heise+ | Digital Sovereignty: The Calculation Nobody Makes

What the article is about

The article asks a simple question: how long would it take a company to get its data out of its main cloud service? Many IT staff could answer that. Few companies include that time in their cost plans. The author says this number affects a company's power in price talks with its provider, and how much harm it would face if the service failed.

Key numbers from the preview

• In summer 2026, a survey by the industry group Bitkom found that 94 percent of small, medium and large companies using non-European digital technology depend on it.
• According to the companies' own estimates, they could keep running their business for about 16 months without these technologies on average.

The main idea

Companies often avoid switching to other software because of the cost of moving. But they rarely count the cost of staying. This includes vendor lock-in, which means a customer is stuck with one provider and has less room to bargain on price. It also includes the risk of a service going down or being shut off, and the possible market advantage of being digitally independent.

Why it matters

Nobody chooses dependence on purpose. It builds up over time. The author says that if leaders see digital sovereignty as a set of costs, risks and revenue, rather than as a political idea, they are more likely to act on it. Comparing the cost of leaving with the cost of staying lets a company make a clear choice either way.

What to watch

• The full article, which is only available to heise+ subscribers, goes into the three parts of the calculation: cost, risk and revenue.
• Whether more companies start measuring how long it would take to move their data out of key cloud services.