IONOS celebrates 25 years of Innovation and Growth
IONOS, a leading digitalization partner for small and midsize businesses, today announced its 25th year in business and a series of achievements marking that milestone.
The achievements include becoming a global leader in hosting; a true cloud alternative to hyperscalers; a public company with 6 million customers, 4,000 employees and an expected revenue of $1.5 billion this year; new AI products and a new ISV partner program; and recent new strategic hires including Chief Commercial Officer and Deputy Chairman Dr. Jens Reich and Chief Technical Officer Dr. Markus Noga.
25 years of growth culminates in an IPO this year
In June 1998, the foundation for IONOS was laid with the merger of German internet service providers 1&1 and Schlund + Partner. The company became a global leader in web hosting, starting with a single Windows NT PC in 1998. Achim Weiss, co-founder of Schlund + Partner, has led IONOS through tremendous growth as CEO since 2018. In 2004,
IONOS was the first company to offer full-service hosting packages including webspace, domains, email accounts and databases in the United States. In February this year, IONOS Group became a public company with an initial public offering (IPO) on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.
Services, differentiators and independence developed over decades
Throughout its history, IONOS has maintained focus and nurtured its business to serve small and midsize businesses (SMBs). IONOS provides a one-stop shop for SMBs, from domains over websites to virtual and dedicated servers, e-commerce and online marketing services to a full-fledged cloud infrastructure network.
Another important differentiator is that every IONOS customer can opt without additional cost for a personal consultant with a direct line and email address; the consultant not only answers customer-care questions but also provides advice to SMB customers on how to grow and digitalize their business.
IONOS does not rely on hyperscalers to host its services; IONOS runs its own, self-developed cloud stack and hosts its services with a strong in-house development team across 12 self-operated data centers in the U.S. and Europe.
“I am delighted to have directed and experienced the ongoing dedication to excellence and innovation that has brought IONOS, our customers and partners to this 25-year milestone, and I look forward to our continuing journey ahead,” said IONOS CEO Achim Weiss. “Our recent IPO, product and partner program developments and executive hires launch an exciting new period of continuing innovation, customer service and growth.”
New executive hires this year for continuing vision and leadership
Strategic new executive hires this year will help IONOS continue its growth, innovation and leadership position.
On July 1, Dr. Jens Reich joined the IONOS Management Board as chief commercial officer and deputy chairman. In the newly created role, he heads all global marketing and sales activities. He was most recently chief marketing officer and managing director of the delivery service HelloFresh Inc. in the United States. He also previously worked for the European omnichannel optician Mister Spex and the Boston Consulting Group, among others. He holds a doctorate in business administration from RWTH Aachen University, Germany.
Chief Technology Officer Dr. Markus Noga joined IONOS in April. He leads the technical teams building, running and optimizing all IONOS platforms, including the IONOS Cloud. He is also globally responsible for data centers, networks, bare metal and internal IT.
At SAP from 2011 to 2020, his teams built the HANA Enterprise Cloud and created AI and machine learning offerings. At SUSE from 2020 to 2023, he most recently was general manager of the Linux business segment. He holds a doctorate in computer science from the University of Karlsruhe, Germany.
New AI products and ISV partner program this year enhance the IONOS ecosystem
A series of product and partner program introductions and enhancements this year are a focal point of innovation and continuing development of the IONOS product and partner ecosystem. New products and enhancements this year include:
- An AI text generator, launched in April for the MyWebsite Now website builder, enables customers to have texts and headlines for their websites created by artificial intelligence (AI).
- The VPS (virtual private server) product portfolio was enhanced in June to include unlimited traffic with 1 Gbit/s bandwidth (previously 400 Mbit/s) for all price points, fast NVMe storage, and plan options with more virtual cores, RAM and storage.
- Email Marketing, launched in July, is an AI-supported solution for digital customer acquisition and contact, including rapid creation of newsletter text.
To enhance its partner ecosystem, IONOS launched a new partner program for ISVs (independent software vendors) in June. Its purpose is to build a comprehensive cloud solution portfolio for SMBs based on IONOS infrastructure, and to promote the migration of SMBs to the cloud. Customers benefit from a growing and cost-efficient range of solutions from ISVs, flexibility, scalability and an attractive foundation for digital innovation in the cloud. ISVs can offer their products on the IONOS Cloud Platform and leverage new revenue potential through joint marketing. In the future, a marketplace will also be established.
