The Materna Group, a family-run German IT service provider and systems integrator that has enjoyed decades of success, with specialised subsidiaries (including Materna Virtual Solution, agineo and cbs), and STACKIT, the data-sovereign cloud provider from Schwarz Digits, have agreed to enter into a comprehensive strategic partnership. The two companies are developing joint sovereign IT solutions for public sector clients and corporate customers. In addition, the Materna Group utilises STACKIT’s infrastructure solutions for its internal IT environment.
“STACKIT’s solutions are not only trustworthy and secure according to all standard criteria, but are truly sovereign in accordance with the highest German standards,” explains Michael Hagedorn, CEO of the Materna Group. “This makes STACKIT a particularly attractive and forward-looking technology and solutions partner in an increasingly complex world of growing challenges,” says Hagedorn.
“In the Materna Group, we have gained a strong German partner for digital sovereignty ‘Made in Germany’. Materna provides us with optimal support in this development, as the company is deeply committed to German SMEs and public sector clients in Germany,” says Walter Wolf, Board Member at Schwarz Digits.
A wide range of services for public sector clients and businesses
The shared aim of both partners is to provide a broad and future-proof offering of a sovereign German cloud infrastructure with an extensive and growing portfolio of services for corporate clients as well as for public sector clients and their task-specific and mission-critical development. This secure and multi-certified cloud infrastructure, built with redundancy in Germany and featuring a broad portfolio of technologies and services, is intended to serve as the foundation for the introduction and operation of disruptive, data-driven technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Generative AI (GenAI), service management, as well as secure ultra-mobile communications for both private and public organisations with complex data security and compliance requirements. In addition, the two partners will in future develop bespoke technology and service management solutions – including AI-driven ones – for their joint sovereign cloud and technology offering. This will be based, for example, on the AI developed by the German GenAI start-up Aleph Alpha and ServiceNow’s service management capabilities. Both the Materna Group and the Schwarz Group have strategic partnerships with these companies.
All from a single source: digital sovereignty and security from Germany
Through its collaboration with STACKIT, the Materna Group is expanding its cloud infrastructure offering to include a high-performance option from Germany that meets the highest standards of data integrity and sovereignty, as well as the strictest European security requirements. To this end, STACKIT stores and processes all data exclusively in Germany. Materna will offer its customers the sovereign cloud solution itself, as well as professional services and managed services – also provided from Germany – as part of upcoming projects. With access to STACKIT’s cost-effective, scalable cloud infrastructure, Materna can now meet the requirements of businesses and German public sector clients who are specifically seeking providers with the highest standards of digital sovereignty for their cloud transformation.
The same applies to the leading service management expertise in Germany offered by Materna and its subsidiary agineo, based on the comprehensive SaaS solution from ServiceNow running on the STACKIT cloud infrastructure.
Another capability that Materna and STACKIT jointly offer their SME customers is the SecurePIM secure ultra-mobile communication solution from Materna Virtual Solution. This provides a comprehensive workplace environment for smartphones and tablets, which will in future include secure telephony, secure video communication and a secure messaging function.
Through their extensive collaboration, Materna and STACKIT ensure that both customers and users benefit from the advantages of a fully coordinated, end-to-end infrastructural and technological solution from a single German provider. These benefits include optimal cost-efficiency as well as the highest levels of security and control.
Artificial intelligence from the German cloud for SMEs and the public sector
In addition to their collaborations on cloud infrastructure and ServiceNow, the two companies are jointly developing artificial intelligence applications. To this end, they are drawing on the expertise of Aleph Alpha.
“We are delighted about this partnership, from which both our customers and we ourselves will benefit greatly, and we are confident that we are making an important contribution to the sustainable digitalisation of Germany. This is particularly true in conjunction with Aleph Alpha and our service management expertise based on ServiceNow, another strategic partner of both the Materna Group and the Schwarz Group,” says Michael Hagedorn.
“Aleph Alpha stands out for its transparent and traceable artificial intelligence applications,” says Walter Wolf. “Hosting Aleph Alpha models on our sovereign German STACKIT Cloud is therefore outstanding when it comes to digital sovereignty ‘Made in Germany’. Furthermore, the Materna Virtual Solution offers us a high-performance and secure ultra-mobile working environment for our internal purposes.”
