Absolutely. It's not just the public administrations thinking about a switch. Procuring IT platforms for a small charity, my current job, the first feature I look for is not the platform cost or performance, it's where the HQs are located. Being outside the USA is immediate extra points.
This is a really thorough, and practical look at the risks/rewards of disentangling from foreign control of critical communications. I have to hope Canada is in the process of doing something similar, to secure our data storage and critical comms systems.
I think if we want to emphasize the message to the country of "money over all else" writ large, then as individuals we can start unsubscribing from all US tech and moving off of the US owned computer platforms... and (gasp) phones as well.
Kick 'em in the wallet and they will notice. Nothing else works.
I've unsubscribed from most Apple services (except backups till I find an afordable Canadian source) Amazon next. Meta and the rest have been binned years ago. (Crooks)
I'm slowly switching from Mac to Linux... on the same hardware. After that the iphones get chucked.
The gov's eventual move away is important but not as important as the power of individuals... we've already proven that with buying Canadian. Now let's complete the journyey!
I posted about this on Substack a few weeks ago, at the time, the migration was underway but you provided a lot more info on the tools they will use to replace MS Products but there is a lot more than Microsoft. Users of Amazon Web Service, Oracle, Google and many other tools from US based companies could also be vulnerable to edicts from the Administration. Unfortunately many governments and corporations rely on these tools to operate and are deeply embedded in their systems.
In Canada we have exactly the same issues and vulnerabilities even if contracts with say AWS, apparently stipulate that the cloud data must be kept in the country, we now see how these contracts are not protecting our sovereignty. Maybe the Federal, Provincial and municipal governments in Canada should re-examine their threat assessment for these products and services, in light of the new information.
Munich switched from Windows to Linux in 2013, saving millions of euros. Microsoft moved their head office to Munich and then spent millions of dollars on a charm offensive, offering a huge discount if the city switched back. It worked. In 2020, Munich switched back to Windows. Admittedly it was more about money than security and Microsoft desperately needed to avoid having a successful precedent, but it shows that money talks and it'll probably happen again.
Absolutely. It's not just the public administrations thinking about a switch. Procuring IT platforms for a small charity, my current job, the first feature I look for is not the platform cost or performance, it's where the HQs are located. Being outside the USA is immediate extra points.
This is a really thorough, and practical look at the risks/rewards of disentangling from foreign control of critical communications. I have to hope Canada is in the process of doing something similar, to secure our data storage and critical comms systems.
US doesn’t hold all the cards
I think if we want to emphasize the message to the country of "money over all else" writ large, then as individuals we can start unsubscribing from all US tech and moving off of the US owned computer platforms... and (gasp) phones as well.
Kick 'em in the wallet and they will notice. Nothing else works.
I've unsubscribed from most Apple services (except backups till I find an afordable Canadian source) Amazon next. Meta and the rest have been binned years ago. (Crooks)
I'm slowly switching from Mac to Linux... on the same hardware. After that the iphones get chucked.
The gov's eventual move away is important but not as important as the power of individuals... we've already proven that with buying Canadian. Now let's complete the journyey!
Enlighten
Thanks for reminding us what can be done
I posted about this on Substack a few weeks ago, at the time, the migration was underway but you provided a lot more info on the tools they will use to replace MS Products but there is a lot more than Microsoft. Users of Amazon Web Service, Oracle, Google and many other tools from US based companies could also be vulnerable to edicts from the Administration. Unfortunately many governments and corporations rely on these tools to operate and are deeply embedded in their systems.
In Canada we have exactly the same issues and vulnerabilities even if contracts with say AWS, apparently stipulate that the cloud data must be kept in the country, we now see how these contracts are not protecting our sovereignty. Maybe the Federal, Provincial and municipal governments in Canada should re-examine their threat assessment for these products and services, in light of the new information.
Munich switched from Windows to Linux in 2013, saving millions of euros. Microsoft moved their head office to Munich and then spent millions of dollars on a charm offensive, offering a huge discount if the city switched back. It worked. In 2020, Munich switched back to Windows. Admittedly it was more about money than security and Microsoft desperately needed to avoid having a successful precedent, but it shows that money talks and it'll probably happen again.
Excellent info Fred! Thanks!