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Here's how to work your way away from Microsoft step by step (without a big bang)
If you want digital sovereignty, real control over your own data, the ecosystem of big tech is not the best choice. In fact, not an option at all. Recent events like the ICC email shutdown have shown that.
The other day I had a discussion with someone about how easy the ecosystem of big tech - in this case Microsoft - can actually be replaced. His take: impossible for a big club like the one he represents. My position: it can be done and easier than you think.
Microsoft's ecosystem is a prison with high walls, barbed wire and machine guns on the guard towers. With the right knowledge and the right choices, you can bail fairly quickly and work toward your final release. Here's how.
You have less integration now than you think
What you want is a Swiss army knife. An ecosystem with diverse tools that work together seamlessly, designed to reinforce each other rather than work against each other.
Microsoft's ecosystem is a bin of cutlery. And then also of different brands, metals and sizes. Nothing really fits together. The patchwork of Microsoft services gives you a fragmented landscape where everything seems to integrate but in reality are loose fragments.
You think you're working together. But ... have you ever tried having a file in both OneDrive and SharePoint? Then you have two copies of the file. If you email that file to a colleague via Outlook, two copies will appear, one in your outbox (or “Outbox”) and one in the colleague's inbox. The latter saves it again in his or her OneDrive (because editing from your Inbox and saving it there again is not possible), which is already 5. Before you know it, you have dozens of copies of a file. And no one who knows anymore what the current version is or where it is.
Well I have only named 3 services from Microsoft and we already have complete version chaos. Microsoft has many more services that do not integrate with each other in the same way. If you then start sharing your files via Teams as well, the number of copies grows even faster.
Of course you can share a SharePoint link via email. And SharePoint automatically opens Word when you click on a document. But to call that integration ...
Microsoft calls it an "Ecosystem. I call it a costly patchwork.
The security nightmare of this patchwork is even worse
The only real integration Microsoft offers is an authorization database used by all services. Users have the same user ID for each service and are in the same groups.
If you think that this takes care of security then I have to help you out of a dream. The identity of users may be uniform, but access to files, data and services is not.
If you close data - files or data - to certain users or groups in Sharepoint, they can still access the version stored in a shared OneDrive folder. Or someone who still has access just emails it: "I really need the file right now, can you email it? I can't access it." Or a dozen other ways to still see or even modify the file.
In a Teams chat, there is no control at all: if someone posts a file there, everyone in that chat has access - including external participants who join the Teams meeting without logging in.
And the reverse is also true: you give someone access in one place, but in other places in the Microsoft landscape you have to manually reset that. You think you have rights set up properly, but in reality you have to put out loose flames in dozens of places.
The result? A seemingly secure ecosystem in which your user management seems central, but your access to sensitive data actually leaks in all directions.
That lack of integration makes switching easier
Ironically, there is also an advantage to the lousy integration of Microsoft services: it makes switching a lot easier than you might think.
Precisely because the parts of the Microsoft ecosystem are not really intertwined, you can replace them one by one. You don't have to do a complicated decommissioning where everything has to go over at once. No nerve-wracking big bang migration. No monolithic system that has to be phased out in its entirety. You just start with the part that is easiest to replace, hurts the most.
A good example is cloud storage. At first glance, OneDrive seems deeply intertwined with Teams, SharePoint and Outlook, but in practice it's just a standalone storage service. You can replace this cloud service without fuss with any modern, secure cloud storage solution - from Nextcloud to Dropbox Business or even an on-prem alternative. Users continue to see the same file structure, the same folders, the same documents - only the engine behind it is different. And most importantly, more secure.
The same goes for other components: replace Outlook with a mail client that does provide visibility, replace Teams with a platform that takes privacy and interoperability seriously, and replace SharePoint with a document management system (DMS) designed and built for collaboration rather than chaos.
Every service can be disconnected. Exactly that is the golden opportunity. Not turn everything upside down in one fell swoop, but step by step to governance and control.
The biggest challenge is not in the technology
Presumably you and I agree: technology is rarely the problem. Switching from Microsoft to alternatives is not easy, but technically doable. The real challenge is elsewhere: in the organization.
People have become accustomed to how things work now - or rather: to how they don't work, but appear to work. Ways of working are built around Microsoft tools, however inefficiently. Procedures, document structures, communication flows ... everything is attached to them. Not because it is ideal, but because it is the status quo.
You don't get rid of it with one click. It requires vision, knowledge and above all, guidance and communication. Teams must learn to work with new tools, but also understand why those tools are there. Only then will there be support for change.
Training, communication and support are crucial. Not only at the tool level, but also in terms of mindset: dare to let go of what you know, and dare to build something better.
Yes, it's an investment. But one that more than pays for itself. In lower licensing costs. In more efficient processes. In more control over your data, your way of working and your future. And fewer complaints because let's also be honest, if the coffee machine had ears ...
Ready for a life after Big Tech?
Maybe it still feels like a leap of faith. But the route to digital autonomy is less technical and more achievable than you might think.
Would you like to spar about what such a transition looks like for your organization? Where to start, which pitfalls to avoid and how to get 100% support for the change?
Then schedule a non-binding appointment with me. Together we will look at how you can get more grip on your IT - and your future - step by step.