The article provided a stark, real-world example of this dependence: a judge for the international criminal court (ICC) who suddenly found himself unable to use essential Microsoft and Google tools due not to a technical issue, but to US government sanctions imposed on the court. This anecdote illustrates a critical failure of digital sovereignty—a sudden, external loss of control over core operational capabilities, proving that reliance on closed, foreign systems is a massive single point of failure.
At Hainzelman, we firmly believe that this vulnerability is the ultimate risk facing enterprises adopting Artificial Intelligence. AI is too strategic to compromise on control. We have built our architecture on the premise that true AI success requires an open, sovereign foundation, eliminating lock-in by design.
Lock-In is Now a Geopolitical and Compliance Risk
Vendor lock-in in the AI era hides in layers far beneath the surface. It occurs at the fundamental level of the AI stack: proprietary vector schemas, closed agent runtimes, and non-portable workflow specifications. This risk is compounded by geopolitical exposure, turning a commercial dependency into an operational threat.
Furthermore, this risk is rapidly becoming a regulatory problem. Legislation like the EU Data Act (2027) and the EU AI Act (2025–2027) are establishing portability and supplier oversight as compliance expectations, making single-vendor dependencies increasingly difficult to justify for critical systems.
Hainzelman: True Component Swappability and Standards
Our platform is engineered to prevent external loss of control, providing the architectural foundation necessary for digital sovereignty:
- True Component Swappability: The Hainzelman Platform utilizes an open modular architecture (HainzelStack) designed for maximum flexibility. This means that every core component—including the data layer, AI models, agents, workflows, and hosting infrastructure (EU-Cloud or On-Premises)—is swappable. This ensures technological independence and protects investments against future technological or geopolitical shifts.
- Interoperability via Industry Standards: To ensure true portability and collaboration across different systems, the platform adheres to critical industry standards like the Model Context Protocol (MCP) and Agent-to-Agent (A2A) protocols. This standards-based approach ensures that clients are never locked into proprietary workflows or communication methods.
- Controlled Access & Governance: By offering ready-to-deploy, IT-approved AI applications (e.g., knowledge assistants), we reduce employee reliance on external, unsanctioned “shadow AI” tools, regaining control over data flows and compliance.
- Data Sovereignty: We enable organizations to maintain control over their most sensitive data. The option for EU-Cloud or On-Premises deployment ensures full data sovereignty and strict DSGVO (GDPR) compliance.
A Commitment Supported by Government
We recognize that digital sovereignty is a shared goal. Hainzelman is committed to the core principles of openness and plans to open source central specifications of our technology stack very early in development under permissive Open-Source Licenses.
This important work is supported at the state level: the development of the Hainzelman Platform is funded through the KI-Förderrichtlinie of the State of Schleswig-Holstein. This commitment to building secure, scalable, and sovereign AI solutions for the European Mittelstand is in line with the efforts of Digitalization Minister Dirk Schrödter who fully migrates the state government’s tools to open source software.
By building AI that works in practice, respects compliance, and preserves organizational knowledge on a foundation of open standards, we contribute directly to the strong, sovereign digital future Europe needs. The open path is the smarter path.
