Robin Hermann General Manager for STACKIT, one of Europe's leading cloud providers, recently participated in Bucharest Tech Week, where he detailed how European companies are adopting cloud technologies and provided an insight into the European cloud market, including growth forecasts and associated challenges.

The cloud market in Europe is booming. According to Statista data, Europe's public cloud market is expected to reach €200 billion by 2028. Currently, big players such as Microsoft, AWS, Google, SAP and IBM dominate the market, each with a significant share. In Europe, however, vendors such as Stackit, IONOS, TIM, Exoscale and Open Telekom Cloud are trying to create strong local alternatives.

Robin Hermann explained the importance of sovereignty in the cloud context, stressing that cloud use must be tailored to the specific needs of each company. He discussed how European companies can use the power of the cloud to optimise their operations and maintain control over their sensitive data. Cloud sovereignty means adopting open standards and using open-source solutions to avoid over-reliance on external providers.

The cloud plays an important role in many companies, providing scalability, flexibility and efficiency. Hermann explained that using the cloud can transform the way companies do business, allowing them to innovate quickly and adapt to changes in the market.

Robin Hermann also pointed out that the cloud market in Europe has huge potential, but companies need to carefully manage their dependencies and judge which cloud solutions are best suited to their specific needs. Although European alternatives are growing, they still don't rival giants like AWS in revenue. However, Hermann stressed that adopting a sovereign cloud, based on open standards and open-source solutions, can give European companies the control and flexibility they need to navigate this ever-changing technology landscape.

Robin Hermann is responsible for STACKIT – the sovereign cloud offering of the Schwarz Group, Europest largest retail company. This includes Lidl and Kaufland, Schwarz Produktion in food production and PreZero in environmental services. The group has been on a course of growth for years. Over 13,900 store and warehouse locations in more than 32 countries rely on its smooth IT support for their business processes every day.

This growth, as well as new digital business models, can only be managed in the long term with a dynamically scalable cloud infrastructure. STACKIT was launched in 2018 for this reason - to drive digital transformation within the Schwarz Group through its own high-performance cloud services. For implementation, STACKIT uses the existing IT resources of Schwarz IT, including its own data centers in Germany and Austria.

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*This is partner content.