Digital Sovereignty for Lübeck’s Schools – With Open Source and Central IT Management

Digital education needs a reliable technical foundation – and this can only be created if you have it in your own hands. For us in Lübeck, it was therefore clear that our school IT must be centrally manageable, secure and independent of large IT groups. This is precisely why we rely on the open source solutions from Univention.

With UCS@school, we have built up a powerful and scalable IT infrastructure for the Hanseatic city over the past few years, which today reliably supports 56 schools with around 30,000 pupils and 3,000 teachers. The central user administration, the seamless integration of educational functions and the absence of license dependencies ensure that we can work future-proof, efficiently and confidently.

Before our new start, the IT landscape at Lübeck’s schools resembled a patchwork quilt. Each school cooked its own soup – dedicated teachers with IT expertise took on the administration alongside their teaching, depending on their personal preferences, know-how and technical equipment. The result: an extremely heterogeneous infrastructure, security risks and digitalization at a slow pace.

It quickly became clear to us that things could not go on like this. In order to create a modern and secure digital learning environment, we decided on a fundamental change of direction in 2016. School IT should be managed centrally – with uniform support, clear responsibilities and a structure that integrates all schools.

Central identity management was the key building block here. Its introduction should not only simplify user administration for pupils and teachers, but also significantly reduce the workload of those responsible for IT at the schools. We were looking for a sustainable solution that would grow with our requirements – flexible, open and independent.

We found exactly that with UCS@school. The platform impressed us with its openness, operating system independence and focus on digital sovereignty.

The starting signal for our school IT project was given by a concept from the University of Lübeck commissioned by the city council in 2016, which recommended centralizing and professionally operating the schools’ IT infrastructure. We then selected four pilot schools to test the new environment in everyday school life – and to find out how the systems could best be integrated.

Then came COVID-19 – and the pandemic had a double effect: our schedule was thrown into disarray and we had to deliver in record time. We set up a central system for 15,000 accounts within a very short space of time. Within a week, our UCS Primary Directory Node was up and running in the data center – including Open-Xchange as an email solution and functioning user administration.

Thanks to modern open source automation tools, we were able to standardize the setup and make it efficient. Each school was given its own UCS@school server, supplemented by a backup concept with additional NAS storage in separate fire compartments. The success of this structure was demonstrated during a real incident: it took just three hours between the first error message and the complete recovery from the backup.

UCS@school Portal of Lübecks Schools

With the new IT structure at Lübeck’s schools, we have achieved three central goals: centralization, standardization and professionalization. Today, all important services run in the data center of Stadtwerke Lübeck – from the central directory service to the e-mail and collaboration solution Open-Xchange to device management with FileWave’s mobile device management.

On site, the schools rely on their own UCS@school servers as managed nodes. These provide important network services such as DHCP, DNS and RADIUS locally, ensuring that the school networks remain stable even if there is a disruption in the connection to the data center.

Another plus point: the integration of the Univention AD Connector. It seamlessly connects our UCS environment with a virtual Windows domain. This means that client management in schools works reliably – including file sharing and user management, without media disruptions or duplication of maintenance work.

Over 12,000 end devices are in use at Lübeck’s schools today – from iPads to interactive displays. A stable, powerful and secure network infrastructure is needed to ensure that they function smoothly. This is exactly what we have built.

With around 300 data distributors and 1,850 access points, we ensure nationwide Wi-Fi with high availability. Security is provided by a firewall based on OPNsense, which is connected to the central data center via VPN.

Practical in everyday life: Mac Minis are also used as caching servers in the schools. This noticeably reduces the network load for updates and software distribution – and ensures that everything runs smoothly even when the workload is high.

Whether stationary PCs in computer rooms, interactive displays or mobile devices such as laptops and iPads – at Lübeck’s schools, everything is centrally controlled by the school authority. The technical basis for this is the FileWave solution, which is directly connected to UCS@school. This allows software distribution, maintenance and support to be handled efficiently via the central data center – significantly reducing the workload on site.

We also rely on an integrated solution for communication: the email and collaboration service Open-Xchange (OX) is also directly connected to the central directory service. User accounts are managed automatically, and teachers and students can use OX Drive to edit documents together – without any additional platform or manual maintenance.

A centralized platform provides technical IT support for schools, offering help with questions and issues related to school IT. Teachers, students, and media coordinators can find guides, order forms for educational materials and apps, as well as a ticketing system for fast support. This platform is also integrated via UCS@school – meaning duplicate user accounts and separate passwords are a thing of the past.

To stay on this path, we are continuously working to improve the user experience and stability of our school IT infrastructure. A key goal is the integration of external systems, such as the state school portal of Schleswig-Holstein or various digital learning resources. Teachers and students should be able to access these services using their familiar login credentials – enabling integrated, seamless, and pedagogically meaningful use of digital learning tools.

With our current school IT infrastructure, we are well-positioned: stable, independent, and ready for the future. The system can be flexibly adapted to new requirements – whether that means additional schools, new applications, or changing conditions.

While other municipalities struggle with rising license costs or dependencies on major vendors, we benefit from an open system that enables true digital sovereignty in practice. No reliance on U.S. hyperscalers, no unpredictable follow-up costs – instead, full control over our data, transparent cost structures, and IT that truly serves the needs of schools.

Thanks to UCS@school and Univention’s open solutions, we can shape the digitalization of our schools not only technically, but also strategically – in a sustainable, secure way that supports modern education.