Digitale Autonomie 2.0: en nu echt - Bert Hubert's writings
a day ago
- Digital autonomy and resilience are interconnected; the Netherlands is critically dependent on US cloud providers (e.g., Microsoft, Amazon), with all government, banking, and education sectors relying on them, creating vulnerabilities.
- US companies can access data or shut down services at any time, and special agreements do not prevent this; European alternatives exist (e.g., Aisle, Galileo, SURF Nextcloud) but are underused due to lack of awareness and training.
- The IT education system exclusively trains users for US cloud platforms, while management and IT staff resist change because it disrupts established routines and profit models.
- Political will for digital autonomy exists (150 votes in parliament), but funding is lacking, and middle management is the biggest obstacle, having ignored IT for decades.
- Solutions include starting small but significant (e.g., SURF's Nextcloud pilot), building on standard open components (PostgreSQL, Keycloak), and treating IT as a core government task.
- Organizations should first implement low-hanging fruit (e.g., self-hosted services); if they refuse, it shows lack of genuine commitment.