Navigating new requirements for video conferencing in the public sector
Public sector organizations in Europe today face new challenges in selecting the optimal video conferencing solution for their mission critical meetings. Increasing requirements on both regional and local levels, related to privacy, security and more, are leading organizations to re-evaluate their virtual meeting tools based on new criteria.
In this guide, we analyze some of the key trends impacting video conferencing in the public sector today through the lens of organizations within government, defense, police, and state IT service providers.
On a European level, we see five core requirements that public sector organizations must meet in a tender process for digital solutions:
- Data sovereignty
- Operational sovereignty
- Software sovereignty
- Legal sovereignty
- Resilience
- Interoperability
In the next chapters, we dissect each of these requirements, discussing why they have emerged and how to stay compliant in terms of selecting the right video conferencing solution for your organization. A final checklist of the most important criteria and features for selecting a secure video communication platform will help you in your market research
Trends in video communication
Digital Sovereignty
Governments around the world are increasingly aiming for digital sovereignty. Digital sovereignty is the confinement of sensitive data and/or critical infrastructure within a national territory as a means of ensuring compliance with national data protection regulations and data security requirements.
Ensuring digital sovereignty when discussing critical or confidential topics over video conference is important for two main reasons:
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Control over the video conferencing data: For confidential video meetings, it is important to retain control over where your data is stored and where it is transmitted to meet data sovereignty requirements. This requires a selfhosted or private cloud solution.
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Avoiding technological and commercial dependencies: If video conferencing systems are natively integrated into communication and collaboration systems, it is difficult to replace them as a module, which is not ideal for sensitive areas. An optionally integrated but technologically independent video conferencing solution via OpenAPI, on the other hand, can be replaced more easily. This reduces the risk of technological and commercial locked-in.
Gartner forecasts that cloud service providers in more than 50 countries will be involved in government sovereign cloud initiatives in 2026 - a significant increase compared to 2022 (see Gartner 2023, “Top Trend in Government: Sovereign Cloud”).
Gartner breaks down the concept of digital sovereignty into three key dimensions:
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Data sovereignty
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Operational sovereignty
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Technology and software sovereignty
Data sovereignty
When applied to video conferencing, data sovereignty is the extent to which an organization retains full control over the processing and storage of media data (e.g. video, audio, content) and metadata (e.g. call detail records, meeting titles, participant lists). This corresponds to the dimensions of digital sovereignty as defined by Gartner (2024).
Pexip Secure Meetings meets the highest standards of data sovereignty. The solution is based on the “Infinity” software, which can be hosted either on premises or in a private cloud tenant (e.g. on AWS, Azure, GCP, OCI) or hybrid according to customer requirements. This gives the customer 100% sovereignty over media and metadata.
For technical details see: Introduction to Pexip Infinity and Choosing a deployment environment.
Operational sovereignty
Operational sovereignty in video conferencing is the extent to which the organization has control over the hosting of the solution, including the update and upgrade processes, as well as the implementation of redundancy requirements (based on the dimensions of digital sovereignty according to Gartner 2024).
Pexip Secure Meetings allows updating and upgrading according to customer specifications. For example, administrators can update individual components of the Pexip platform (e.g. the Connect apps) individually. As another example, the upgrade process can be triggered manually and the Pexip conference nodes can be put into maintenance mode beforehand. The distributed architecture also allows the conference nodes to be distributed according to organization-specific redundancy requirements. If a conference node fails, the calls are automatically re-routed to another node in the redundancy network.
For technical details see: Installing and updating software bundles, Upgrading the Pexip Infinity platform, Conference distribution
Software sovereignty
Software sovereignty in video conferencing refers to the degree of control an organization has over the adaptation and further development of the software. This includes the ability to seamlessly integrate the solution with third-party systems and adapt it to specific needs. This control is a key aspect of digital sovereignty, as defined by Gartner (2024).
Pexip Secure Meetings offers extensive customization and expansion options that allow customers to tailor the solution to their exact requirements. At the user interface level, for example, companies can integrate their own branding and seamlessly integrate third-party software via the Plugin API. In addition, the Client API enables the development of customized apps.
For administrators, the solution offers the automation of administration tasks via the Management API, the customization of live monitoring via the Event Sink API and integration with identity providers via the External Policy API.
For technical details see: Customizing the Pexip Infinity user experience and Integrating Pexip Infinity with other systems
Pexip Secure Meetings enables defense against cyberattacks using zero trust-based
Attribute-based Access Control (ABAC): Depending on the meeting classification (e.g. “open”, “confidential”, “secret”), access attributes for participants (e.g. SSO, browser, end device, IP address range, authorization level) can be queried via a local or external policy to prevent unauthorized access (e.g. through deepfakes). Read our guide to advanced access control here.
In terms of resilience, the modular architecture of the solution ensures the distribution of conference nodes across multiple infrastructures/hyperscalers: this means that in the event of an attack on one infrastructure, the other infrastructures can seamlessly take over the CPU power. To ensure communication continuity, Pexip Secure Meetings has been developed on a “testing-first architecture”. This means that 100,000+ automated software tests are carried out every day.
Pexip Secure Meetings is designed as an open-interface solution. It supports the WebRTC video conferencing standard, i.e. dial-in via the popular Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari browsers without participants having to install a plugin in their browser. The SIP standard is also supported.
This makes it possible to dial into Pexip meetings via SIP-based video systems. native room systems, as well as clients such as Webex or Jabber. In addition, Microsoft-certified dial-in via Skype for Business or Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTRs) is also possible.
Key factors to consider when sourcing a video conferencing solution
Finding the right video conferencing solution for public sector organizations requires a critical look at how the solution measures up against criteria related to digital sovereignty, resilience and interoperability.
Digital sovereignty is all about ensuring that organizations retain complete control over their data and software. Resilience is about ensuring that communication systems are robust in the face of increasing cyber threats and that they provide continuous availability. While interoperability is the ability to seamlessly integrate and collaborate across different platforms and devices.
Together, these three key factors form a solid foundation for secure, reliable and flexible video communications, helping organizations meet the challenges of modern digital communication.
