Amazon with a new research and development center in Dresden
In the foyer there are two clocks with the local times in Dresden and Seattle. Internet giant Amazon has its headquarters in the US city. In Dresden, developers work on digital services for customers all over the world. Your place of work is reminiscent of an oasis of wellbeing.
The online mail order company Amazon wants to expand cloud computing and is relying on the expertise of its research and development center in Dresden. IT experts from more than twelve countries work here on the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud service. The Saxon Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer (CDU) appeared at the opening on Wednesday together with the US Consul General for Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia, Ken Toko. He saw Amazon’s commitment as proof that “the USA and Germany can achieve great things together”.
The team in Dresden is specifically concerned with the development of the “Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud” cloud service – a central component of AWS in addition to network storage services. Cloud computing relates to the provision of IT infrastructure and IT services such as storage space, computing power or application software as a service via the Internet.
“Cloud computing means that we make so-called virtual computers available to our customers via the Internet,” said Chris Schlaeger, Managing Director of Amazon Development Center Germany GmbH. This technology makes it possible to operate data centers much more efficiently. AWS takes the security of customer data extremely seriously: “We are trying to solve this in such a way that we use encryption technology to enable customers to keep control of their data themselves.”
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Software development established in Dresden
According to the managing director, software development has also established itself in Dresden in the shadow of the “semiconductor factory”. Thanks to the Technical University of Dresden (TU) and various companies, the city has become a global center for operating system development. Amazon currently employs 120 people here. In perspective, it should be 340. An investment amount was not mentioned. Amazon is a tenant in the building.
To attract new people, the group works with the TU and finances ten scholarships for computer science students. At the same time, Schlaeger handed over a check for 10,000 euros to the Dresden Media Culture Center in order to encourage young people to use the media. It can’t start early enough, everyone agreed on Wednesday. According to Kretschmer, programming in Saxon schools should become a kind of second foreign language alongside English. Young people needed a good humanistic education, but also specialist knowledge in other areas – and that in combination with digitization.
The new development center is located on a historically interesting area. In 1873 a man named Clemens Müller founded a sewing machine factory here, and typewriters were also manufactured here. According to Schlaeger, more than a million typewriters later went from Dresden all over the world – with melodious names such as Veritas, Stella, Erika and Ideal. Typewriters were the first step towards office automation and initiated a development that continues to this day, he emphasized.
Employees receive numerous benefits
Unlike back then, employees are offered a lot today – not just fruit, snacks and soft drinks. There is a room for games, one for brainstorming and a breastfeeding room for mothers. A green winter garden with a roof terrace offers a panoramic view of Dresden’s old town. A beehive on the roof is used for honey production. The managing director emphasized that employees should have the opportunity to relax and charge the batteries.
“The pandemic has accelerated digital change. Studies show that the development of cloud computing has increased significantly in the past year – both in Germany and in the USA, ”said Consul General Toko. With cloud computing, new business models would be developed. Many American companies do not yet know much about the potential of the IT industry in Saxony: “We want to change that.”
Kretschmer praised Amazon as an “impressive American company”. “Not everyone is happy about their success, about the paths they cut. But they ensure that fundamental innovations and thus competitiveness are possible. ”Managing director Schlaeger put it a little differently. Amazon is always perceived as the “big, anonymous corporation”, but: “We are real people who are part of society.” dpa
