German experts warn against digital dependence after Microsoft outage

In the wake of Friday's massive global disruption to Microsoft's central cloud services, experts in Germany have warned against relying on a sole provider for digital services.

Many companies, schools and government authorities in Germany and other countries rely on Microsoft for their computer systems, they noted.

That dependence poses a risk, especially following the widespread disruption of several services offered by the US corporation, which have since been resolved, the experts and industry associations believe.

"Anyone who makes themselves unilaterally dependent on a single source for central digital technologies risks production downtimes and competitive disadvantages in an emergency," said Ralf Wintergerst, president of the industry association Bitkom.

According to Bitkom, 96% of companies in Germany procure digital technologies and services from abroad. In the event of a complete outage, a clear majority expects an impact on their production and business operations.

Georg Glasze, an expert in digital sovereignty at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), also sees the problem of far-reaching societal consequences resulting from a single technical error at major providers.

"The more closely communication, data storage and work processes are linked together, the more difficult it becomes to replace individual components or switch to other providers," Glasze told dpa.

Experts: Break up centralization

In the view of IT security expert Christopher Kunz, numerous commercial enterprises chose to solely rely on Microsoft for cloud solutions and communication software. "Yet that is neither sovereign nor resilient," said the expert from the Heise Online trade magazine.

The risks for German society and the economy are significant "because we are not only at the mercy of Microsoft's technical competence, but also the goodwill of the US government," said Kunz. 

"Through sanctions, it can ensure in a flash that individual organizations or even entire nations lose access to the Microsoft cloud."

IT security consultant Manuel Atug also demands that centralization around a few service providers be urgently broken up. There are enough alternative providers from Germany or Europe, noted the founder and spokesperson for AG Kritis, an alliance of independent experts for critical infrastructures. 

Alternatives needed for emergencies

While there are no indications of a cyberattack in the Microsoft disruption, the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) stresses that regardless of whether technical errors or cyberattacks cause system failures, clear procedures are needed so processes can continue and companies can remain operational.

According to the BSI, resilience includes not only fending off threats but also preparing alternatives. The call to better prepare for emergencies is also shared by Alexander Rabe, managing director of Eco, the Association of the Internet Industry.

"For this, we need redundant infrastructures, sufficient data centre capacities, and independent fallback options," said Rabe.

On Thursday, central services of the Microsoft 365 suite started to experience outages worldwide. In addition to the email service Outlook, this affected the office communication program Teams, file storage services SharePoint and OneDrive, the AI assistant Copilot and the administrative portal for IT administrators.

At the end of August, Microsoft's cloud and email services also suffered a widespread outage lasting hours, during which users could not log in or send and receive messages.