IONOS is a leading European digitalization partner for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). The company serves over six million customers and operates in 18 European and North American markets. Pulse 2.0 interviewed IONOS CTO Markus Noga to learn more.
Markus Noga’s Background
After finishing a PhD in computer science at the University of Karlsruhe, Noga first went into consulting with Booz Allen Hamilton to broaden my business horizons. And Noga said:
“Seven years later, I joined SAP to bring business and technology together. Good examples of that are the HANA Enterprise Cloud and the SAP AI offerings, both of which I launched with my team. Over nine years later, I joined SUSE to dive even deeper into technology again. I became the general manager for their Linux business, an offering I fondly remember from my student days. When IONOS offered me the CTO position a couple of years later, that was an offer I could not refuse. As an engineer, becoming CTO is the most exciting role because this is a job that demands all your experience and skills.”
“My main task as CTO is to build and lead a great team, which builds great products and delivers great services to our customers. I work with product management, subject matter experts and line leaders to set priorities, define strategy, and oversee execution. I also meet on a regular basis with key customers, technology and implementation partners and other stakeholders.”
Challenges Faced
What challenges has Noga faced in his role as CTO? Noga acknowledged:
“As a CTO, there are many challenges to overcome. The biggest challenge is switching between different subjects quickly. One moment, you are deep in the technology architecture for a given platform; the next, you are deep in budget planning, then planning data center moves, doing talent reviews, or problem management in the ITIL sense. This variety makes the job so stimulating and rewarding.”
CTO Skillsets
Which skills should a CTO have in running a rapidly growing company? Noga pointed out:
“Leadership, closely followed by deep insight into technology, strong listening skills, and excellence in communication. As a CTO, it is particularly important to convince and inspire others. A CTO works in many different departments at the same time, all of which have specific needs. This makes it so important to stay in constant dialogue, to prioritize, and to stay focused on solutions. One very important part of leadership is also to recognize and nurture the potential of employees to build highly performing teams.”
Favorite Memory
What has been your favorite memory working for the company so far? Noga reflected:
“Oh, there are so many already. My first leadership offsite last spring. Shipping the first new wave of cloud features in summer. Receiving our attestation under the demanding BSI C5 security standard in the fall is the culmination of the sustained effort from many talented colleagues throughout the year. And, of course, launching our AI model hosting beta in winter. All of these were great moments already. And more are still to come.”
Core Products
What are the company’s core products and features? Noga explained:
“IONOS has two main offerings, web and cloud. With our web presence and productivity products, we provide small and medium businesses with everything they need to take their business online. For example, domain names, email addresses, and websites, all the way to online marketing solutions.”
“With Cloud Solutions, we cater to the needs of medium and larger businesses, SaaS providers, and the public sector. Our offerings include computing, networking, and storage-as-a-service, as well as a broad range of platform services like managed Kubernetes and multiple databases-as-a-service.”
Evolution Of IONOS’ Technology
How has the company’s technology evolved since launching? Noga pointed out:
“The company that IONOS originated from was founded more than 25 years ago, so we have been part of much of the internet’s history. To give you a better picture, The first web server we ran was a Windows NT PC sitting under our founder’s desk. Today, we run our own cloud infrastructure platform with over 100,000 servers in 30 data centers in the U.S. and Europe.”
Total Addressable Market
What total addressable market (TAM) size is the company pursuing? Noga assessed:
“Our total addressable market consists of more than 90 million small and medium businesses in North America and Europe, as well as the very sizable public sector in Europe.”
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates the company from its competition? Noga affirmed:
“IONOS is the market leader for the European web, and a leading European cloud provider. As a one-stop shop, we provide rich digital services atop a sovereign digital stack. With them, we serve the digital needs of our customers along the entire growth of their businesses. We go deep on technology to deliver high value solutions, e.g. our AI website builder, AI domain search engine or AI-based digital support assistants.”
Future Company Goals
What are some of the company’s future company goals? Noga concluded:
“As a technology leader, my ambition is to deliver the best product and service, or one of the best, in every category we compete in. From web to cloud to AI, we will continue to innovate, and satisfied customers will further drive growth for us.”
“To enable this, we will bring the brands in the group closer together, consolidating stacks and putting more wood behind the arrow within each product category. Bringing the leading offering in every category into each brand and capturing the related synergies will provide further profitable growth for us.”
