Sustainable digitalisation with open source

Future-proof digitalisation must go beyond technical efficiency and consider ecological and social impacts. Sustainable digitalisation combines resource-efficient IT infrastructures with technological transparency and digital sovereignty. Open source software (OSS) offers an important basic prerequisite for this.

The opportunity for sustainable digitalisation

The digital transformation is at a turning point. While traditional IT approaches with high energy consumption, short hardware lifecycles and digital dependencies are reaching their limits, new paths are opening up for truly sustainable digitalisation. Away from proprietary systems with vendor lock-in and artificially shortened lifecycles and towards open, transparent and long-lasting solutions. This transformation not only offers ecological benefits, but also strengthens digital sovereignty and democratic structures.

Open source technologies are already showing how digitalisation can be designed to be resource-efficient, transparent and sustainable.

Open source as the key

Open source software systematically breaks through these problem cycles.

• Extended lifecycles through openness: software with open source code remains usable in the long term - regardless of the business decisions of individual providers. Even after decades, it can be customised, further developed and integrated into new environments. This reduces new purchases and also significantly extends hardware usage times.
• Circular economy in software development: The collaborative development and maintenance of open source projects minimises the resources required. Proven components are reused instead of newly developed. At the same time, robust, mature solutions are created through collective expertise.
• Transparency as a sustainability factor: open source code enables complete control over data processing and system behaviour. Organisations can design their digital processes themselves and are not dependent on external providers - a crucial building block for long-term stable IT strategies.

Practical example: OpenCloud as a sustainable alternative

OpenCloud demonstrates how sustainable digitalisation works in practice.

Demand-oriented architecture: The modular structure enables precise configuration. Only required functions are installed, which reduces resource consumption and complexity.

Modern code: Programming in GO is lean and resource-efficient. The same applies to the absence of extra databases.

Sovereign infrastructure: The platform can be self-hosted. Data remains under your own control.

Open source: Completely open source code - the solution remains available and customisable in the long term.

Political course set for sustainable IT

Technology alone is not enough. Sustainable digitalisation needs a supportive framework. In its opening speech, the newly created Federal Ministry for Digital and State Modernisation (BMDS) explicitly committed itself to digital sovereignty and open source. Federal Minister Dr Karsten Wildberger explained:

"We urgently need more independent digital infrastructures, our own standards, open source and our own technologies - not in isolation, but as part of fair, open and innovation-driven competition."
(Source: Federal Government, speech from 27. May 2025)

Against this background, certain political guidelines for sustainable digitalisation are becoming increasingly important.

• Public Money, Public Code: Public funds should flow specifically into sustainable and sovereign digital infrastructures.
• Fair standards as an objective in tenders: Public procurement should take greater account of interoperability and manufacturer independence.
• Promoting digital commons: Investments in open source infrastructures strengthen digital sovereignty.
• Sustainability criteria in digital policy: Ecological effects should be considered in all digital policy decisions.
• Strengthening digital education: Digital skills - including in dealing with open source - should be promoted in educational institutions.

Sustainability as a competitive advantage

Organisations that focus on sustainable digitalisation today create strategic advantages for themselves: they reduce dependencies, lower long-term costs and meet growing compliance requirements. At the same time, they are strengthening their awareness of digital resilience in the face of geopolitical tensions and corporate dependencies.

Conclusion: The future is open

Sustainable digitalisation is not a luxury, but a necessity for a future worth living. Open source software offers proven solutions for the major challenges of our digital transformation. With platforms such as OpenCloud or video conferencing solutions such as OpenTalk, alternatives are already available today - powerful, secure and sustainable.

The decision is up to us: do we remain trapped in the dependency structures of the past or do we shape an open, sustainable digital future?