What STACKIT (Schwarz IT KG) does

STACKIT is the sovereign cloud computing arm of Schwarz Gruppe, the privately held German retail conglomerate behind Lidl and Kaufland. Legal entity Schwarz Digits Cloud GmbH & Co. KG is headquartered in Bad Friedrichshall, Germany, with engineering operations in Neckarsulm. Founded in 2019 and operating seven data centers across Germany and Austria, STACKIT positions itself as a 100% European hyperscaler alternative to US cloud providers, with full BSI C5, ISO 27001, and ISO 20000-1 certifications, GDPR compliance, and structural isolation from the US CLOUD Act and FISA Section 702 via SEAL-3 certification under the EU Cloud Sovereignty Framework. The product portfolio spans IaaS (Compute Engine with GPU instances, Object/Block/File/Backup/Archive storage, Load Balancer, CDN, DNS), PaaS (STACKIT Kubernetes Engine, Cloud Foundry, managed PostgreSQL, MongoDB, MariaDB, SQLServer, Redis, OpenSearch, RabbitMQ, KMS, Secrets Manager, Git, Container Registry), and Data/AI services (AI Model Serving, Dremio data lakehouse, Workflows, Intake, AI Model Experiments built on MLflow), plus confidential computing (Confidential Server, Confidential Kubernetes) and digital workplace solutions (Workspace, Spaces, KI-Bürgerportal). Colocation is offered as a separate service.

Revenue is generated through a mix of consumption-based IaaS pricing (via a public STACKIT Calculator), subscription-based PaaS and managed services, colocation, professional services delivered with partners such as Akkodis, and large multi-year enterprise and government contracts. Major contracts include a six-year €180 million European Commission sovereign cloud agreement, an up to €250 million contract for Germany's Federal AI Platform (BMDS), and a Dutch government framework agreement signed with SLM Rijk. The customer base is concentrated in regulated verticals: public sector, financial services (DORA compliance positioning), healthcare and life sciences, manufacturing and automotive, and retail, supplemented by named customers including FC Bayern München, VfB Stuttgart, DATEV, ServiceNow (offered as a joint solution), Aleph Alpha, and Accenture.

Go-to-market combines direct enterprise field sales, a structured partner program, channel partnerships with telecom operators (KPN for Netherlands, BT International for global connectivity), technology partnerships for solution integration (CrowdStrike, Commvault, Sirma, ServiceNow), and public procurement. The company is in a heavy investment phase, backed by Schwarz Gruppe's €11 billion infrastructure commitment, a 100,000-GPU AI data center under construction in Lübbenau, Brandenburg, and a €500 million lead investment in Cohere's Series E funding round to support the Cohere/Aleph Alpha merger, with STACKIT serving as the technical backbone for the combined sovereign AI entity.

Name

STACKIT (Schwarz IT KG)

Legal name

Schwarz Digits Cloud GmbH & Co. KG

Website

https://stackit.de

Company type

Private

Founded year

2019

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

251–500 employees

Short description

STACKIT is a European sovereign cloud provider owned by Schwarz Gruppe (Lidl, Kaufland), delivering IaaS, PaaS, and AI infrastructure from EU-operated data centers. It serves regulated public sector, financial services, healthcare, and manufacturing customers with GDPR-compliant, CLOUD Act-isolated cloud services.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Sovereign Cloud Infrastructure

NAICS

Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (518), Computer Facilities Management Services (541513), Computer Systems Design and Related Services (54151)

SIC

Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370), Services-Computer Integrated Systems Design (7373)

akta.pro primary industry

Industry/Vertical Cloud Platforms (e.g., Gov/Healthcare/Financial Cloud Regions) (HDABAAAL)

Keywords

• Sovereign cloud infrastructure
• Enterprise cloud platform
• Managed cloud services
• Data sovereignty solutions
• Cloud infrastructure services

Headquarters

HQ city

Neckarsulm

HQ country

Germany

HQ region

Europe

Offices6 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): STACKIT generates revenue primarily through consumption-based and subscription-based cloud infrastructure services including virtual machines (Compute Engine, GPU), storage (Object, Block, File, Backup, Archiving), networking (Load Balancer, DNS, CDN), and managed database services. Customers pay based on resource consumption with transparent pricing via the STACKIT Calculator tool. Multi-year contracts available for enterprise customers.
2. Platform as a Service (PaaS): Revenue from managed platform services including Kubernetes Engine, Cloud Foundry, databases, messaging (RabbitMQ), logging/monitoring, developer tools (Git, Container Registry), and AI/Data services. These are offered as managed services reducing customer operational burden.
3. Colocation Services: STACKIT offers colocation services with its own pricing model separate from cloud services, enabling customers to house hardware in STACKIT-operated European data centers.
4. Professional Services & Consulting: Cloud migration, consulting, and engineering services offered through strategic partnerships (e.g., Akkodis) to help organizations transition to sovereign cloud architectures.
5. Sovereign Cloud Government Contracts: Revenue from public sector contracts including the €180M EU Commission sovereign cloud tender and Dutch government framework agreement, providing cloud services to government agencies across the EU.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels8 records

Marketing channels9 records

Core offering

STACKIT operates a European sovereign cloud infrastructure providing Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), and managed services across compute, storage, database, networking, security, and AI/data workloads. The platform is hosted entirely on EU-operated data centers in Germany and Austria with full GDPR compliance, CLOUD Act isolation, and BSI certifications. It serves regulated industries (government, financial services, healthcare, manufacturing) with a comprehensive service portfolio spanning virtual machines, managed Kubernetes, databases, AI model serving, and confidential computing.

Product overview

STACKIT is a European hyperscaler and sovereign cloud platform operated by Schwarz Digits (Schwarz IT KG), offering a comprehensive portfolio of cloud infrastructure and platform services with 100% European DNA. The platform architecture spans Compute (virtual machines, GPU instances, bare metal), Storage (object, block, file, archive, backup), Database (PostgreSQL, MongoDB, SQL Server, MariaDB, Redis, OpenSearch), Runtime (Kubernetes, Cloud Foundry), Messaging (RabbitMQ), Logging & Monitoring, Developer Platform (Git, Container Registry), and Security (Key Management, Secrets Manager, Confidential Computing). The Data & AI layer includes AI Model Serving for generative AI, Dremio data lakehouse, Workflows orchestration, Intake data gateway, and MLflow-based AI Model Experiments. STACKIT operates seven European data centers in Germany and Austria, with expansion into the Netherlands, and serves regulated industries including public sector, healthcare, financial services, manufacturing, and retail. The platform differentiates through full data sovereignty, BSI certifications, GDPR compliance, and independence from US hyperscalers, targeting organizations requiring European legal jurisdiction for their cloud workloads.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• STACKIT AI Model Serving: Service for accessing leading generative AI models securely
• STACKIT Dremio
• STACKIT Kubernetes Engine (SKE)
• STACKIT Compute Engine
• STACKIT Confidential Server
• STACKIT Workspace
• STACKIT Spaces
• STACKIT Portal
• STACKIT Marketplace

Products and services

• STACKIT AI Model Serving Platform enabling organizations to utilize leading generative AI models simply and securely while maintaining data sovereignty within European legal jurisdiction. Designed for enterprises deploying AI/ML workloads in regulated industries.
• STACKIT Dremio (Sovereign Data Lakehouse) Sovereign Data Lakehouse providing maximum performance and flexibility for data strategies, enabling analytics and knowledge retrieval from enterprise data with full EU data residency.
• STACKIT AI Model Experiments MLflow as a Service enabling organizations to manage the ML lifecycle and accelerate AI innovations with experiment tracking and model management.
• STACKIT Compute Engine Scalable virtual machine provisioning service for running diverse workloads in the sovereign cloud environment.
• STACKIT Compute Engine GPU Powerful GPUs in virtual machines for large and small compute-intensive workloads, supporting AI/ML training and inference on sovereign infrastructure.
• STACKIT Object Storage Flexibly scalable cloud storage for unstructured data with S3-compatible API.
• STACKIT Block Storage Flexible virtual hard drive storage for virtual machines with high performance and reliability.
• STACKIT File Storage Secure and performant NFS file storage for demanding, highly available workloads.
• STACKIT Backup Storage Storage service specifically designed for backup data with immutable protection capabilities.
• STACKIT Kubernetes Engine (SKE) Robust, scalable, and managed Kubernetes service for containerized workloads and container orchestration.
• STACKIT Cloud Foundry Pre-configured cloud infrastructure platform for application deployment and management.
• STACKIT PostgreSQL Flex Completely managed object-relational database service using PostgreSQL with flexible scaling.
• STACKIT MongoDB Flex Completely managed non-relational database service using MongoDB in a flexible model.
• STACKIT SQLServer Flex Maximum reliable and performant storage using SQL Server Enterprise database.
• STACKIT Redis Flexible in-memory storage for cache, database, or message broker use cases.
• STACKIT RabbitMQ Completely managed message broker for asynchronous communication between services.
• STACKIT Confidential Server Security solution for particularly critical workloads using confidential computing technology to protect against unauthorized third-party access.
• STACKIT Confidential Kubernetes Container workload protection using confidential computing, providing verifiable protection against unauthorized third-party access.
• STACKIT Key Management Service (KMS) Cryptographic operations performed securely and efficiently for encryption key management.
• Workspace by STACKIT Digital workplace solution providing full control over data, costs, and compliance with maximum productivity. Features efficient collaboration tools, seamless AI integration, and full data sovereignty of a European cloud.
• STACKIT Colocation Colocation services for enterprise infrastructure within STACKIT's European data centers, with its own pricing model separate from cloud services.
• STACKIT Network Load Balancer High availability through efficient distribution of network traffic across multiple servers.
• STACKIT Application Load Balancer Intelligent load distribution for web applications with advanced routing and health checking capabilities.
• STACKIT DNS Fast and public DNS resolution service for domain management.
• STACKIT Content Delivery Network (CDN) Simple and reliable distribution of network content globally through content delivery network.
• STACKIT Cloud Migration Services Cloud migration, consulting, and engineering services to help organizations transition to sovereign cloud architectures, offered through strategic partnerships (e.g., Akkodis).
• STACKIT Ultimate Support Premium support tier offering 24/7 comprehensive assistance for cloud environments, available alongside standard support offerings.

Quantifiable outcome

• European sovereign cloud IaaS market projected to grow 83% in 2026 to $12.59 billion and nearly double to $23.12 billion by 2027 (Gartner)
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers13 records

Segments8 records

Ideal customer profiles6 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration5 records

AI capability5 records

Feature6 records

Partnerships

Ten partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Sirma Group HoldingcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 24 June 2026Sirma Group and STACKIT announced a strategic partnership to create a fully European AI stack combining Sirma's agent-based enterprise platform Sirma.AI with STACKIT's sovereign cloud infrastructure. The collaboration enables European companies and public institutions to deploy AI workloads within European legal jurisdiction, addressing data sovereignty, security, and compliance requirements. The partnership includes joint marketing initiatives, reselling arrangements, and co-development of AI solutions targeting organizations in financial services, industry, logistics, and the public sector.
• KPNcoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ Distributor · 28 May 2026KPN and Schwarz Digits jointly launched a European sovereign cloud solution for the Dutch market utilizing STACKIT's platform hosted in KPN data centers in the Netherlands. The service targets critical sectors including government, financial services, healthcare, and energy, with the Dutch version expected to be available in mid-2027. This partnership positions KPN as a key Dutch player in sovereign cloud development while expanding STACKIT's European footprint beyond Germany and Austria.
• BT InternationalcoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ Distributor · 8 May 2026BT International and STACKIT partnered to deliver sovereign cloud connectivity for multinational enterprises, initially providing internet peering from BT's global network into STACKIT's EU-based cloud infrastructure. The collaboration will leverage BT's Global Fabric network-as-a-service platform to enable on-demand, resilient private and internet connectivity, allowing organizations outside the EU to access STACKIT's sovereign cloud through private connections. This breakthrough gives multinationals greater control over data residency and application access while ensuring GDPR compliance.
• Aleph AlphacoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 24 April 2026Aleph Alpha (Heidelberg-based European sovereign AI provider) and Cohere announced plans to merge into a transatlantic AI powerhouse, anchored in Germany and Canada. Schwarz Group committed €500 million ($600 million) as lead investor, with STACKIT serving as the technical backbone for the combined entity. The partnership targets the sovereign AI market for governments and regulated industries (public sector, finance, defense, healthcare), providing a counterweight to concentrated US-based AI providers.
• AkkodiscoreImplementation/ SI/ Consulting Partner · 14 April 2026Akkodis and STACKIT formed a strategic partnership to help German companies build sovereign cloud architectures for business-critical applications. The collaboration combines STACKIT's German/EU-operated cloud infrastructure with Akkodis' engineering and transformation expertise, addressing the gap between providing sovereign cloud infrastructure and integrating it securely into enterprise environments. The partnership targets regulated industries including manufacturing, automotive, public sector, healthcare, and life sciences with a 'sovereign-by-design' approach, positioning Akkodis as preferred delivery partner for STACKIT in selected target segments.
• CrowdStrikecoreTechnology or Integration · 5 March 2026CrowdStrike and Schwarz Digits announced a long-term strategic partnership to deploy the CrowdStrike Falcon cybersecurity platform on STACKIT's sovereign cloud infrastructure operating fully within the EU. The partnership enables European enterprises and public institutions to access AI-native cybersecurity while maintaining full data sovereignty and compliance with GDPR and the EU Cyber Resilience Act. As part of the agreement, Schwarz Group companies will consolidate their cybersecurity operations onto the CrowdStrike Falcon platform.
• CommvaultcoreTechnology or Integration · 26 February 2026Commvault and STACKIT partnered to deliver sovereign cloud-based cyber resilience solutions for European customers. The joint solution leverages STACKIT's EU-located immutable data protection storage while customers retain control over data location, environment operation, security, and encryption key management. The partnership provides protection against ransomware and rapid recovery capabilities, with the solution targeted for spring 2026 availability. Commvault also announced a STACKIT sovereign cloud partnership as part of its Geo Shield launch.
• HENSOLDTcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 16 February 2026HENSOLDT (defense systems company) and Schwarz Digits formed a strategic partnership to jointly develop software-defined defense capabilities and sovereign, data-driven solutions for Germany and allied nations. The collaboration centers on STACKIT, Schwarz Digits' cloud provider, which delivers end-to-end infrastructure to address the urgent need for independent cloud technology in the defense sector. The partnership aims to provide fully integrated, quantum-resistant solutions spanning from classified military communications to broader security applications.
• EmpiriecomminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 30 January 2026STACKIT, Empiriecom, and Adesso launched an end-to-end ecommerce solution called the German Digital Commerce Operation Model, with all data and processes hosted in Germany and Austria. The ecosystem aims to give online retailers data sovereignty and legal compliance under GDPR, addressing demand for alternatives to international providers like Amazon, Shopify, and Google Cloud. Empiriecom's platform is currently used by businesses with annual revenues exceeding €400 million.
• AdessominorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 30 January 2026STACKIT, Empiriecom, and Adesso launched an end-to-end ecommerce solution called the German Digital Commerce Operation Model, with all data and processes hosted in Germany and Austria. The ecosystem provides online retailers with data sovereignty and GDPR compliance as an alternative to international providers. Adesso contributes its IT consulting and software development expertise to the partnership.

Scale indicators9 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights7 records

Direct peers

• OVHcloud: OVHcloud is a major European cloud infrastructure provider headquartered in France, offering IaaS, PaaS, bare metal, and hosting services with a strong focus on data sovereignty. It is the most direct independent European alternative to STACKIT in targeting regulated workloads and competing with US hyperscalers.
• Hetzner Online: Hetzner is a German hosting and cloud provider offering dedicated servers, virtual servers, and storage with data centers in Germany, Finland, and the US. It directly competes with STACKIT in the German SMB and developer cloud segment with similar cost-conscious positioning.
• IONOS (1&1): IONOS is a German cloud and hosting provider offering IaaS, managed hosting, and SaaS solutions for SMBs and enterprises. It is a direct peer in the German cloud market with comparable data center footprint and a similar target customer base among regulated European SMBs.
• Scaleway: Scaleway is a French European cloud provider offering IaaS, PaaS, and bare metal with a focus on sovereignty and sustainability. It is a direct peer to STACKIT in the pan-European sovereign cloud market, particularly competing for French, Italian, and broader EU public sector workloads.
• T-Systems: T-Systems is the enterprise IT and cloud subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom, offering sovereign cloud, managed services, and SAP hosting primarily to German and European enterprises and public sector clients. It is a direct peer in the German sovereign cloud market with comparable public sector focus.
• Exoscale: Exoscale is a Swiss sovereign cloud provider offering IaaS and managed services with data centers exclusively in Switzerland. It is a direct peer in the European sovereign cloud market, particularly for Swiss and regulated European customers requiring strong data protection.
• Aruba Cloud: Aruba Cloud is an Italian cloud provider offering IaaS, hosting, and managed services with data centers in Italy and across Europe. It is a direct regional peer in the European cloud market, particularly competing for Italian and Southern European enterprise customers.

Broad incumbents

• AWS (European Sovereign Cloud): AWS is the global cloud market leader and has launched a dedicated European Sovereign Cloud (in Brandenburg, Germany) to address data residency and sovereignty requirements. It is a broad incumbent that competes with STACKIT in the same sovereign cloud segment but offers a vastly broader service portfolio and global scale.
• Microsoft Azure (Cloud for Sovereignty): Microsoft Azure is a global hyperscaler offering Microsoft Cloud for Sovereignty, designed to help European governments and regulated industries meet data sovereignty requirements. It is a broad incumbent that competes head-on with STACKIT's value proposition while offering global scale and ecosystem breadth.
• Google Cloud (Sovereign Cloud): Google Cloud is a global hyperscaler offering sovereign cloud solutions for European public sector and regulated industries, including partnerships with local providers like T-Systems in Germany. It is a broad incumbent that competes with STACKIT on sovereign cloud workloads while offering broader AI/data and global services.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/stackit

Compliance5 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about STACKIT (Schwarz IT KG)