1.4 Research and development

As an internet service provider, the United Internet Group does not engage in research and development (R&D) on a scale comparable with manufacturing companies. Against this backdrop, United Internet does not disclose key figures for R&D.

At the same time, the United Internet brands stand for high-performance internet access, solutions, and innovative web-based products and applications which are mostly developed in-house. The success of United Internet is rooted in an ability to develop, combine, or adapt innovative products and services, and launch them on major markets.

Thanks to its high-performance development teams, United Internet is able to react swiftly and flexibly to new ideas and trends, and to continuously enhance its established products by adapting them to changing market needs – a key success factor in the fast-moving internet market. The Company’s expertise in product development, enhancement, and roll-out minimizes its reliance on third party development work and supplies in many areas, and thus ensures decisive competitive and time-to-market advantages.

At United Internet’s own development centers (especially in Karlsruhe, Berlin, and Bucharest), around 3,000 developers, product managers, and technical administrators (corresponding to around 32% of all employees) use mainly open source code in clearly defined and modeled development environments. Third-party programming services are also used to swiftly and efficiently implement specific projects. This enables the Company to quickly develop products and adapt them to changing customer needs. United Internet also procures solutions from partners, which are then modified according to needs and integrated into its systems. With the aid of its self-developed applications, United Internet has a set of modules which can be easily combined and provided with product-specific or country-specific user interfaces in order to create a variety of powerful and integrated applications – a huge benefit when tailoring products to varying target groups, or for international rollouts.

Due to the steady growth in customer figures, the demands placed on reliability and availability are constantly rising. In addition to the further development of existing products and continuous optimization of back-end operations, the Company also focuses on continuously enhancing existing processes in order to raise system reliability, and thus also customer satisfaction.

Focus areas 2019

Consumer Access

  • Introduction of “eSIM”
  • Expansion of Open Access Platform for implementing FTTH connections with speeds of 1 GBit/s
  • Roll-out of new set-top box for IPTV
  • Development of new IPTV applications for smart TVs based on Android

Business Access

  • Basic installation of a Software Defined Network (SDN) - enabling of dynamic products

Consumer Applications

  • Launch of “Smart Inbox” for GMX and WEB.DE
  • Expansion of big data platform for AI-based smart data platform with self-service analytics
  • Introduction of two-factor authentication for GMX and WEB.DE

Business Applications

  • Launch of “Private Cloud beta” on VMware basis
  • Introduction of new managed Kubernetes product for IONOS Enterprise Cloud to administer container workloads
  • Introduction of legally secure and GoBD-compliant e-mail archiving for IONOS customers
  • Introduction of integrated eCommerce offering for website modules (MyWebsite) at IONOS
  • Integration of Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) product for Enterprise customers of Arsys
  • Introduction of new managed SAP-HANA product for Enterprise customers of Arsys
  • Introduction of brand monitoring for over 140 trademark offices
  • Introduction of OX App Suite as German alternative to Microsoft Office 365 and G-Suite
  • Introduction of Hosted Exchange 2019 as professional e-mail solution for medium-sized and larger enterprises
  • Introduction of WordPress pro hosting portfolio specially for professionals and agencies
  • Introduction of new professional backup solution for all servers and cloud products of IONOS and IONOS Enterprise Cloud
  • Introduction of new dedicated bare metal server with Intel Cascade Lake CPU