Bavaria Digitalizes – But Please Not Too Much Open Source

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Bavaria Digitalizes – But Please Not Too Much Open Source

A commentary on a Heise article that unintentionally reveals more about political priorities than about technology.

1. Overview – What's This All About?

  • Author: Marie-Claire Koch
  • Medium: Heise Online
  • Date: November 24, 2025
  • Reading time: approx. 6 minutes (or: 3 minutes if you've read the word "Microsoft" often enough)

The article describes Bavaria's new digital strategy – and shows between the lines how to praise Open Source without ever seriously considering it.

2. Summary – "I Got It, Now You Do Too"

Topic

Bavaria wants to centralize IT, strengthen security, and modernize. Sounds good – until you notice how casually Open Source is made a side issue.

7 Most Important Points:

  1. Bavaria is building a central IT structure, and Microsoft has a prominent seat at the table.
  2. Repeated cyberattacks serve as justification for more centralization (p. 1).
  3. IT is distributed across three protection classes: Bavaria Data Center, German clouds, US hyperscalers (p. 2).
  4. The LSI takes over complete security monitoring – municipalities are fully integrated into the state's network (p. 2).
  5. A Microsoft supplementary agreement was "reviewed and approved" – so everything seems fine (pp. 2–3).
  6. Bauer claims Open Source is often too slow, the community doesn't respond quickly enough (p. 3).
  7. Bavaria's AI runs on Azure, receives 40 Nvidia GPUs and is supposed to modernize administration (pp. 3–4).

3. Opportunities & Risks – "It's Complicated"

Opportunities

  • Unified IT can make administration more efficient.
  • Centralized security appears more professional on paper.
  • A proprietary AI infrastructure could bring real benefits.

Risks

  • Dependence on Microsoft continues to grow – and that's called "digitalization."
  • Municipalities lose real decision-making authority.
  • Open Source is not examined, but argued away.

4. Looking to the Future – Realistically Pessimistic

Short-term (1 year)

  • Municipalities align with what is technically practical and politically desired – i.e., Microsoft.
  • First Bavaria AI demos generate headlines, but not yet real process efficiency.

Medium-term (5 years)

  • The central infrastructure becomes the de facto mandatory model – as voluntary as a tax return.
  • Open Source options remain piecemeal because they are not strategically promoted.

Long-term (10–20 years)

  • Bavaria could become a prime example of vendor lock-in.
  • The AI could become powerful – but the question is: Who really owns it?

5. Fact Check – "Where Is Transparency Missing?"

Documented:

  • The increase in cyberattacks (p. 1).
  • The cloud architecture and Microsoft cooperation (p. 2).
  • Development of proprietary AI infrastructure including GPUs (p. 4).

Unclear:

  • Why Open Source is supposedly "not fast enough" – no evidence whatsoever.
  • Why there are no comparative cost analyses – only assertions.
  • Why a Microsoft agreement is approved more easily than a serious Open Source strategy.
    [⚠️ Still to be verified]

The central question the article unintentionally raises:

Why Doesn't Bavaria Examine Open Source as Thoroughly as Microsoft?

The article shows (p. 3) that Open Source is pushed aside with a single argument:
"One cannot rely on the community implementing security requirements quickly enough."

This is remarkable – because:

  • The community implements security standards worldwide in critical systems.
  • Open Source software drives the internet, commercial traffic, and entire operating systems.
  • Many governmental solutions in Europe are already based on Open Source – successfully.

So when one claims Open Source is "not reliable enough" without even systematically examining it, a simple question arises:

Is this really about security – or about political convenience?

6. Brief Conclusion – Unvarnished

Bavaria modernizes – but in a direction that creates more dependencies than freedoms.
Open Source is mentioned, but not examined.
Microsoft is critically questioned – but ultimately becomes the practical standard.
Anyone serious about digitalization should do this differently.

7. Three Critical Questions That Must Be Asked

  1. Why is there no public, transparent comparative study between Microsoft and Open Source solutions?
  2. What freedom do municipalities lose when they are effectively forced into a central Microsoft structure?
  3. If Open Source supposedly "cannot deliver" – why has Bavaria never tried to strategically develop it?

Further Context

Thematically relevant: my earlier post on Bavaria's digital strategy:
➡️ https://clarus.news/de/Post/digitalstrategie-bayern-zentralisierung-mit-microsoft-statt-open-source-20251124

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