Germany has some catching up to do with digital. The digital ministry at the federal level must finally be here! A comment by Marcus Busch, Leaseweb Germany.
“Germany still has a lot of catching up to do with“ digital ”. Surfing speed, broadband expansion or eGovernment are openly discussed. In the meantime, these issues have also made it into the parties' election manifestos. The digital-political discussion has expanded, and topics that were previously unpopular, such as the expansion of data center capacities, are now making it into the party-political discussion.
Consistently expanding position
Germany is currently doing well here in European competition, but this position needs to be consistently expanded, especially because of the increasing relevance of edge computing. This increasingly important cloud technology requires fast, area-wide networks with low latency and high capacity. Edge does not work without a cloud infrastructure in central data center hubs, for example near the DE-CIX in Frankfurt, and also not without fast fiber optic connections between the edge and these hubs. These networks can finally make the cloud more attractive for German medium-sized companies and enable them to tackle the digital transformation. Another prerequisite for securing international (including intra-European!) Competitiveness is above all a reduction in the price of electricity - currently a real disadvantage for German cloud / hosting companies. "
European sovereignty
“The initiatives to strengthen European digital sovereignty (e.g. Gaia-X), also as a counterweight to the American providers of cloud solutions, is a good example of how politics can actively shape and support. This partnership of European industrial players is intended to offer data mobility via an open and secure cloud setup. This initiative is immensely important as it strengthens the open exchange of data and the interaction between clouds against the background of a sovereign European data policy. "
A digital ministry at the federal level is needed
Marcus Busch, Managing Director of Leaseweb Deutschland GmbH: "In order to plan, coordinate and implement digital projects in the future, I see an urgent need for a digital ministry at the federal level."
“What needs to be done is clear. How to efficiently implement what is necessary seems to be the bigger challenge. Here I see an urgent need for a digital ministry at federal level that plans, coordinates and implements digital projects. A digital ministry, staffed and supported by industry experts from the tech community and using the good federal approaches that are sometimes available, would make it possible to act in shorter cycles than is usual in politics - close to the pulse of the market with its high level of innovation -Speed. This creates the framework for an investment-friendly climate. In addition, I include the restriction of state regulation to a necessary minimum, competitive energy prices and a nationwide funding program for training, recruiting and retaining qualified employees in the digital industry. "
Sustainable digital growth wave
“In the current legislative period, forward-looking projects have already been implemented - for example the GWB digitization law or the future fund for startups, most recently the German Development and Resilience Plan (DARP). This can only be the beginning. Society is currently changing very quickly, noticeably and profoundly. In order to strengthen Germany as a location in the long term, new framework conditions are required. This is the only way to take advantage of the opportunity to develop new business models and optimize established ones. In this way, a new, digital wave of growth can be created. German politics is just beginning to realize the potential that the German (Internet) economy has been showing for some time. It is to be hoped that this is more than a side effect of the federal election campaign, but results in a sustainable initiative! "
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About Leaseweb Leaseweb is a leading provider of IT infrastructure services (Infrastructure as a Service; IaaS) with 18.000 small to very large customers worldwide. Services include public cloud, private cloud, dedicated servers, colocation, content delivery network and cybersecurity services backed by exceptional customer service and technical support. With more than 80.000 servers, Leaseweb has been providing infrastructure for business-critical websites, network applications, e-mail servers, security and storage services since 1997. The company operates 20 data centers at locations in Europe, Asia, Australia and North America, all of which are supported by a state-of-the-art worldwide network with a total capacity of more than 10 TBit / s.