In the education sector, unified communication is essential for fostering collaboration between teachers, student administration and parents.
We found two popular solutions in this industry: XiVO and Microsoft Teams.
XiVO is an open source communication platform, French and sovereign.
Teams is the communication solution of the American giant Microsoft is integrated with the Office 365 suite.
In this article you will be able to discover which solution to choose between XiVO and Microsoft Teams for your educational institution? What are the advantages, disadvantages and differences between XiVO and Microsoft Teams?
XiVO vs Teams - The security of a sovereign solution for education
Data security is a major concern for the education sector, which processes confidential information.
It is in 2018 that the law CLOUD Act. Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data Act) allows US authorities to access data stored by US companies such as Google Drive, Dropbox or Microsoft Azure, even if this data is hosted on servers abroad, and even if the users of these services are not in the United States. This is why it is essential to favour the use of sovereign software within your educational institution, in order to guarantee the protection and control of the data of your students, professors and administrative staff.
Microsoft Teams is an American solution that integrates various features such as instant messaging, videoconferencing and document sharing. However, Teams is cloud-based and hosted in the US, raising major concerns in terms of digital sovereignty and data privacy.
Educational institutions have as a crucial concern the protection of personal and sensitive data of students, parents, teachers. This is the case for medical data, health data, banking data, etc. It is therefore important to prevent any risk of identity theft, or to protect themselves from hacking and cyber attacks that may be the victims of these institutions.
XiVO stands out as the sovereign communication platform that provides educational institutions with a high level of security and full control over their data and communication infrastructure. All this thanks to a sovereign solution that is hosted in France, allowing the latter to comply with the regulations on the use and protection of personal data, such as the GDPR.
This solution is also made in France, our teams are located in metropolitan France allowing support, integration and management of local projects.
In short, non-sovereign software such as Microsoft Teams, Google, Amazon, Apple etc. are dangerous and represent a significant risk for confidential data related to educational institutions, students, parents, teachers and administration.
XiVO vs Teams : Open Source vs cloud owned software
To learn more about what is open source and the specificities related to open source for educational institutions, do not hesitate to read the article: " Why open source is ideal for educational institutions ".
In order to better compare XiVO and Microsoft Teams, it is important to consider the advantages of an open-source solution such as XiVO. Users of the open source solution will benefit from a tool based on free software and will thus gain in flexibility and adaptability. This is relevant for different methods in each type of establishment.
In addition, the open-source approach promotes transparency and trust. The fact that users have access to the source code of this one, allows to verify and manage the confidentiality of their data.
Teams, developed by Microsoft, is a cloud-based proprietary solution. While it offers a comprehensive set of collaboration and communication tools, users are required to submit Microsoft’s privacy and security policies. The ability to directly customize and control the solution is more limited as the Teams solution does not provide access to its source code as an open source solution like XiVO would.
To conclude, XiVO stands out with a fully modular, free and user-editable solution. XiVO also benefits from an open source community that is very active in improving and developing the tool.
XiVO: Interoperability with the educational ecosystem and other open source and sovereign solutions
Educational institutions and organizations attach great importance to accounting and collaboration with various tools such as messaging, video conferencing, chat and much more.
XiVO is known for its interoperability with the educational ecosystem, which allows seamless integration with platforms such as
- GLPI :open source software for IT services and asset management.
- JITSI : a secure open-source video conferencing software, allowing online meetings with screen sharing and instant messaging.
- MATTERMOST :Self-hosted open source enterprise messaging software, providing secure communication and file sharing for work teams.
- ROCKETCHAT:open source team communication software
- ZIMBRA :open-source collaboration and messaging software that provides email, calendar, contact and task management services for individual users and businesses.
- BLUEMIND :an open-source email and collaboration software designed to deliver email, calendar, contact and task management solutions to businesses.
All of this software will allow a fluid and interactive learning experience thanks to a coherent ecosystem.
Find all connectors and integrations to the XiVO solution in the page XiVO - Our Connectors.
In conclusion, educational institutions have a duty and obligation to secure sensitive data to protect teachers, parents and students from all external threats.
Unified communications play a crucial role in facilitating collaboration between all key players in these institutions.
As an open source platform, XiVO provides sovereign solutions that address key privacy issues. XiVO is extremely flexible and adaptable while maintaining full control over its data and communication infrastructure, guaranteeing its compliance with the GDPR, unlike American companies.
For more information about XiVO, the Unified Communications solution, please contact our experts, they will be happy to share with you.
