Regaining sovereignty through a hybrid strategy: how SMEs can cut their IT costs

The repeated outages we have seen at major cloud platforms have shown it: scaling up doesn’t automatically offer comprehensive protection against disruptions. Microsoft 365, Azure Front Door and AWS have all been affected by such issues in recent times. In the case of AWS, the provider experienced an increased error rate and EC2 instances failing to launch for several hours. For many businesses, these events had a significant effect on their IT infrastructure. At the same time, list prices are soaring and license periods are growing longer, increasing costs and operational risks for medium-sized companies. This explains why they now have three major to-dos: reducing IT costs, strengthening their sovereignty and safeguarding their infrastructure.

What could be the answer to this challenge? A well-thought-out hybrid approach combining two types of licenses. While perpetual licenses secure usage rights for an indefinite period of time and therefore represent the very core of a business’s software environment, using cloud services is appropriate where flexibility and integration offer real value. Central workloads thus remain predictable while preserving independence. The outcome: major savings and a highly resilient IT infrastructure.

Three pillars for long-term IT savings
The framework is based on three interconnected pillars. The first relates to pragmatic IT consulting, which aims to systematically assess the business’s needs, the existing license models and available alternatives, as well as to create structured migration and operational scenarios. This offers them transparent decision-making criteria to decrease their IT expenditures. The second pillar hinges on professional procurement of used software. Purchasing either current or older software versions frees up financial resources that can be reinvested into the business’s IT infrastructure. ‘Second-hand software’ has a much less hefty price tag than new licenses, and these savings directly impact the overall software landscape costs. Managing licenses systematically using SAM tools for more clarity and transparency is the third pillar of this money-saving strategy. This ensures that documents, keys and installation files are managed centrally, that deployment is faster and that there is a reliable basis for any audits to take place.

Another advantage is that when IT support is independent of any particular software company, up-to-date or older but tried-and-tested versions run smoothly and without having to rely on one single provider. Taken together, these three pillars build an operating model that puts predictability and resilience front and centre. And by implementing this approach, companies can considerably cut their costs across their entire IT infrastructure.

Used software: a legally compliant cost-saving option
Companies have the right to buy software licenses ‘second-hand’ and to sell them on, as was unequivocally confirmed by the European Court of Justice in 2012. Yet many SMEs are hardly availing themselves of this competitive advantage. By turning to the resale market, they avoid compliance risks during audits, as the reseller provides certificates and independent checks are carried out. There is no need to disclose all original contracts. Used software is therefore by no means a compromise: it is a strategic building block to sustainably slash IT costs and software infrastructure expenditures.

Opting for a hybrid IT strategy: the key to cutting costs and mitigating risks
Businesses deliberately combining perpetual licenses and selected cloud solutions while ticking all the boxes in the three-pillar model (consulting, procurement and license management) can achieve massive savings. This strategy goes hand in hand with increased certainty while reducing operational risks. The result: a hybrid IT system that is more self-sufficient, tailored to the needs of SMEs and mitigates any risks of price hikes, outages and sudden changes in business models on the part of the provider. When it comes to IT expenditure, this puts businesses back in the driver’s seat while creating the right conditions for long-term cost savings.