As the third-largest federal state in Germany with numerous schools and teachers, Baden-Württemberg is at the center of the digital education agenda. The introduction of Moodle BW into the SCHULE@BW concept shows how targeted digitalization can revolutionize the educational sphere. T-Systems provides support not only through innovative technology, but also with know-how and experience to ensure a scalable and future-proof solution.
With over 1.5 million pupils in the 2025/2026 academic year, Baden-Württemberg underlines its status as the third-largest federal state in Germany. The state employs over 140,000 teachers at almost 4,500 schools, from elementary schools to general secondary schools and vocational schools.
In 2019, the federal government's first DigitalPakt Schule put the topic of digitalization on the agendas of schools in Baden-Württemberg. At that time, the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sports began developing SCHULE@BW, a modular digital education platform for learners, teachers, and schools. The federal state decided early on to integrate two learning management systems for different needs into SCHULE@BW: itslearning and Moodle.
Moodle is globally used software for learning management. The adaptable and secure open-source software was developed in Australia and enables various forms of face-to-face and online learning. Over 150,000 registered installations and 500 million users access the learning management system (as of October 2025). The list of Moodle users is illustrious. It ranges from the College of Policing, the official training institution of the British police, to SOS Children's Villages, and industrial companies such as Mitsubishi Logisnext Europe, the clothing brand Superdry, and LALIGA, the Spanish soccer league. Educational institutions, such as the University of Indonesia, also use the learning management software Moodle, benefiting around 60,000 users.
The learning management system “Moodle BW” was rapidly adopted across Baden-Württemberg. This swift implementation of a digital learning platform proved especially valuable when the coronavirus pandemic struck in 2021. The Ministry of Education was already equipped with a tool that helped mitigate the disruption caused by the loss of in-person teaching. With Moodle’s integration into the digital education platform, a strategic decision was made to operate the system as Software as a Service (SaaS) going forward. Following a Europe-wide tender, T-Systems secured the contract with the most competitive offer.
In partnership with T-Systems, we can ensure the modern and professional operation of Moodle BW while providing schools with a high-quality service. Through the SCHULE@BW digital education platform, schools benefit from a modular, high-performance solution designed to support everyday educational needs.
Sandra Boser MdL, State Secretary, Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sports, State of Baden-Württemberg
The Ministry of Education decided to standardize and professionalize Moodle operations. Outsourcing to an external partner was designed to ensure stable operation even during peak periods and bring Moodle closer to excellence. Finally, during the transformation it had to be ensured that Moodle BW was integrated into the digital education platform SCHULE@BW.
In July 2023, T-Systems won the Europe-wide tender for the cloud transformation of the learning management system, infrastructure and application operation, as well as IT service management and second-level support. Since 2025, oncampus from Lübeck has been deployed as an experienced partner for application management.
The task was to take over operation after a very short lead time and simultaneously set the course for permanently stable, high-performance, and economical operation. For this reason, a multi-stage approach was chosen.
From the outset, the transformation plan focused on Kubernetes as the standard container technology. With Kubernetes, Moodle BW can be operated platform-independently, including on a scalable cloud. Deutsche Telekom's leading European sovereign cloud, T Cloud Public (formerly Open Telekom Cloud), was used as the new cloud operating platform. It stood out for its robust data security framework and full compliance with Europe-wide data protection regulations (EU GDPR). In addition, it successfully passed multiple load tests, demonstrating its reliability and performance under high demand.
Initially, Moodle BW continued to be operated with unchanged code and content based on OpenStack on T Cloud Public. T-Systems provided a cluster of elastic cloud servers for each instance, the number of which could be dynamically adapted to the respective load using an autoscaler. In a subsequent migration phase, local users were assigned to the central Identity and Access Management (IdAM) and migrated together with the content to a new Moodle instance that was set up uniformly for all schools. The Moodle service integrated into the digital education platform, which also includes IT service management and second-level support, has been in regular operation since August 2024.
At the same time, the software was prepared for use with containers in the cloud. The application transformation for this step was carried out together with oncampus. oncampus is responsible for application management, continuous development, and third-level support. The state operates its open-source software with maximum sovereignty, exclusively with German service providers. With the transition to the cloud, the partners also established agile, cloud-native DevOps mechanisms (Scrum). Updates to the software are delivered promptly and iteratively in sprints. The Kubernetes-based operation on the Cloud Container Engine and the associated CI/CD pipeline including test automation was set up in just three months between March and June 2025 and put into operation during ongoing operations with no service interruption for users.
