SAP sovereignty versus vendor lock-in

Strength through cooperation and vendor lock-in

SAP is securing its own survival and dominance among existing customers by expanding its own selfish sovereignty. This once again increases the risk of vendor lock-in for users.

„Europe's competitiveness depends on being uncompromisingly innovative – and to achieve this, technological excellence must go hand in hand with genuine digital sovereignty,“ said Christian Klein, CEO of SAP SE, at an event in Berlin, Germany. „Through our collaboration with France's outstanding AI ecosystem, SAP is helping to create a trusted digital foundation for Europe. In this way, we are promoting open innovation, protecting data, and ensuring that technology benefits people and progress.“

However, SAP's new digital platform is another step toward absolute ERP monopoly. Previously, SAP R/3 and later ERP/ECC 6.0 were the starting point for free choice of databases and operating systems. With the introduction of S/4, SAP has radically curtailed this sovereignty for its existing customers: a broad and sovereign offering has become the singularity of „Linux and Hana.“ Existing SAP customers no longer have free choice for S/4. There is no sovereignty in the SAP community!

SAP is now expanding its ERP monopoly through further collaborations, securing a unique position in Europe. SAP has announced a collaboration with French AI companies, including partnerships with Bleu, Capgemini, and Mistral AI. According to SAP, the aim of this collaboration is to combine its own ERP expertise with France's AI ecosystem. The goal is to develop AI-powered cloud solutions that ensure the protection of data and intellectual property while driving Europe's digital transformation. The announcement was made at the European Digital Sovereignty Summit in Berlin, where France and Germany placed particular emphasis on promoting innovation and competitiveness in Europe.

Delos Cloud: digital SAP sovereignty

Officially, the aim is to protect Europe's digital infrastructure. Ultimately, however, SAP is expanding its monopoly-like structures and will be in a position to dictate even more prices and conditions: Whereas SAP partners used to be ambassadors in the SAP community who brought SAP products to market with their knowledge of them, SAP partners are now expected to become customers themselves in order to gain access to SAP products. SAP partners are to license „Joule for Consultants“ in order to advance SAP's AI business. A free partner license is not in SAP's sovereign interest.

Through their collaboration, Bleu and Delos Cloud aim to strengthen European IT resilience and digital sovereignty. Together, they intend to set new standards for trustworthy data management and operational reliability – both for crisis prevention and long-term stability. The result will be a further expansion of SAP's ERP monopoly. Officially, Bleu and Delos Cloud are ready to make a decisive contribution to Europe's digital sovereignty in cooperation with SAP, government agencies, and governments. Their common goal is to keep critical infrastructure secure, resilient, and under European control.

Cloud, AI, and sovereignty

The concerns raised about the lack of security, transformation, and sovereignty of its existing customers enable SAP to adopt a new approach to market control: these partnerships form an essential pillar of a comprehensive SAP Sovereign Cloud solution, which officially aims to strengthen Europe's digital sovereignty and exploit the full potential of AI.

SAP intends to intensify its investments in European sovereignty and is also deploying the SAP Cloud Infrastructure Service in local data centers. By combining governance and strict compliance, SAP aims to retain complete control over data and assets.

SAP and Mistral AI have announced the expansion of their strategic partnership with the aim of accelerating digital transformation and strengthening Europe's technical sovereignty in the field of AI. SAP plans to make Mistral AI's frontier AI, including Le Chat, available via the sovereign AI Foundation on the Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP). Mistral AI Studio will be integrated into the AI Foundation and SAP's BTP solution, enabling customers and partners to develop and deploy sovereign cloud applications and AI agents securely, compliantly, and at scale in their own environments.

The AI Foundation within BTP serves as an integration layer. Together with partners and supported by governments, Mistral AI and SAP want to lay the foundation for scalable and compliant AI solutions in Europe – naturally covering sovereign AI from hardware to platforms and applications to the user interface. SAP's aim is to take over the entire IT/ERP stack from existing customers, which ultimately represents a final vendor lock-in.