One ecosystem, eight roles
A sovereign IT infrastructure is not built by a single company. Someone develops the products, someone ships them, someone designs the architecture, someone builds it, someone runs it. The network maps this chain completely – every member belongs to one of eight categories.
Manufacturers develop and produce IT products headquartered and originating in the EU. They are listed in the souveraenitaet.info directory, bring their products into the network, train the partners and grant the cooperative partner terms.
Distributors stock the manufacturers’ products and supply system integrators and resellers. Through the cooperative, even small partners gain access to distribution terms otherwise reserved for volume buyers.
System integrators plan, implement and support complete infrastructures at the customer – across all ten layers, with a single point of contact.
IT service providers deliver project and integration services around individual layers or products: a cloud migration, a firewall rollout, a groupware transition.
Consultants support customers vendor-neutrally on strategy, architecture, compliance and the question of how much sovereignty makes sense for an organisation.
Managed service providers run infrastructure and applications on the customer’s behalf on an ongoing basis – monitoring, patching, backup, support – and carry operational responsibility.
Value added resellers sell the manufacturers’ products and add their own services such as configuration, training or support.
Cloud service providers deliver sovereign cloud infrastructure and platform services from EU data centres on which partners operate their solutions.
In practice the boundaries are fluid – a system integrator often also operates, a consultant sometimes implements. Each member chooses the category that best describes its focus.
What the cooperative takes care of
Purchasing. The cooperative pools its partners’ demand and negotiates joint terms with manufacturers and distributors. A partner with twenty employees gains access to prices otherwise reserved for large corporations.
Qualification. Training and certification are organised through the network so that every partner masters the products it deploys or operates. Manufacturers train once instead of every partner individually.
Reference architectures. The network maintains proven combinations across the ten layers – which firewall with which hypervisor, which groupware with which identity management. Partners need not test every integration themselves.
Referral. Customers who contact the network are referred to suitable members – by region, category and expertise. Larger projects are delivered by several partners together; the cooperative coordinates.
Visibility. The network appears as a whole towards customers, associations and public buyers – with the weight of all its members.
How decisions are made
Every member has one vote in the general assembly, regardless of size and category. The board manages the business, the supervisory board oversees it. Manufacturers and partners are members alike – both sides’ interests are represented in the same bodies instead of being negotiated against each other in sales contracts.
What the network is not
Not a distributor with its own warehouse, not a franchise system, not an exclusive sales channel. Members remain independent and may continue to work with whomever they choose. The network is an offer that makes deploying European products simpler, cheaper and more reliable.