In Germany, negotiations are underway for a new coalition, and the topics of digitalization and digital sovereignty seem to be receiving insufficient attention. While the Open Source community is particularly vocal about this, some may wonder: Why should I move away from proprietary products when they are working just fine?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
First, we should clarify what digital sovereignty means in practice: It is the free decision regarding what happens to my infrastructure, my programs, and my data. This means I am digitally sovereign when I can freely decide which servers I operate where, which software I use, and have full control over the use of my data. This is particularly beneficial for companies, as it allows them to reduce the operational risk of suffering economic damage from external influences. Moreover, the freedom to choose software enables the discovery of truly suitable software solutions for business challenges. The downsides primarily include the higher effort and the necessary knowledge required for the sovereign operation of software.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The latter must be viewed somewhat differently in the context of Microsoft. While the mere operation of, for example, Microsoft 365 does not require additional resources, a significant amount of effort arises particularly in ensuring data protection-compliant administration. It is crucial to pay attention to which apps are activated to prevent any data from flowing to the USA. Additionally, regular checks are necessary to determine whether processes have changed due to automatic updates. Instead of building knowledge for the operation of sovereign software, I am merely accumulating administrative knowledge within the Microsoft environment, thereby becoming even more entangled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Is this close dependence on a software manufacturer critical? After all, it is unlikely that Microsoft will stop offering its services in Germany anytime soon. To assess this, one should consider how quickly one could move away from Microsoft if critical decisions, such as changes to the terms and conditions, are introduced that are not compatible with the company's strategy or policy. Let\u2019s assume Microsoft wants to train the Copilot on business data. This would mean that trade secrets could be used for training AI, which could potentially be extracted through prompt injections. Regardless of whether Microsoft would actually do this in reality, one must ask whether it is even possible to resist such decisions when M365 is used company-wide and thus becomes difficult to replace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For those who can live with this risk, there is nothing against the use of certain proprietary products. However, those seeking to minimize risk should at least consider how their company can gradually become digitally sovereign. This dependence is particularly critical for public administrations, which have a responsibility to their citizens. Imagine if the administration could not prevent Copilot from being trained on Ms. Heinrich's social assistance application and that this data was also released. The potential damage would be enormous. Moreover, even more likely scenarios, such as the shutdown of actively used services or changes in licensing policies, can already cause significant harm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So what is the return on investment of digital sovereignty? Foremost, it represents a significant reduction in risk; fewer risks typically also mean lower reserves. Additionally, having access to one's own data ensures that it can be freely utilized\u2014for example, to automate processes or train one's own AI. Ultimately, one is not subject to the licensing policies of a large corporation and can make IT decisions freely. This should indeed be the ultimate goal for any organization.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In Deutschland wird \u00fcber eine neue Koalition verhandelt und das Thema Digitalisierung und digitale Souver\u00e4nit\u00e4t scheinen zu wenig Aufmerksamkeit zu bekommen. W\u00e4hrend vor allem die Open Source Community aufschreit stellt sich dem ein oder anderen bestimmt die Frage: Warum muss ich von propriet\u00e4ren Produkten weg, wenn sie doch funktionieren? Zuerst sollten wir kl\u00e4ren, was digitale… Read More »Digital Sovereignty \u2013 Do I Need It?<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19761,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-open-source"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ericfischer.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ericfischer.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ericfischer.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericfischer.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericfischer.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19760"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ericfischer.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19760\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19763,"href":"https:\/\/ericfischer.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19760\/revisions\/19763"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericfischer.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ericfischer.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericfischer.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericfischer.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}