Markus Michels to lead OpenTalk

Berlin, 15 March 2022 – OpenTalk, provider of secure video communication, has appointed Markus Michels as managing director of the company. Together with his team, Markus will work to promote OpenTalk as a secure alternative to other video conferencing solutions. Additional focal points for him are the rapid further development of the product and the creation of strategic partnerships at home and abroad.

Markus Michels has over 30 years of experience in the telecommunications industry. Previously, he was Head of Product Development at micado SoftwareConsult, Head of Technology at cedros Gesellschaft für Datenverarbeitung, and Vice President of Global Account Management at Open-Xchange. Before joining OpenTalk, he was responsible for existing customer business in the areas telecommunications, providers, and hosting at Open-Xchange.

„With OpenTalk, we offer a highly innovative video conferencing solution that combines ease of use, scalability, and data protection," says Markus Michels. "With OpenTalk, I am looking forward to the challenge of establishing new standards in the market. Video telephony today should be more than just a black box that streams images and sound. OpenTalk creates new applications and opportunities, backed up by a solid security concept.”

OpenTalk, the secure video conferencing solution

OpenTalk GmbH is a subsidiary of Heinlein Support Holding, which also owns the well-known e-mail service provider "mailbox.org". For over 30 years, Heinlein has been committed to free and secure communication throughout its various business units to promote data protection and digital sovereignty. OpenTalk's goal is to offer businesses, providers, public authorities, and schools a secure video conferencing solution that can be operated autonomously on-premises, or accessed as a software service (SaaS) that is hosted in Germany.

OpenTalk is open source and has been developed in the programming language Rust, which is considered very secure. The videoconferencing solution is based on an architecture that was developed from scratch, incorporating scale-out, encryption, and data protection from the bottom up. OpenTalk offers innovative features, such as automatic moderation of many participants, the implementation of user groups, or private sub-room conversations, which makes it well-suited for business meetings, political debates, or educational use. The solution is highly scalable and can support hundreds of thousands of users simultaneously attending many conferences in parallel. OpenTalk offers interfaces that allow the straightforward integration into existing platforms and systems.