Q4 last year, our Revenue department came to a complete halt, not once but twice, in a matter of a few weeks. It wasn’t an internal error, a lack of planning, or a team failure. It was simply because a couple of Cloudflare outages cut us off from our own data, leaving our CRM, HubSpot, practically useless. In an instant, our marketing machine stopped, our customer insights vanished, and we were essentially paralyzed. Luckily, bot instances were fixed within a day or so.
As a VP of Marketing, I am responsible for Product/Market Fit, Go-to-Market, and growth. When everything works the way it should, operation is flawless, but when one thing breaks, the entire machine crumbles. And this made me think. Should something that is so vital to the success of our company be so vulnerable to outside events?
Especially in the EU, we’ve become dangerously accustomed to the accessibility and comfort of US-based SaaS tools. They are sleek, fast, and their UX is world-class, and when it works, it’s amazing.
But we have been paying an invisible price for that comfort: our freedom.
The Hidden cost of doing nothing
While I enjoy the realm of my own thoughts going dystopian, I see that the topic of ‘where is my data?’, ‘Who owns it?’, and ‘what happens if someone pulls the plug on my data access?’ trouble the minds of many. And it should. Without getting too political, the world is no longer the predictable landscape it once was. For me, the politics isn’t the problem; business continuity is.
Staying locked into proprietary, US-centric ecosystems is a gamble most organizations can no longer afford. If you choose to maintain the status quo, you aren't just staying comfortable; you are accumulating strategic risk.
1. The financial trap
Global IT spending is projected to hit a staggering $6.08 trillion in 2026. Licensing is getting more expensive, and proprietary vendors know you have nowhere else to go. With each day passing, your lock-in into your ERP gets bigger by the day, and they know it. Without an exit strategy, you have zero leverage when a vendor decides to double their fees or change their terms overnight.
2. Operational vulnerability
As we experienced with the outages, total dependency means you go offline when your vendor does. This is not your typical ‘printer is offline’ problem; it’s a killswitch for your organization. Personally, I can survive a day, maybe a couple, but when days turn into weeks, business continuity at Betty Blocks is under serious pressure.
3. Compliance and legal uncertainty
Under the US CLOUD Act, American authorities can request data stored on US-owned servers, even if those servers are physically located in Europe. For any European organization handling sensitive customer data, this creates a permanent legal tension with the GDPR and NIS2 regulations. For me, this is borderline crazy, and I’m not alone. This is a concern I see more and more on prospect and client calls.
Portability is the new power
The limiting factor in pursuing cloud sovereignty is lock-in, and, truth be told, if you're deeply ingrained in a core system, it’s near impossible to get out. However, baby steps for the win. What I’m personally doing is slowly replacing US SaaS with EU alternatives (which are surprisingly hard to find).
Another thing we’ve done is move our US CRM data to an EU cloud environment. Not a perfect solution, since we’re still vulnerable to the US CLOUD Act, but again, baby steps. All these baby steps, combined, lead to a transition that occurs organically with each migration or SaaS rationalization project.
With each new solution we need, I ask myself three questions:
- Can we build it ourselves (unfair advantage if you work at a low-code platform)?
- If not, is there an EU alternative we can use for this solution?
- If not, how easy is it to leave the solution, and what are the switching costs?
The driving force behind this transition is trading comfort for freedom. Freedom is possible, but you have to work for it. A bit like William Wallace in Braveheart (FREEEEDOM!).
If you start from that principle, you’ll soon realize much more is possible if you put a little effort into it. Of course, checking the add-on box on your expensive ERP license to get the latest, greatest feature is easy, but building something that works for you - now and in the future - has much more value.
Betty Blocks Open: Paving the way for freedom
With the internal need we feel to be less dependent on vendors and, ultimately, to strive for freedom, we realized we have to lead the wave. This is why Betty Blocks is fundamentally changing the game.
Betty Blocks has become the first low-code platform to go "all-in" on no vendor lock-in and true portability. Pay for what you build, not what you run. What you build is yours, and if you leave, you can take it with you.
This approach is radically different from the traditional proprietary models of the past decade:
- Exportable code: Unlike other platforms where your logic is trapped in a black box, Betty Blocks allows you to export your applications. The frontend is generated in native React, and the backend logic uses WebAssembly (Wasm). For us, this is what bridging the gap between business and IT looks like. No more silos, just build where it works best for you and combine.
- Run anywhere: Because the output is based on open standards, you can run your apps on your own servers, in a European cloud, or even on-premises. You take your apps with you when you leave.
- Data sovereignty by design: You aren't forced into a specific cloud. You decide where your data lives. This ensures you remain compliant with European values of privacy and security while maintaining the speed of a low-code environment.
Data sovereignty is no longer a niche technical topic for the IT department; it is a core strategic pillar for every business leader and C-level executive.
The comfort of the past decade was a luxury we can no longer afford. We must stay a step ahead of uncertain shifts and inevitable outages. Freedom and adaptability are what reduce risk. It’s what allows us to adapt rapidly to market dynamics and protect our most valuable asset: our customer data.
Curious to learn how we’re breaking vendor lock-in?
Join our CEO, Chris, for our upcoming webinar. Sign up here.
