Malte Engeler3d ago

When people talk about "digital sovereignty" and "european alternatives" I really just wonder what the hell they are talking about. Just look at Schwarz Digits, controlled by LIDL-boss Dieter Schwarz. That's not an alternative. That's a menace.

Posted while listening to the great talk by Anna Kraher at #cablesofresistance in Berlin.

https://programm.infraunited.org/cableresist26/talk/VJYLJW/

Big Tech made in Germany? Lidl und das Verprechen digitaler Souveränität Cables of Resistance - movement conference against Big Tech

Unter dem Label digitale Souveränität wird momentan massiv in digitale Infrastrukturprojekte „made in Germany“ investiert. Unternehmen greifen darunter direkt in KI-Entwicklung, Wissenschaft und Bildung ein und rufen dabei eine nationale (digitale) Identität an. Soziale Bewegungen stehen vor der Aufgabe, lokale politische Praxis zu entwickeln, die den transnationalen Zusammenhang im Blick behält.

Show threadKlarname 🌈3d ago
@malteengeler when you want to go full enterprise scale with many cloud Services interweaved, there are not many european alternatives with fully integral ceo's
Show threadDr. Daniel Dizdarevic2d ago
@strigga_ @malteengeler That's exactly why IT departments with a sense of responsibility should host this on their own infrastructure. Open-source software such as OpenStack (on which the Schwartz group's entire cloud infrastructure runs btw) makes this possible and straightforward.
Show threadKlarname 🌈
@daniel @malteengeler yes you are right. Most enterprises Focus on their core Business as running IT infra on that scale is very very expensive. The CIOs and CTOs I Know struggle to find a good Balance.
Apr 13 at 7:58amMastodon for Android
Show threadDr. Daniel Dizdarevic2d ago
@strigga_ @malteengeler In fact, running your own infrastructure stack is cheaper in the long run. However, the immediate costs and limits of short-term scalability often drive people towards public clouds. While these are valid concerns, I often hear people (at least in Germany) saying things like "if it's free, it cannot be good" or "we must pay for a better or more reliable solution". In a capitalist world, this way of thinking is to be expected, and it's one of the biggest obstacles to digital sovereignty IMO 😬
Show threadKlarname 🌈2d ago
@daniel @malteengeler yeah. Problem is: that local infra does not scale well
Show threadDr. Daniel Dizdarevic2d ago
@strigga_ @malteengeler It does, it just requires more planning and preparation.
Show threadKlarname 🌈1d ago

@daniel @malteengeler

Not ad-hoc. Need 50 extra loadbalanced Servers?

Not argueing against you, just saying that there are good arguments for both sides.

Show threadDr. Daniel Dizdarevic6h ago
@strigga_ @malteengeler I agree that flexibility is a valid selling point for cloud providers, but this comes at an extra cost. People often claim that the cloud is cheaper outright, but this is simply not true. In my opinion, the vendor lock-in isn't worth it and creates a lot of uncalculable risks.
Show threadKlarname 🌈6h ago

@daniel @malteengeler the lock-in is a really strong Argument. Microsoft or aws doubling their prices tomorrow would send most small Internet companies into bankrupsy.

On the other hand: founding an internet business focusing on the idea and not on the Infrastrukture is also a valid pro-cloud point.

It's really tricky. Lets leave this here. Have a nice rest of the week 🤜🤛

Show threadDr. Daniel Dizdarevic5h ago

@strigga_ @malteengeler Completely agreed! 👍

As a concluding note, this scenario is no longer theoretical. The recent acquisition of VMware (with a market share of over 70% for virtual infrastructures) by Broadcom led to price increases of between four and eight times, and involved a great deal of arbitrariness. Many were unable to migrate away from VMware's products, and in fact migrated more services to them in order to account for the increased costs, thus justifying Broadcom's strategy.

Have a nice week too!