are never structurally trapped. Sovereignty requires the freedom to choose. Interoperability is what makes that freedom real.

Vendor lock-in is when an organisation becomes so structurally dependent on a single provider that leaving would cause catastrophic disruption to data, operations or external connectivity. Vendors can fail, be sanctioned, or be legally compelled to suspend access. Microsoft suspended the ICC Prosecutor's email account under a US Executive Order in 2025. Maxar Technologies withdrew satellite imagery from Ukraine during peace talks. When you don't own the server, you don't own the access. Platforms built on proprietary standards make exit increasingly costly over time, even when they feel seamless to use.

Matrix is an open standard for decentralised, interoperable real time communications. Created in 2014 and governed by the Matrix.org Foundation, it allows any organisation using any Matrix-based product to communicate with any other, regardless of vendor. No single provider owns or controls the protocol. More than 200 million people use Matrix-based communications globally, and more than 25 governments have deployed Matrix-based sovereign systems, including the European Commission, NATO and the United Nations.

Microsoft Teams and Slack are closed, proprietary platforms. Communication is only possible between users of the same platform, data is controlled by the vendor, and leaving means losing your communications history and all external connectivity built on that platform. Element is built on the Matrix open standard: different organisations, using different vendors, can communicate directly with each other. Governments can self-host, switch vendors without losing data and federate securely with allies regardless of which Matrix-based product those allies use.

Federation means independently managed systems can communicate directly with each other, without routing through a shared central platform or becoming dependent on a common vendor. On Matrix, BundesMessenger (Germany) can federate with Tchap (France), NATO ACT, or UNICC, with each deployment remaining sovereign and controlling its own data. This is the same model that makes email work across providers: you don't need to use Gmail to email someone at Protonmail. Vendor-locked platforms like Teams or Slack cannot do this - federation is only possible between users of the same product, leaving all parties permanently dependent on a single vendor.

Yes and this is by design. Element is built true to the Matrix open standard, which means it interoperates with any of the 40+ competitive vendors in the Matrix ecosystem. Governments are not locked into Element: they can switch to another Matrix vendor, develop components in-house, or federate with partner organisations using a different Matrix-based product without losing data, history or connectivity. Even solutions that aren't Matrix-based on the server side, such as Rocket.Chat, can use the Matrix open standard for vendor-agnostic federation.