What it's about
It's about agency, not ideology. Proprietary software and large US cloud platforms are often convenient – until prices rise, licence models change, features disappear or legal questions about data transfers come up. If you have a choice, you can react.
What's possible in practice
- Dependency inventory: which services do you use, where is the data, what does it cost and how hard would switching be?
- European hosting: applications and data with European cloud and hosting providers or on your own infrastructure.
- Open-source alternatives: for file storage, collaboration, communication, project management or internal tools.
- Free office suites: documents in open formats, independent of a single vendor.
- Step-by-step migration: pragmatic, no big bang – start where benefit and effort fit best.
Digital sovereignty with a sense of proportion
Not everything has to be replaced at once. Sometimes a proprietary tool is the best choice. What matters is taking on dependencies consciously and knowing the way out.
Frequently asked questions
Is open source free?
The licence usually is, operations aren't. Setup, hosting, updates and support cost money – but often considerably less than proprietary licences, and without dependence on a single vendor.
Do we have to switch everything at once?
No. A step-by-step migration makes sense, starting with the areas where costs or risks are highest.
More services
Contact
Want to talk about a project? Philipp Kohnen is happy to hear from you.
Philipp Kohnen · Berlin, Germany
Email: mail@kohnen.digital
Phone: +49 160 90 22 88 20