Case Study: U.S. Government Federal Agency achieves rapid, secure migration off Jabber with Mattermost

U.S. federal agency migrates from Jabber to Mattermost the open source way

The U.S. Government Federal Agency, which relied on Cisco Jabber (with Pidgin) to support hundreds of text-based users across a tens-of-thousands-employee organization, faced an urgent deadline when Jabber reached end-of-life. Needing a secure, government-approved messaging alternative that preserved Pidgin interfaces and existing message history, the agency selected Mattermost — the open source private-cloud Slack alternative — to replace Jabber.

Mattermost, backed by a subscription and professional services plus a Brightscout migration tool and community plugins, imported accounts and message history and enabled Pidgin compatibility so the agency completed the move in weeks instead of months. By using Mattermost the agency met its deadline, avoided months of custom development and extensive retraining, modernized to secure web/desktop/mobile apps, and sped procurement through approved open source policies while future-proofing communications.