“Europe’s digital sovereignty is gaining in importance”
Alexander Windbichler, CEO of Anexia, outlines the most important IT trends for 2024 in an interview with ITWelt.at.
Which IT trends do you see for 2024 and which IT topics should be at the top of IT managers’ agendas this year and why?
The first major trend we see for 2024 is that artificial intelligence, which was already a very important topic in 2023, will now be put to practical use. In concrete terms, this means that companies will have to find a way in which AI can bring real added value to their own business success and thus move out of the technological gadget corner.
As a second trend, triggered by the growth in the field of AI, the topic of digital sovereignty is becoming increasingly relevant in Europe. In the European Commission, the relevance in this regard is increasing, as Europe’s sovereignty must be secured in the long term.
Thirdly, we see the topic of cybersecurity. Attacks on companies are at a record high and have already cost several companies their existence. On the one hand, cybersecurity must be seamlessly integrated into a company’s own digital landscape; on the other hand, the topic must above all be brought to the attention of every person who comes into contact with technology in their own company, as over 90 percent of all successful attacks are still triggered by people in their own company.
Artificial intelligence is currently the biggest hype topic in IT. Is this hype justified? If so, why, if not, why not?
In technological terms, artificial intelligence is not a new invention. However, it is thanks to Open AI that the general public has been shown what the technology can now do. Many people have been shocked to discover that it is not care robots, self-driving cabs or accounting robots that are taking over the work of care workers, cab drivers and accountants, but creative jobs that are under threat: formulating and translating texts, photo editing or interpreting complex contexts in legal texts.
Over the past few months, we have become acquainted with many useful and less useful applications of artificial intelligence. Now it’s time to choose from all these building blocks the ones that bring real, visible added value for the company’s success. To get started, it is essential to find easy-to-understand and easy-to-implement applications that allay employees’ fears of AI and create awareness that AI is a supporting technology that – when used correctly – can bring real added value.
How can companies manage to cover their IT requirements despite a shortage of skilled workers?
All companies ask themselves this question – including us. That’s why I’m going to attempt to answer this question based on my own experience. As a cloud and digitalization service provider, we are just as affected by digitalization and the shortage of skilled workers as any other company. We were aware that skilled workers would not be available as quickly as we would need them in order to progress at the speed we require.
A few years ago, we therefore started to analyze the core of the problem for us and our customers, and we noticed that developers in particular are very often occupied with very generic forms, with the implementation of simple processes or with dashboards. Ultimately, developers repeatedly find themselves in the situation of sitting in meetings, negotiating with process owners or changing misunderstood requirements. The frustration increases for everyone involved and projects become almost insurmountable hurdles. We also had these experiences.
We then started to develop a platform for ourselves – with the aim that the majority of requirements in our organization could be implemented by the users themselves. We have succeeded in implementing numerous projects in ten percent of the time and therefore also for ten percent of the budget. The results are immediate visibility of the applications, very short lead times and greater satisfaction among project managers. We have now reached a level of maturity with this platform that enables us to use the technology with our customers. We will continue to push this in the coming years. For us, this has significantly eased the situation regarding the shortage of skilled workers.
Security is one of the most important aspects of IT. What is your company doing to ensure IT security?
Cyber security is one of those topics that can fundamentally jeopardize the existence of companies like never before. Never before have ransomware, data leaks or data loss due to cyberattacks been such a big issue. We monitor global events very closely with our own and globally distributed measuring points. Over the past few years, we have seen that the – let’s call it background noise – of attacks on the internet is doubling every year. In concrete terms, this means that every public IP address on the Internet without a firewall receives between 300,000 and 700,000 automated attack attempts every day. Our tests also show that if you put an unsecured computer with a standard password on the Internet, you can be compromised within a maximum of 15 seconds and become an active participant in an international attack network.
However, poorly secured IT systems are only responsible for ten percent of global IT attacks. 90 percent of attacks are caused by the human factor – i.e. opening phishing emails, social engineering, data leaks, etc.
Our role here is to work on security ourselves beyond the technical aspect, to consider security not separately but integrated into all technological components and to create visibility. In addition to our own specialists, we have launched bug bounty programs that call on security specialists worldwide to actively attack our systems. We guarantee high rewards for successful attacks.
In addition to all these issues, one thing is particularly important: the right error culture and how to deal with incidents. If those responsible are afraid to admit mistakes, they will spend more energy playing down errors than actively working to find gaps in the company. Attacks happen even to the best. Whether big or small. It’s just a question of when.
What lessons have you learned from the IT year 2023 for the future?
My takeaways from 2023 are that the threat to companies from cyberattacks has increased significantly, that the issue of Europe’s digital sovereignty is picking up speed – very slowly, but nonetheless – and that AI needs to move out of the gadget corner for the coming year 2024 and find practical application in companies.
What were your professional and personal highlights in 2023?
When I look back on 2023, like every other year, there is no one big highlight. Rather, there is always a variety of topics that will make each year a highlight in its own way. For 2023, I would definitely put artificial intelligence, cost awareness in the cloud, data security, cybersecurity and collaboration between distributed teams on my list.
What exciting projects did you implement for customers in 2023 and what was special about them?
I can think of numerous projects. Each customer project is an individual mix of topics that inspire me as a technician. Unfortunately, due to our business model, it’s not always possible to talk about all the exciting challenges that drive us as a company. Fortunately, I can talk about some topics, albeit only superficially. For example, we are able to supply over 3,000 cinemas across Europe with the latest blockbusters on a daily basis, we were able to save tons of CO2 by using artificial intelligence at a rail company, and we successfully migrated the most successful dating agency group in Europe to our cloud platform, thereby asserting ourselves against major players.
In general, the realization and implementation of cloud solutions and the practical use of artificial intelligence currently play a leading role for us in almost all customer inquiries and projects.
We have now reached a size in the DACH region that allows us to proudly say that everyday internet users come into contact with Anexia at least once a day.
If you had one IT-related wish, what would it be?
If I had one wish, it would be for the topic of digital sovereignty to be discussed more in Europe. This applies in particular to the core infrastructure of the cloud, i.e. the storage and operation of the core data of companies and governments in Europe. Many companies and governments are not aware that sanctions against Europe can bring our economy to a complete standstill. In times of global political uncertainty, this issue must be brought to the attention of all those responsible for IT infrastructure. Storing data in a data center in Europe is not enough, because the country in which the cloud service provider has its headquarters always counts. Simple sanctions therefore also render the data in Europe unusable. Discussions in this context are very often stifled by claims of setbacks in digitalization, but this is completely far-fetched. We have excellent companies in Europe and, more importantly, very clever minds.
Original text can be read in German in ITWelt.at