Not Fully Digitally Sovereign Versus Increasing Cost of Leaving

In a session earlier today the deployment of a tool was discussed in an organisation’s information environment that is otherwise fully dominated by Microsoft products. After a presentation a director asked “if we add this tool to our (Microsoft) mix, aren’t we working in opposition to our wish for more digital autonomy and digital sovereignty”? The answer was “well you are already using Microsoft tools everywhere so sourcing this one tool from someplace else won’t change your autonomy in any way.” I disagree. This is the pitfall of “it’s only worth changing if we can get from here to a mythical ideal situation in a single easy step, otherwise we’ll stay put”. Indeed, opting to source a single tool outside of the walled garden you’re in does not change anything about you being in that walled garden as such. But adding a tool within the walled garden does make it harder still to leave that walled garden in the future. It increases your cost of leaving once more. You have to begin…