Digital sovereignty - bye bye US services

Our goal for 2026: Digital sovereignty as a response to political uncertainty

The current political developments in the USA show Dependence on US services harbors unprecedented risks. As a studio, we have therefore set ourselves an ambitious goal for 2026. We are working to replace as many US services as possible with European or self-hosted alternatives. Not out of principle, but out of conviction. We want more control, data protection and independence for ourselves and our projects. Find out how we are implementing this strategy and why it is crucial right now. 

What is digital sovereignty

Digital sovereignty describes the ability of individuals, companies and state institutions to control their own digital destinies. It is about not being dependent on individual providers or technologies without an alternative. Those who act sovereignly retain full control over stored data, the software used and the underlying infrastructure. In practice, this means above all saying goodbye to closed systems. Instead of relying on proprietary "black box" solutions, the focus is on transparency and interchangeability. For our work in the studio, this principle is a core value that ensures that we develop solutions that will remain secure and controllable for many years to come.

Bye bye US services

For a long time, using large US cloud services was the standard. However, the legal framework, particularly with regard to data protection and the GDPR, is making this dependency increasingly problematic. By not using services that transfer data uncontrolled to servers outside the EU, we minimize legal risks. Instead, we rely on infrastructures that meet local standards and provide the certainty that company data and user data are protected. 

European alternatives and open source

There are now excellent European alternatives for almost every area. Whether hosting, analytics or collaboration tools - providers from Europe not only offer data protection compliance, but often also more specialized support and state-of-the-art technology. We continuously evaluate the market to find the best tools for our projects.

The website european-alternatives.eu provides a nice overview of European alternatives to US solutions. 

A massive pillar of this sovereignty is open source. Software whose source code is open offers maximum transparency. The advantage: no provider can "lock in" through license models (vendor lock-in). When software is open source, it belongs to the community to a certain extent - and the solutions based on it are therefore investment-proof and highly customizable.

Advantages of self-hosted solutions

Self-hosted applications, i.e. solutions operated on your own or exclusively rented servers, offer maximum data control. In contrast to Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), where you rent and are subject to the provider's rules, with self-hosting you decide on updates, security intervals and storage locations yourself. This ensures a high level of efficiency in administration and often long-term cost savings, as rigid subscription models are no longer necessary. Self-hosted systems can also be integrated more seamlessly into existing IT landscapes and tailored precisely to internal workflows.

The effort is worth it

Switching to sovereign systems often requires a little more planning at the beginning than a quick click on a US SaaS product. But the strengths outweigh the disadvantages: Long-term security, ethical data processing and technical freedom are valuable assets in today's world. We see future potential above all in the combination of European cloud initiatives and mature open source software. Critically, it must be noted that the responsibility is higher with self-hosting - maintenance and updates must be professionally supported. This is precisely where we come in as a partner to manage this complexity so that you can concentrate on your core business.