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Short abstract

This paper examines La Suite as a public-sector experiment in building more resilient digital infrastructures amid dependence on Microsoft 365, arguing that resilience depends less on technical substitution than on the institutional work of reconfiguring platform dependence from within.

Long abstract

This paper examines La Suite, DINUM’s state-backed open-source office suite, as a public-sector case for examining infrastructural resilience in a context shaped by Microsoft 365. As Microsoft 365 has become the default environment for office work, collaboration, document production, and cloud governance, it has also structured institutional workflows through proprietary standards and deep platform dependencies. These dependencies raise broader questions about autonomy, long-term control, transparency, and the durability of digital environments across institutional settings. Against this background, the paper analyses La Suite as an institutional experiment in reworking such dependencies. By assembling open-source components, administrative needs, and public governance principles, La Suite offers a situated attempt to build freer, more transparent, and more publicly accountable digital infrastructures. It shows how alternative infrastructures are not simply chosen at the level of individual tools, but must be institutionally coordinated and maintained over time. At the same time, the paper complicates optimistic narratives of open-source resilience. La Suite remains shaped by standardisation pressures, inherited workflows, and broader platform dependencies. The case therefore highlights both the promise and the limits of building more resilient digital infrastructures from within dominant platform environments. It argues that resilience is not a purely technical property, but an institutional achievement produced under conditions of dependence that cannot be fully escaped.