Chancellor Scholz promotes "sovereign" government cloud from SAP and Microsoft

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Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) is personally committed to a cloud project from SAP and Microsoft. At a conference with the minister presidents of the federal states on June 20, Scholz "informed" them about the cloud offer, which is intended to provide federal and state authorities with a particularly high level of data protection for Microsoft services. This is according to documents from a meeting of the IT Planning Council, which are available to c't.

A government spokesperson did not want to explain to c't exactly what the Chancellor said at the conference. According to a report in Handelsblatt, Scholz appealed to the heads of the federal states to make a commitment to using the cloud. They could not do without such a sovereign cloud, he said. He is reported to have said that it was a "very decisive moment for Germany" and that he would "sign a contract immediately". According to the newspaper, Scholz had an appointment with SAP CEO Christian Klein shortly before the conference.

Countries should recognize "potential added value"

According to the IT Planning Council documents, Scholz and the minister presidents agreed that the federal and state governments would "meet again in a suitable format in the near future". The Federal Ministry of the Interior then convened a special meeting of the IT Planning Council at short notice and formulated a proposed resolution. According to this, the committee should "welcome the interest of the federal states and local authorities" in the SAP-Microsoft cloud and recognize "the potential added value of this joint use".

However, the federal government's proposed resolution was rejected by the federal states: No resolution was reached at the meeting. According to statements from participants, the representatives of several federal states felt that the federal government had run over them.

Contra from Kiel and Erfurt

Schleswig-Holstein and Thuringia had already tabled an amendment that implicitly criticized the Microsoft SAP project. "For the sovereignty of a state, the ability to influence the operating processes of the IT solutions used and to be in control of state data flows is indispensable," it says – a side blow against the proprietary Microsoft software that forms the core of the cloud. Schleswig-Holstein relies on open source software for its authorities and is currently switching to Libre Office.

Scholz has probably been aware of the Microsoft SAP project for some time: Back in 2021, the US company made the German government an offer to set up a special government cloud together with a German operating company. On the federal side, the Ministry of Finance led the negotiations with Microsoft – and Scholz was still Minister of Finance at the time. In 2022, SAP and Arvato Systems announced that they wanted to take over the operation of the cloud.

Nervousness at SAP?

This model is intended to legally protect the data from access by US authorities. Microsoft will only supply the software, while the SAP subsidiary Delos will own and market the cloud and Arvato Systems will operate the data centers. Extensive technical security measures are also planned: According to Delos, Microsoft will provide the authorities with the source code of all updates, for example. The parties involved are therefore talking about a "sovereign" cloud. Its construction is already underway: according to information from c't, Microsoft is currently equipping data centers with the necessary technology.

However, SAP now seems to be nervous about the prospects of success. One sign of this is the surprising departure of Delos boss Georges Welz, who was recently replaced by Oliver Grothe-Kersten. It is not known whether SAP CEO Christian Klein mentioned the Delos project during his meeting with Chancellor Scholz. The company says: "As a leading DAX company and employer in Germany, we are in constant communication with the government. However, we do not comment on the content of our discussions." According to reports, SAP would like to see more expressions of interest from politicians.

Audits will continue until 2026

The company is faced with the dilemma of having to invest billions upfront, while the federal government is still reviewing whether the cloud complies with government requirements, for example in terms of information security and confidentiality, until the end of 2026 according to its plans. The Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), which has formulated "red lines" for cloud services, is also involved in the tests. Authorities can only book cloud services if the result is positive.

Another problem for SAP is that the IT strategies of the federal states and local authorities differ. Schleswig-Holstein and Thuringia rely comparatively heavily on open source. Other federal states, on the other hand, want to procure Microsoft services from the public cloud, at least for the time being and in certain, less sensitive areas – i.e. directly from Microsoft instead of Delos and therefore probably more cheaply.

Lower Saxony, for example , negotiatedspecial data protection regulations for the use of Teamswith Microsoft in April , thereby convincing the state data protection commissioner. He considers the result to be in need of improvement, but "acceptable". Hamburg is already working on the introduction of Microsoft 365 in the state administration.

(cwo)