Should we fear Microsoft's monopoly?

Summary

The International Criminal Court recently banned Microsoft due to concerns about US sanctions. More parties are worried that our data will soon be inaccessible if President Trump tries to assert his power.In April of this year, Cursor already wrote about the risk of Trump cutting off access to our data. While this is theoretically possible, then-Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) Martin de Vries estimated the likelihood of this happening for TU/e ​​to be very small. AlternativesSeven months later, the public demand for European data alternatives seems to be growing. Is TU/e ​​now actually looking for a replacement for Microsoft? The answer is partly yes, but not yet institutionally driven.“Several departments within the university are already testing, for example, Nextcloud – a German cloud solution," says De Jong. "We are also working with educational partner SURF on our own solutions, for example in the field of IT security.” If there is no comprehensive alternative, the university will try to arrive at a fully-fledged solution through several interventions, so that it can continue without Microsoft. However, the final verdict on the feasibility of this is not yet in order.CablesThere are other alternatives on the market, such as the German Open Desk, which the International Criminal Court is now switching to. And the European initiative GaiaX, but none of these can replace Microsoft. That IT provider does much more than provide a typing application or manage data in a cloud. “Besides word processors, Microsoft also has security solutions, cables, servers in data centers, access control, SharePoint, and AI across all of this,” De Jong explains. “So simply replacing Microsoft isn't an option.” And switching only partially would require a lot of extra administrative work and money, and wouldn't reduce the risk of data blocking. The American giant is the largest supplier of software and services to TU/e.ConsortiumFinding alternatives to Microsoft is something ...