The realization is not new at all, but the consequences are finally being felt by customers. The outage at the end of January shows just how big the impact really is when, for example, almost all company communication is handled via Microsoft using Outlook and Teams. Unfortunately, there are countless other examples. Consequently, Wirtschaftswoche is currently calling for an end to this recklessness. Even a daring comparison of the outage with the war in Ukraine is not shied away from in view of the similar dependence on software as on the previous gas procurement from Russia.

Andreas E. Thyen, President of the Board of Directors of LizenzDirekt. © LicenseDirect

In fact, the ignorance and naivety in the software context are unparalleled and the dependencies are limitlessly higher. For some time now, this has only been topped off by the fact that many companies are outsourcing their own data and processes to the US giants' clouds. This cannot be reconciled with even rudimentary legally compliant and adequate risk management.

After all, fallback options are generally non-existent due to a lack of diversification in their own IT and the loss of their own technical and human resources. A company blackout is pre-programmed and unavoidable in the event of failures, so the consequences can be devastating. At the same time, the concentration and outsourcing of in-house IT also leads to an almost total loss of control over costs, as the continued significant cost increases in Microsoft's subscription and cloud models last year and this year have shown. Switching to other solutions or different technology often seems neither possible nor has it even been seriously evaluated.

The Tagesschau also reports on the consequences of dependency and also differentiates between the applications and the infrastructure. Combining both with one provider can only have fatal consequences - as has now been shown once again. According to Tagesschau, large companies rely on internal servers, for example, which is better, but certainly insufficient from a strategic point of view. Instead of one-sided dependence on subscriptions, it is therefore logical to pursue a clear on-premises license strategy. As a result of the European secondary market, customers can also save considerable license costs and, incidentally, support European values such as digital sovereignty and sustainability. Even the renowned strategy consultancy Gartner has been advising a move away from the subscription craze for many years. Digital imperialism has been driven forward with merciless radicalism in Germany, and indeed throughout Europe, for more than a decade. Meanwhile, we are getting worked up about port holdings. IT and AI as key technologies make it possible for a few corporations to monitor and economically control entire states. The importance of these technologies for infrastructure, medicine, food and, of course, the military are only briefly mentioned here as examples.

But it is actually about infinitely more: in Kant's sense, autonomy as the basis of human rights is at stake. W. Meixner aptly writes: "But how should a person be able to safeguard his own interests if he is exposed to powerful economic competition and spied on right down to the origins of his thoughts?"
It remains to be hoped and demanded that each individual, but above all those responsible in politics, companies and society, abandon the rigidity of comfort and believe once again that resistance against over-powerful corporations is not only possible, but imperative.