The Danish data management company Grit42 has done what many companies and public services dream off in 2025: To be digitally self-sovereign, use open-source and mainly European-owned services in order to obtain full security, get away from expensive US big tech and the risk of the US government getting access to their data, and not least help build up a European tech-sector.

“Our goal has been to get away from big tech – or US-owned tech in general – and get as much open sources as possible,” says CEO of Grit42 Claus Stie Kallesøe.

Grit42 with 6 employees is 11 years old and helps biotech and pharma companies collect, manage, store and use data. And this year they changed their IT-approach. They went from big tech to using European tech and/or open source and being an open source vendor:

• Google (US) email to Proton Email (Switzerland)
• Google docs to Proton docs
• Google Drive to Proton Drive – and Proton VPN and Proton Pass in the same package
• Google Meet to selfhosted Jitsi
• From Digital Ocean (US) to Hetzner (Germany) – all servers moved
• From Macbook to Lenovo with Linux – the CEO himself
• From Google Android Pixel 9 phone to GrapheneOS – the CEO himself
• All developers use Linux on Lenovo, frame.work or tuxedo hardware
• They use OnlyOffice and share sheets and slides via Proton Drive
• As the only US service, they still use Basecamp (owned by the Dane David Heinemeier Hansson) as they love it but don’t use it for any sensitive customer data – mostly for todo’s.
• All codes are on the open source platform Github. As it is owned by Microsoft they might move to Gitlab but they are afraid of not being found there

“I know that OnlyOffice might owned by a Russian, but I have found out that OnlyOffice is better than Libre Office, when it comes to converting Microsoft documents which I get from big pharmaceutical companies or from EU projects, even. And the most important is that OnlyOffice is open-source and we run it locally” says Claus Stie Kallesøe, who says that the move is also an economic success: “When we moved from Digital Ocean to Hetzner we saved money.”

Here’s Kallesøe’s advice on how to get started getting away from big tech:

• One step at the time
• Get an overview of what you have and chose one place to start
• New server provider, for example, then
• New email provider
• New Office package
• New OS on labtobs
• Etc

“You will run into problems on the go which need to be fixed, so in order not to fail, I think you should do it one at a time,” he says.

Grit42 is also working in a big EU-project. With 13 big pharma companies, including Novo Nordisk, they are building a new platform in order to reduce animal use in toxicology/research. By leveraging historical toxicology data, virtual control groups could replace part or all the control animals in a study, reducing animal use by up to 25% while maintaining scientific and regulatory standards.

Photo: From the website of Grit42. The CEO Claus Stie Kallesøe is on the upper right