How do you migrate a global corporation onto the cloud? How do you keep developing cloud services? And what are the challenges? As Director Cloud Services at Fresenius Digital Technology (FDT), Kai Schwarzmaier leads the team that ensures platforms and applications function on the cloud. In this interview, he reveals what he loves about his job.
I am Director Cloud Services, so I lead the team at FDT that provides and develops cloud services for our various business areas at Fresenius. In this role, I am responsible for the strategy, finances, and direction of the division.
I find it extremely interesting and enriching to work in a global team that is playing a key role in driving the modernization of a double DAX company. We aspire and aim to be at the forefront of technology. Like all departments, we are just one of many cogs in the machine. But we help to drive innovation across many levels of the company, and we have a pretty pivotal role to play when it comes to cloud services. I like the fact that I can make a difference and have an impact here.
We are a global team with colleagues based in the USA, Europe, and Asia. We also work closely with other global departments within the group. I enjoy working in such an intercultural team, it’s very inspiring. I also appreciate the flat hierarchies and the fact that we work really well as a group despite all of our differences. Our team spirit is great, everyone is always supportive, helpful, and focused on solutions. As a manager, I love that I can rely on everyone so much.
The group’s different business units bring their requirements to us. The biggest project was, of course, moving from the classic data center world to the cloud. As a result, we continue to receive tasks when business areas introduce new platforms or, for example, new applications for IIoT. We support this by ensuring that implementation works within our architecture, and by building new services in a secure and scalable manner.
At the same time, we are constantly learning: We receive information about current developments from the community and manufacturers, and we also exchange ideas with other companies about their best practices. As such, we are always receiving suggestions for improvements. We also record the requirements of the different business units during regular meetings so we can develop new offers.
I am a computer scientist and spent many years working for leading IT consultancies. During this period, I went from being an IT employee to holding global leadership roles, where I managed both classic global data centers and led projects for migration to the cloud. At some point, I realized it was time for a change and I saw a position advertised at Fresenius. Hired as a senior manager, I was initially responsible for the so-called server services. Then, a few years ago, I was commissioned to set up the cloud services department.
First and foremost, I am proud of the service that we have built for our customers in the business units. You don’t get much praise in IT, but we received really positive feedback for this: “This service you’re offering us is really cool!” I was really pleased with this and I’m glad that we have set this up for such a large, heterogeneous company. It means that we are indirectly making an important contribution to the health of many people.