Essay

DIGITAL SOVEREIGNTY

TAKE BACK CONTROL OF

Dale Murray on why he believes the trend towards proprietary

In Europe, ‘digital sovereignty’ is one of the hot starts to create some interesting conflicts around the
issues right now but what is it exactly and why idea of ‘digital sovereignty’.
should any of us be concerned about it – either as For example, both the German and the UK governments
individuals or as organisations? are currently considering whether to allow Chinese
Digital sovereignty refers to the control an entity has telecoms giant Huawei to play a leading role in the
over its own digital footprint. At an individual level, this implementation of their countries’ 5G networks. While
involves a person’s right to choose how and where their news reports inevitably focus on whipping up sensational
personal data is gathered, processed and distributed. At claims of potential espionage, the more mundane issue
an organisational level, it refers to the control the to consider is whether a UK or German firm can claim
organisation has over its own systems and how customer to have total sovereignty over its data if that same data
data is gathered, processed and distributed. is fully accessible by an organisation based in China or
The introduction of the EU’s General Data Protection the US. Legally, right now, this is a concern that remains
Regulation (GDPR) in 2018 set out key principles to govern a grey area.
how organisations use customer data, relating to Likewise, consider this: the number one trend in
lawfulness, fairness and transparency; purpose business IT in recent years has been the migration of
limitation; accuracy; storage limitation; integrity and software, systems and data to cloud-based platforms,
confidentiality; and accountability. As a result, European often platforms from major vendors based in the US.
businesses are taking their data security and storage This is understandable, thanks to factors like the stable
arrangements more seriously than ever before. environment, the cost savings from reducing
infrastructure, the centralisation and mobile accessibility
THREATENING CLOUDS of data and so on.
However, European businesses and customers also However, with the growing popularity of relocating
transact with countries all over the world, not all of services and data to the cloud, we are creating growing
which will be bound by the provisions of GDPR. This dependencies on a small number of large US firms,

march 2020 21
VOICES Essay

threatening the digital sovereignty that the principles A FRESH LOOK AT OPEN SOURCE
of GDPR seeks to ensure. For organisations of all sizes, there are ample reasons
Do users of these cloud services still have full control to take another look at what open-source solutions could
and transparency over their customers’ data? What’s bring to the table. For growing organisations, open
more, can you ensure digital sovereignty for your own source enables you to scale up without simultaneously
customers if you are using proprietary software that scaling up costs on user licences.
inherently limits your control over the data, interfaces, The first step is to audit the systems you currently
source code or jurisdiction? I would argue not. Thankfully have – or plan to have – that hold or process customer
though, there is an alternative. data. Then look at the alternative solutions available,
including open-source options. Get involved with some
OPEN FOR BUSINESS relevant open-source communities to ensure that the
Open source is key to decentralising the web and taking solution you are considering has an active, stable
back control of data from the big tech firms. Governmental community behind it that has lots of traction and is
institutions and companies in Europe risk losing control updating regularly.
of their data. By companies utilising open-source CRM data is the heart of any organisation and a good
projects and government institutions funding open- place to start for most. With open-source CRM,
source projects, we can remove the dependencies on organisations can ensure their data is completely within
large US firms that consume huge volumes of private their control and maintain their digital sovereignty.
data as a business model. Next, organisations could look at utilising open-source
Open source is not a new idea. Open-source software solutions for groupware services such as email and
(where the source code is released under a license in document storage (thus, side-stepping proprietary cloud
which the copyright holder grants users the rights to solutions such as Google Drive). Things like analytics,
study, change and distribute it) is often developed in a security – basically anything that consumes, stores or
collaborative public manner. The main barrier to open- processes customer data – should also be considered.
source adoption over the years has been its historic European organisations and public institutions need
reputation – ie that the open-source community is made to assess their IT strategy and look at opportunities to
up of individual developers coding from their mums’ embed open source to meet the following objectives:
basements – but, in 2020, things have changed.
Today, open source is big business. Microsoft acquired O Maximise innovation through the use of open source
GitHub in 2018 for $7.5bn; IBM bought Red Hat last year or contributing to open source
for $34bn. Most of the software we use today has some O Fully assess the data security and privacy risks to
element of open source within it, in fact Linux servers individual citizens or customers
have been in use for many years. If you have an Android O Reduce the dependencies they have on singular large
phone or a WordPress website, they are running on US vendors
open source.
So how does open source enable businesses to be At a government level, we shouldn’t be funding the
digitally sovereign? development of proprietary software and creating
dependencies that we can’t easily escape. If, instead,
O Transparency: Only open source can guarantee full government funding was devoted to investing in open-
control and transparency over their application and source projects, public money would be spent for public
its data. good, providing more control and removing our growing
O Freedom of choice: With open source there is no vendor dependencies on overseas tech giants.
lock-in. You have freedom of choice with who you host Digital sovereignty is something that can still be
your data with. You are free to move between vendors achieved in Europe. As a regulatory powerhouse, GDPR
or support yourself. You have a choice to host on was a great stride in the direction of digital sovereignty
premise or in the cloud. but much still needs to be done. Europe should be looking
O Standardisation: Providing standard open-source at open source not only to reduce its total cost of
software for standard services and problems means ownership but also as an enabler of digital sovereignty
that we reduce the effort needed when it comes to and data privacy.
providing ‘commodity’ services.
O Shared knowledge: By building open communities
Murray is CEO of SalesAgility and is
PROFILE

around software, we are sharing knowledge and skills responsible for the company’s strategic
that reduce these pockets of proprietary knowledge. growth plans and initiatives, leading and
O Security: You have visible access to the code base to guiding its senior management team.
run your own security audits or compliance checks. w: salesagility.com

22 march 2020