Element

What is Element?

Element is a secure, decentralized collaboration and messaging platform built on the Matrix open standard. It is designed for organizations that prioritize digital sovereignty, data control, and robust security. By operating on a decentralized network, Element eliminates single points of failure and frees organizations from vendor lock-in, providing a resilient and interoperable communication solution. It serves as a comprehensive alternative to centralized platforms like Microsoft Teams, WhatsApp, and Signal, offering end-to-end encrypted messaging, voice and video calls, and file sharing. Element is particularly suited for government, public sector, and enterprise environments where control over communication infrastructure and data privacy is paramount.

Why Choose Element?

• Digital Sovereignty: Element empowers organizations to run and control their own communications infrastructure. By building on the open-standard Matrix protocol, it ensures users are never locked into a proprietary ecosystem, allowing for true data ownership and independence.
• Decentralized and Resilient: With no central point of failure, the platform is inherently resilient to global outages. Its decentralized nature ensures high availability through redundant servers, providing a robust communication network.
• Open Standard Interoperability: Element facilitates seamless communication across different organizations, departments, and even nations. Its vendor-agnostic federation allows different Matrix-based solutions to work together, breaking down communication silos much like email (SMTP) does for messaging.
• Air-Gapped Deployment: For maximum security, Element can be deployed in completely isolated, air-gapped networks with no internet connectivity required. This is critical for high-side instances in defense, intelligence, and other sensitive sectors.
• Security by Design: The platform operates on a zero-trust security model and provides strong end-to-end encryption for all communications. It is engineered to protect sensitive information and meet stringent public sector compliance requirements.

Advanced Features of Element

• Advanced Identity & Access Management: Integrates seamlessly with enterprise identity systems like LDAP and Active Directory. It supports Single Sign-On (SSO) via OIDC and automates user management through SCIM, mirroring organizational structures within the platform.
• Corporate Oversight & Compliance: Provides powerful tools for corporate governance, including in-room auditing to capture official records of discussions for regulatory purposes. Administrators can moderate conversations and manage user access effectively.
• Data Retention & Export: Administrators can configure rules-based retention policies for messages and media to align with organizational processes and compliance mandates. The ability to easily export data further protects against vendor lock-in.
• Comprehensive Security & Auditing: Element is independently audited and certified for compliance with standards including ISO/IEC 27001:2022, the UK's Cyber Essentials Plus, OpenChain ISO/IEC 5230, and recognition as a Digital Public Good. It provides advance security advisories and curated updates to ensure deployments remain secure. For added resilience, Element also supports mesh and satellite connectivity alongside air-gapped deployment options.
• Scalability and Performance: The professional-grade server, Synapse Pro, offers dynamic scaling to support large deployments and delivers over 90% resource savings compared to the community edition, ensuring cost-effective performance.
• Cross-Domain Gateways: For complex environments, Element offers hardware-based solutions like the Secure Border Gateway, a rules-based application firewall that enables secure data sharing between different information classification boundaries (e.g., high-side and low-side networks).
• Federated Mission Networking (FMN): Purpose-built for joint and coalition defense operations, this capability enables interoperable, sovereign cross-domain communications, letting allied nations federate securely with one another while each retains full control of its own infrastructure.

Key Capabilities of Element

• Sovereign Collaboration: Positioned as a direct, self-hosted alternative to Microsoft Teams, this capability provides a complete workplace collaboration suite for desktop and mobile. It enables real-time, secure communication with both internal teams and external partner organizations.
• Sovereign Messenger: This functions as a secure replacement for consumer messaging apps like WhatsApp and Signal. It offers a user-friendly interface to encourage adoption while providing the end-to-end encryption and compliance features required by the public sector.
• Element Server Suite: This is the professional, Matrix-based server software that organizations use to host their own communications. It includes Synapse Pro, which provides the performance, scalability, and enterprise features needed for professional deployments.
• Element Call: Integrated into the platform, this capability provides secure, end-to-end encrypted voice and video calls, enabling rich, real-time collaboration within a controlled and sovereign environment.

How to Use Element?

Getting started with Element involves choosing a deployment model and configuring the platform to meet organizational requirements. The process is supported by comprehensive administrative tools and professional services.

First, an organization selects its deployment model. For professional use, the self-hosted Element Server Suite Pro offers enterprise-grade performance and features. For environments demanding the highest level of security, the air-gapped deployment operates without any internet connectivity. A free community edition is also available for evaluations and non-professional use.

Once deployed, administrators use a dedicated admin interface to configure the system. This includes integrating with existing identity providers (LDAP/SSO), setting up user accounts, defining data retention policies, and establishing moderation rules. The platform can be customized to mirror the organization's structure and security policies.

For end-users, Element provides intuitive client applications for desktop and mobile devices. The experience is designed to be familiar and easy to adopt, encouraging widespread use for messaging, calls, and file sharing. Expert-led training and onboarding services are available to help administrators and users get the most out of the platform.

Element Pricing

Element pricing details are available on request on techjockey.com.

The pricing model is based on different parameters, including extra features, deployment type, and the total number of users. For further queries related to the product, you can contact our product team and learn more about the pricing and offers.