CNRS moves its 50,000 mailboxes to Renater's Partage service
France's CNRS is leaving Microsoft Exchange for Partage, Renater's open-source messaging service partly based on Zimbra, citing digital sovereignty and announced savings.
By GennnAi··1 min read
The 50,000 mailboxes, including those of 35,000 staff, were run on Exchange by an external provider. CNRS announces savings of about €3.5 million a year and fully French hosting. Partage already serves 83 institutions, and Renater targets 1.5 million users by 2027. Earlier this year CNRS dropped Zoom licences for the government's Visio tool. Some researchers nonetheless report problems, such as the web app freezing and complex Thunderbird synchronization.
Source: Next, published on November 4, 2026.