In the interview with Konstantin Diener, CTO of cosee GmbH

In the software industry, a rethink has been taking place for some time now. On-premise solutions, i.e., software availability on a server in your own data center or basement, are becoming less and less common. Instead, more and more SMEs are turning to the cloud. If software is designed for the cloud from the outset, this offers significant advantages. cosee GmbH from Darmstadt is a provider of such solutions. Founded in 2009 as a spin-off of the Fraunhofer Institute for Secure Information Technology (SIT), which is also based in Darmstadt, cosee has been developing digital cross-industry products for over ten years and helps companies with their digital business models, product-market fit, and implementation. What customers particularly appreciate is that cosee understands their language and, together with them, the language of their target audience(s). This understanding is then translated agilely and effectively into modern applications. Konstantin Diener explains how this works effectively for all parties involved in a conversation with DIGITAL FUTUREmag.

DIGITAL FUTUREmag: The topic of the cloud, or SaaS as it was called in the past, is actually old hat. What is so exciting about it for you, and what drives you personally?

Konstantin Diener: First of all, cloud is not directly equivalent to SaaS (Software as a Service). We typically use cloud in the sense of Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) or Platform as a Service (PaaS). In the first case, the cloud provider makes infrastructure components such as a server available virtually, and in the second case, a platform such as Kubernetes as a habitat for Docker containers. The major advantage of all *aaS offerings is flexibility: I rent what I need at the moment. If I require more storage capacity, CPU power, or similar, I simply add it. If I need less, I reduce the rented infrastructure components. Often, billing is even based on actual usage. For a new product, the load generated by users is very difficult to estimate in advance. That’s why in the past we ordered very large and expensive hardware. This is no longer necessary today.

DIGITAL FUTUREmag: For a long time, SMEs were rather hesitant about the cloud. After all, they wanted to keep their data secure at home with their own administrator and prevent external access. What do you think has changed in this regard?

Konstantin Diener: The assertion that an on-premise solution is inherently more secure is not universally true. In fact, the opposite is often the case. When we host our applications ourselves, we must also ensure that all components are kept at the latest (security) patch level. This is very time-consuming and prone to errors. A cloud provider performs the same task with absolute specialists for thousands of customers, leveraging economies of scale. This makes the cloud actually more secure than on-premise hosting. In all the cyber-attacks I am aware of recently, only the companies' own systems were affected, not their cloud services. Of course, it is important to work with a provider that is certified for data protection or the specific requirements of your industry. For customers who are hesitant about working with American companies, we often recommend the Open Telekom Cloud.

DIGITAL FUTUREmag: You mention Cloud Native here. What exactly does that mean?

Konstantin Diener: Cloud Native is a well-established term and refers to applications that are explicitly developed for cloud operation and fully utilize its capabilities. Simply copying an existing application to the cloud offers no advantage other than higher hosting costs. You need to consider which parts of your application are subject to different load profiles (such as Black Friday, Christmas business, etc.) to scale these parts specifically (up and down).

DIGITAL FUTUREmag: More and more companies are now turning to the cloud, and this is certainly not a short-term trend but rather a long-term one. There will likely be no return to on-premise solutions. But when does cloud adoption make sense?

Konstantin Diener: Cloud adoption makes sense whenever we need flexibility and an infrastructure—such as servers, databases, and the like—that can scale up or down. The same applies to applications undergoing continuous and significant development. An application whose development is largely complete and has a very uniform load profile would not necessarily need to be operated in the cloud, in my view. There are a few other special cases, but these depend heavily on the respective client.

DIGITAL FUTUREmag: At cosee, you develop software for all industries. How does the start of a collaboration with you typically begin?

Konstantin Diener: At cosee, we develop digital products for and with our customers. At the heart of such a product is always that it solves a problem relevant to the market. Otherwise, no one will pay for it, and our customer won’t benefit from it. At the start of our collaboration, we conduct what’s called a Discovery Workshop with our customers to understand for which target audience the product solves which problem. In short, in this workshop we find out what is needed to make our customer’s customers satisfied and our customer successful.
Then we assemble a dedicated team that develops the product transparently for the customer in short cycles.

DIGITAL FUTUREmag: By now, there are incredibly good off-the-shelf cloud software solutions. Plus, many small tools that can be connected via standard interfaces. So, what still speaks in favor of developing custom software?

Konstantin Diener: Ultimately, this is a similar question to the decision between ready-to-wear, made-to-measure, or a bespoke suit – it all depends on the occasion. As a rule of thumb: What makes a company special or unique in the market – the famous USP. These unique features are rarely achievable with off-the-shelf software – or you’ll end up with a similar investment sum through customization. The more hidden an application is for your customers and the less specific it is to your company (HR, payroll accounting, etc.), the more suitable standard software is.

DIGITAL FUTUREmag: Let’s take a look into the future together. Where is software development heading? What are the most important trends you can already see today?

Konstantin Diener: The journey is definitely moving toward an increasingly strong use of so-called managed services. Let’s take a database as an example. In the past, we installed and configured database software on an “empty server.” This is comparable to baking a pizza entirely from scratch. Nowadays, we mostly use “frozen pizza” by renting a running database whose operation is completely managed by a cloud provider. In IT, there’s already an analogy to delivered pizza: With serverless, we no longer rent a running database but only pay when we use the database. This trend will continue. We will increasingly rent infrastructure components or even use them according to pay-per-use models and install fewer and fewer components ourselves.

DIGITAL FUTUREmag: Many thanks for the diverse insights into current cloud usage options.