Stackit: Lidl’s Cloud Service Challenges European Giants
Schwarz Digits is expanding beyond German, Austrian, and Swiss borders with Stackit, its sovereign cloud, leveraging partnerships like SAP to execute an ambitious strategy.
Schwarz Digits and Stackit: A Promising Duo
The tech world is abuzz with a new player: Schwarz Digits, expanding its reach through “Lidl Cloud” or more specifically, Stackit, its sovereign cloud. This promising development is making waves in the tech scene. The group’s ambition now extends beyond German, Austrian, and Swiss borders, targeting sectors such as digital healthcare, from telemedicine integration to AI in medicine!
With 575,000 employees across 32 countries, the Neckarsulm-based Schwarz Group is a global retail leader powered by its Lidl and Kaufland brands. This private cloud is driving the digital transformation of the group’s brands, optimizing business processes across its 13,900 global locations.
Ambition Fueled by Strong Partnerships
Schwarz Digits has recently announced a fruitful partnership with SAP to provide Rise with SAP on their sovereign cloud Stackit. This alliance offers an exciting outlook for the future. Additionally, the appointment of new CEO, Bernd Wagner, underscores this European ambition. In his statement, Mr. Wagner expressed eagerness to collaborate with his “new colleagues and clients across Germany and Europe.”
47% of companies believe that cloud computing will drive their IT spending by 2025/2026, with a strong interest in hybrid models.
Significant Progress Supported by a Clear Vision
Established in 2018, Stackit has rapidly become a serious and determined new player in the bustling tech landscape. Its substantial progress is guided and supported by a white paper, setting it apart from some less serious competitors. The platform offers a cloud architecture structured around three main areas: computing, storage, and network, managed by a hypervisor and available in various service models. At the Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) level, it allows for the creation of virtual machines tailored to user needs, with a selection of independently managed operating systems, like Managed Windows. Storage, whether block or object, is adaptable to usage requirements.
Beyond IaaS, STACKIT provides a Platform as a Service (PaaS) layer where users can access managed services without operational costs. Here, they benefit from simplified management through a portal or an API interface, including access to Kubernetes Engine and Cloud Foundry.
Impressive Figures Promise a Bright Future
Stackit isn’t just driven by a clear vision; the numbers speak for themselves. With a projected 2023 revenue of 1.9 billion euros for Schwarz Digits, robust infrastructure supported by data centers in Germany and Austria, and strategic partnerships with SAP (offering RISE with SAP on STACKIT) and XM Cyber, it’s clear that Stackit’s future is exceedingly bright.
Just as online bookseller Amazon became the global cloud leader with AWS, who would have thought a simple shopping cart could lead us into the digital future? Schwarz Digits and its sovereign cloud Stackit prove that building credible alternatives is indeed possible.