Cloud: Row in Bavaria over billion-euro Microsoft contract without tender

The Bavarian state government is facing massive criticism due to the planned awarding of a framework contract to Microsoft worth an estimated almost one billion euros over the next five years without a prior tender. The upcoming decision is perceived as questionable in terms of social and fiscal policy against the backdrop of the simultaneous cancellation of central family benefits such as the promised child start-up bonus and the family and nursery allowance for newborns. Around 144,000 signatures on a petition attest to the broad public misunderstanding of this contrast.

On Saturday, initiators of the petition and parents wanted to demonstrate in Munich to set a signal against the state government's policy. In an urgent appeal to Minister-President Markus Söder, Finance Minister Albert Füracker (both CSU), and Digital Minister Fabian Mehring (Freie Wähler). Würzburg Professor Harald Wehnes, spokesperson for the presidium working group "digital sovereignty" of the Gesellschaft für Informatik (GI), calls, in the name of "concerned citizens, business representatives, and civil society," for the immediate suspension of contract negotiations with Microsoft. The urgent letter, available to heise online, states that the impending decision also represents a hardly calculable strategic risk for the Free State's digital operational capability.

Strategic risk due to new US security strategy

The concern is amplified by the latest developments in US foreign policy and the new US security strategy, which emphasizes unilateral measures by the United States and disregards European interests. Against this current foreign and security policy backdrop, the appellants consider it highly problematic to entrust Bavaria's core digital infrastructure and sensitive data to a US corporation that is subject to the directives of the Trump administration.

The plans, made public in November, with which the state government aims to sign an Enterprise Agreement (EA) for Microsoft 365 for the use of cloud services by authorities before the end of the year, are increasingly drawing the attention of IT experts. For example, the GI's Security department recommends in a statement that the criteria of the EU Commission's framework for sovereign clouds be applied before the conclusion or consolidation of a possible framework contract with the software giant. The goal is to keep an eye on digitalization for the common good and strategic resilience.

GI spokesperson Daniel Loebenberger urges caution: "Of course, pragmatic solutions are often desirable or even necessary in practice." However, these should not lead "to further dependencies that are uncontrollable in an emergency."

Bavarian IT industry laments wrong path

The computer scientists point out that commissioning a US hyperscaler without a tender at the state, federal, or EU level contradicts the goals of the EU Commission and the federal government. This would undermine the opportunities for promoting European providers, for legally compliant storage and processing of sensitive data, and for resilience against software and update availability.

Instead, the department advocates for focusing on strategic resilience when building the digital infrastructure in Bavarian authorities and ensuring data protection without a doubt. Only in this way can citizens' trust in the administration be guaranteed.

Representatives of the Bavarian IT industry and the open-source scene also warn in an open letter against the outflow of tax money without regional value creation and the exclusion of competition. They criticize a "wrong path." The project contradicts the EU trend and deprives the domestic IT industry of funds. There are blatant risks, not only concerning data protection, especially in light of cases at the International Criminal Court. Instead, the signatories demand "in-house development in transparency" and the consistent use of European open-source alternatives.

(nie)