The draft law presented by the German federal government to introduce a three-month IP address storage is facing criticism from the Internet industry. eco warns of violations of European Court of Justice case law, a reduction in judicial control and considerable financial burdens for the sector.

Gcore operates its own global IT infrastructure across six continents and is the newest member of the Alliance for the Strengthening of Digital Infrastructures in Germany, founded under the umbrella of eco. In this interview, Elena Simon, Managing Director of Gcore DACH, addresses the key challenges and significant advantages of Germany as a digital location.

Matthias Hahn (Nokia) speaks in an eco interview about current challenges for data centre and telecommunications networks, technological developments beyond pure bandwidth, and the importance of quantum-secure encryption for long-term network planning. He will discuss these topics at the eco Datacenter Plaza during fiberdays 26.

With the adoption of the KRITIS Umbrella Act by the German Bundestag, a uniform nationwide framework for the protection of critical infrastructures in Germany is being created for the first time. What now matters is a practicable, real-world implementation.

dotmagazine is an international online magazine covering Internet industry topics, featuring articles from members and partners. This particular edition highlights how Europe can build digital trust, strengthen sovereignty, and align policy, technology, and leadership for a secure digital future.  

A YouGov survey commissioned by eco on European Data Protection Day shows that only a minority reads privacy information completely. eco calls for more transparency, comprehensibility and user orientation.

Since January, eco’s Mobility Competence Group has been under new leadership: with Dr. Judith Puttkammer (Mobility Data Space) and Paula Böcken (Uber), it gains new perspectives from different but complementary areas of digital mobility.

Whether on the topic of grid connection allocation, waste heat or the Energy Efficiency Act (EnEfG), eco’s Managing Director Alexander Rabe assesses the draft National Data Centre Strategy on behalf of the Alliance for the Strengthening of Digital Infrastructures in Germany, founded under the umbrella of the eco Association.

As central economies in the EU, Germany and Italy bear a special responsibility to shape this course together – because competitiveness, technological strength and digital sovereignty can only be achieved through European solidarity.

Compliance with NIS2 Article 28 can be complex, but eco Association has a major solution. Learn how top-level domains are implementing a flexible template in practice. You can register for the webinar to see how it works.

Unfortunately, eco believes that the present draft of the DNA does not achieve the previously formulated goals. Instead of tangible improvements to competitiveness and investment conditions in Europe, it contains only more new rules and obligations.

eco welcomes the planned strengthening of ENISA and faster certification procedures in the revised Cybersecurity Act, but warns that bureaucracy must be avoided, international standards must be maintained, and investment security for companies must be guaranteed.

The Alliance for the Strengthening of Digital Infrastructures in Germany, founded under the umbrella of eco, will continue to be represented on the Board of the Climate Neutral Data Centre Pact (CNDCP) in 2026 and 2027.

NEXOWARE positions itself as a software partner for IT service providers in the DACH region and focuses on a fully integrated IT process landscape. In an interview, CEO Dr. Oliver Mauss assesses the current challenges facing IT service providers and system integrators and talks about the use of artificial intelligence.

At the start of the World Economic Forum (WEF) 2026 in Davos, eco is calling for a commitment to greater and more offensive digitalisation in Europe. In light of geopolitical tensions and potential threats to industrial and technological supply chains, this is crucial for Europe’s competitiveness and ability to act.

As dotmagazine plans for 2026, the editorial team has put together this year’s calendar to tackle the Internet industry’s most pressing topics. We sat down with the team to hear about the approach behind this year’s seven issues and what they reveal about the digital landscape ahead.

“We know that, as things stand today, demand for data centres in Germany alone will exceed planned capacities by about three times by 2030. That is why every building block is important in supporting the digital transformation in Germany.”

The joint white paper “Email Authentication – The protective shield for your domain and door opener to your inbox” by eco and the DDV helps companies make their email communication future-proof.

In this conversation, Ronald Schwärzler CEO of domainworx Service & Management GmbH shares how domainworx guides customers through the ICANN application process and the ongoing operation of Top-Level Domains in cooperation with their RSP partner RyCE.

How much control do we really have over our digital identities? At a Berlin panel hosted by ICANN and eco, experts showed why domain ownership and TLDs are becoming a cornerstone of email security, digital sovereignty and trust in an increasingly complex geopolitical landscape.

The recent power outage in Berlin once again highlights how vulnerable our critical infrastructures are. The eco Association is therefore calling for the swift adoption of the Critical Infrastructures (KRITIS) Umbrella Act in order to finally create a cross-sector, practical legal framework for the physical protection of critical infrastructures.

Business representatives on the DSC Advisory Board, Susanne Dehmel (bitkom), Dirk Freytag (BVDW) and Alexander Rabe (eco), have issued a joint statement on the sanctions imposed by the US administration: “The US administration’s actions raise serious questions about its dealings with European institutions and applicable EU law. The Digital Services Act is applicable European law.

In response to German Federal Minister of Justice Stefanie Hubig’s plans to reintroduce indiscriminate data retention, eco is calling for urgent amendments to the draft bill. Indiscriminate and blanket data retention is incompatible with the case law of the European Court of Justice.

At ICANN84 in Dublin, Thomas Rickert, Director Names & Numbers at eco – Association of the Internet Industry, spoke with Stefan Pattberg of DENIC Services about how service providers are preparing for the next round of new gTLDs, expected to launch in 2026.

In this interview, eco’s Managing Director Alexander Rabe talks about the importance of data centres for digital transformation and eco’s strategic role in shaping the political and technological aspects of digital change. The focus is particularly on fiberdays 26, where eco is designing the new German “Datacenter Plaza” for the first time.

dotmagazine is an international online magazine covering Internet industry topics, featuring articles from members and partners. From energy grids to ethics, the December issue explores how Europe balances AI innovation with real-world challenges.

The current draft law to modernise the German Federal Police Act significantly expands the Federal Police’s surveillance powers. In view of the first reading on Thursday, eco Association is now warning of the risks to IT security and digital communication.

AI is reshaping the cybersecurity landscape and how companies are fortifying their defenses against increasingly sophisticated threats. Read the latest insights from the eco IT Security Survey 2025 and find out how your expertise can shape the future of digital resilience in the upcoming 2026 survey.

According to Rabe, this trend is positive. However, eco’s Managing Director would have liked to see a little more consistency in the adjustments in some areas. This applies, for example, to the Design PUE. It is also regrettable that the flat-rate ERF values are still included in the law.

The new eco Industry Pulse survey shows that, despite a shortage of skilled workers, IT companies are so far making little use of AI to bridge staffing shortages. At the same time, around 70 per cent of IT decision-makers in Germany believe that by 2030, AI will take over a large proportion of the tasks currently performed by IT departments. These and other findings come from a representative Civey survey conducted on behalf of eco among 500 industry specialists and managers.