Strategy
In a globally networked, cloud-native infrastructure landscape, IT strategy is primarily risk management and economic optimisation. Every technological decision — from the choice of cloud region to the choice of framework — is a strategic bet on the organisation's future. We focus on achieving digital sovereignty through open standards, the consistent avoidance of proprietary lock-ins, and the establishment of a data-driven investment culture (FinOps).
This module addresses the intersection of business objectives and technological guardrails. It provides decision matrices for make-or-buy processes and defines the model of the "Sovereign Cloud" for the Swiss market.
Three Guiding Principles
Successful digital strategies rest on three strategic pillars:
- Digital Sovereignty and Open Source: Control over your own data and process infrastructure is non-negotiable. The use of Open Source software and open APIs ensures the organisation remains capable of acting, even when vendor strategies change.
- FinOps and Cloud Economics: Cloud costs are variable and require a new governance model. Technological decisions are made on the basis of their economic impact (TCO) and their efficiency (Unit Economics).
- Platform thinking & Ecosystems: Software is no longer conceived as an isolated application, but as part of a networked ecosystem. Interoperability is a primary architecture goal.
Related Topics
Open Items
Table of Contents
- Business Strategy: IT strategy as an economic lever. How ecosystems, APIs, and SaaS operating models determine the market value and scalability of organisations.
- Digital Sovereignty: Control over your own IT infrastructure and data. Why digital sovereignty through Open Source and open standards is the foundation for long-term operational independence.
- Make or Buy: The fundamental decision between custom development and standard software. An objective matrix for architecture decisions based on TCO and competitive advantage.
- Managed Services: Outsource operations, retain focus. When managed services and SaaS are the right choice, and where the limits lie.
- TCO: Calculate the total cost of an IT solution realistically. How TCO analyses uncover hidden costs and enable informed make-or-buy decisions.
- Vendor Lock-in: Recognising and assessing dependencies on cloud providers. Strategies for avoiding Vendor Lock-in through abstraction and standardisation.
- Legacy Modernisation: Modernise legacy core systems without disrupting operations. Strategies for legacy replacement from strangler fig migration to modular architecture.
- Public Code and SBOM: Public money for public code. Why Public Code and Software Bills of Materials (SBOM) are the foundation for trust and transparency in the public sector.
- OSS Business Models: Open source as a strategic economic asset. How companies create value through Open Source Program Offices (OSPO) and targeted licensing models.
- Data Monetization: Data as an intangible economic asset. How Infonomics and sovereign data architectures enable new revenue streams and efficiency gains.
- Innovation Management: Steering innovation systematically instead of relying on chance. How the 3-Horizons Model and structured experiments make the technology portfolio future-proof.
- Green IT: Ecological sustainability as a competitive factor. How efficient software architecture, Green Coding, and sustainable hosting optimize the IT balance sheet and costs.
- Marketing Automation, CDP and PLG: Scalable marketing through technology. How marketing automation, customer data platforms (CDP), and product-led growth (PLG) automate sales.
- Technical SEO and Core Web Vitals: SEO is an architectural topic. Why Core Web Vitals, semantic structure, and performance are more important today than isolated keywords.
- Ecommerce Architectures and Composable Platforms: Modern e-commerce architectures beyond monoliths. How Headless systems and Composable Commerce increase flexibility and scalability in online retail.
- SAM and FinOps: Control over software assets and cloud costs. How Software Asset Management (SAM) and FinOps secure the economic efficiency of the IT landscape.
- OSPO: Open source as a core component of the software supply chain. How an Open Source Program Office (OSPO) steers the strategic use and compliance of OSS.
- Hardware and Workplace: The physical workplace in a digital world. Why hardware strategy, Endpoint Security, and Zero-Trust at the endpoint are critical to productivity.
- Digital Workplace (M365): Productivity and governance in the Microsoft ecosystem. How a structured M365 architecture enables collaboration and prevents data sprawl.
- Partner Management: Successful steering of IT service providers and agencies. How partner management through clear SLAs, transparency, and shared goals secures quality.