Closed federation, open federation or something in between?

What is federation?

Federation enables multiple networks to work together.

For collaboration and messaging, people tend to think of closed (private) or open federation. But Element offers far more options, enabling even the most complex of organisations to balance security, ecosystem connectivity and usability.

Element Consulting provides strategic and technical planning for federated global, regional or national Matrix-based platforms.

Closed federation.

Element can be deployed as a classic closed federation system.

From a single department through to multiple servers and geographies for a global organisation, everything is kept on the organisation’s own servers (on-premise or cloud), or hosted by us on dedicated hardware.

A modern, resilient and highly scalable platform for messaging, voice and video that operates on an internal-only basis.

Closed federation system
Element Users
Homeservers
Application Servers
Identitiy Servers
  • Invite-only participation
  • Ensure high availability and performance
  • E2EE messaging, plus voice and video
  • Scalable for unlimited usage
  • Supports SSO, data retention, antivirus, data loss prevention

Ecosystem federation.

Element is a unique collaboration platform for ecosystems; perfect for uniting a conglomerate or supporting an entire ecosystem.

Builds on closed federation to connect multiple organisations on an invite-only basis, with powerful identity and access controls. Each organisation is free to deploy its own solution, remains in control of its data, and protected by end-to-end encryption.

Based on the Matrix open standard, connections between organisations are as universal as email, unlimited and free from licence fees.

Closed federation for an ecosystem
Element Users
Homeservers
End Users
Application Servers
Matrix Bridge
Border Gateway
  • Invite-only participation
  • Ensure high availability and performance
  • E2EE messaging, plus voice and video
  • Scalable for unlimited usage
  • Supports SSO, data retention, antivirus, data loss prevention
  • Easy real time connectivity between multiple organisations
  • Unlimited licence-free connections
  • Supports all Matrix-based apps
  • Bridging to traditional collaboration and messaging apps

Open federation.

Open federation is an excellent way for B2C organisations and large communities to interact with millions of people. It lets people find and connect with each other via any Matrix-based app or, if used with bridging services, almost any mainstream messaging app.

  • Anyone can find and join the network
  • Easy connectivity for millions of users
  • Unlimited licence-free connections
  • E2EE messaging, plus voice and video
  • Ensure high availability and performance
  • Supports all Matrix-based apps
  • Bridging to traditional collaboration and messaging apps
  • Perfect for large communities and B2C companies

Data sovereignty.

Element delivers data sovereignty, so each participant can keep ownership and control of their data

Explore Element’s unique features.

Matrix is an open network for secure, decentralised communication, connecting 42M+ users over 80K+ deployments.

Governed by The Matrix.org Foundation, the Matrix protocol is an open standard with open source implementations, supporting a vibrant developer ecosystem. Element was founded by the team behind Matrix as a way to bring it to the mainstream.