With this advantage, parent company Lidl now wants to attack Amazon
Lidl headquarters in Neckarsulm: Schwarz Group intends to enter the cloud business
Source: dpa / Christoph Schmidt
Amazon’s cloud business is regarded as the internet giant’s profit maker. A German retailer wants to copy the recipe for success: The Schwarz Group, mother of retail chains Lidl and Kaufland, plans to offer its cloud business through its IT subsidiary – and attract with a head start.
D.The Schwarz Group, which operates the retail chains Lidl and Kaufland, will offer its IT infrastructure as a service to the market in the future. The company announced this on Friday in Neckarsulm.
The German discount group thus follows the example of the small-scale retail giant Amazon, which has been offering its IT infrastructure as a cloud service through its subsidiary AWS since 2006. Together with Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud, AWS is now the world’s leading provider of computing power and storage on the Internet.
The Schwarz Group launches its offering with the Stackit cloud platform for companies and public administrations. “With this offering, we are paving the way for a European cloud solution from Germany and strengthening the digital sovereignty and competitiveness of our economy,” said Christian Müller, CEO of Schwarz IT.
The Schwarz Group is thus responding to political demands for a compelling European alternative to cloud offerings from non-European providers, he said.
Schwarz advertises data centers in Germany
According to the company, Stackit’s data centers are located in Germany and meet the “highest European security standards”. This solution has been in use for three years within the Schwarz Group and has proven its reliability even during peak load periods. Around 4,000 people work in the IT branch of the Schwarz Group.
In addition to comprehensive cloud services, Schwarz IT will also offer so-called colocation services. Customers use their IT hardware in two Schwarz Group data centers in Germany and Austria, without having to personally take care of a suitable and secure environment.
