Thought Leadership
The Lidl Group is going on the offensive: Schwarz Digits announced its frontal attack on AWS, Microsoft and Google at the Technology Experience Convention in Heilbronn. With its own cloud STACKIT, the Schwarz Group aims to become the dominant force in the European cloud market.
Schwarz Digits has unveiled ambitious plans for its STACKIT cloud platform at the Technology Experience Convention Heilbronn (TECH). The Schwarz Group subsidiary wants to expand the German cloud infrastructure into a fully-fledged hyperscaler and create a superior alternative to the dominant US providers.
SAP S/4HANA: Business processes in the German cloud
A central component of the strategy is the partnership with SAP. The “RISE with SAP” program will enable companies to run their ERP systems on the STACKIT infrastructure in the future. “If companies and organizations want to be fit for the future, they need to modernize central business processes in a cloud environment,” said Christian Müller, Co-CEO of Schwarz Digits, explaining the strategic direction.
Thomas Saueressig, Member of the Executive Board of SAP SE for Customer Services & Delivery, emphasized the importance of freedom of choice for customers: “With STACKIT, our customers now have an alternative that is specifically tailored to the needs of German-speaking countries.” The Schwarz Group itself also wants to move its entire ERP landscape to the STACKIT Cloud via RISE with SAP on S/4HANA.
Sovereign AI with Aleph Alpha
In the field of artificial intelligence, Schwarz Digits is cooperating with the German AI company Aleph Alpha. As an “AI operating system”, their PhariaAI Suite is intended to enable the development and use of AI applications in a sovereign environment. Specialized companies and authorities in particular should benefit from the opportunity to train their own models without having to fear that sensitive knowledge will be leaked to competitors.
According to Schwarz Digits, the PhariaAI Suite places particular emphasis on transparent and auditable model behavior – an important aspect for companies that want to use AI in critical areas.
Wire: BSI-certified communication
Schwarz Digits announced the integration of the Wire communication service into the STACKIT platform as the third component. Wire is currently the only messenger with a release recommendation from the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) for the communication of “classified information – for official use only”.
The service relies on end-to-end encryption directly on the end device and uses the world’s first open protocol for encrypted real-time communication (“messaging layer security”). The Schwarz Group already plans to use Wire for Management Board communication and roll it out across the Group.
Focus on European digital sovereignty
The announcements are part of the debate on digital sovereignty. “One-sided dependencies on non-European corporations are a problem because they operate within a different legal framework and still have a major influence on our critical digital infrastructure,” the company argued.
At the TECH conference, high-ranking politicians such as Federal Digital Minister Karsten Wildberger, Federal Economics Minister Katherina Reiche and Baden-Württemberg’s Minister President Winfried Kretschmann discussed the future of Germany and Europe as a technology location.
Market position and competition
By expanding into a German hyperscaler, STACKIT is competing directly with established providers such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud. Schwarz Digits is focusing on the combination of local infrastructure, European legal security and integrated services for companies.
Whether the sovereign cloud can establish itself on the market will also depend on how successfully the various services can be integrated and whether the performance can keep up with the established hyperscalers.
