Codes made in Hamburg conquering globe

1996: The era of the Blackberry, the internet is slowly gathering steam and Google is in its infancy. But in the newly-established GoLive Systems GmbH in Hamburg Altona, a small team is busy developing desktop software allowing companies to design their own internet presence on-screen. “At the time, websites were still being programmed using HTML, and our program GoLive CyberStudio was genuinely innovative,” said Michael Jamrosy, at the time a member of the founding team under Andreas Poliza and presently CEO of Adobe Systems Engineering in Hamburg. Their program made waves to such an extent, that they caught the eye of Adobe – the U.S. software company renowned for Photoshop and Acrobat Reader – and were promptly bought out. “Adobe was growing rapidly at the time, and so were we here in Hamburg, from a staff of around 15 initially to more than 200 today,” Jamrosy said. The Hamburg operation has now contributed more than 50 patents to the world of Adobe. “Millions of people use programs that we have written,” he noted. 

The developers in Große Elbstraße worked to perfect the processing of digital audio files and have persistently developed the Adobe Audition digital audio workstation following its acquisition in 2003. Lightroom Mobile, a program for processing images on mobile phones, was also created on the Elbe, as were various updates for the video editing app Premiere Pro and the Time Tuner Effect, which adjusts the length of clips automatically to different formats without impacting the contents. The software developers now work mainly on cloud functions and networking their in-house artificial intelligence (AI), Adobe Sensei, to add ever more value for users. “Creative solutions are what have made Adobe what it is. The aim was to provide people with programs to allow them to live out their creativity and to democratize tech, as it were,” Jamrosy explained. The company has expanded its portfolio considerably, offering solutions to companies to get on top of the digital transformation. Cybersecurity is a key issue at Adobe and is also a point of emphasis for Jamrosy. Different internal security solutions, for instance, have been developed that have also been made partially available to other companies as open-source software. 

“Adobe is constantly evolving, and this is also an option for each of our employees,” Jamrosy said, pointing to awards received like the Great Place to Work 2019, including a special prize for equal opportunities, diversity and pay parity. Like the rest of the sector, Adobe is constantly searching for the best brains to add to its team in Hamburg. “Above all, we are looking for software developers and engineering managers,” Jamrosy said.

Jamrosy, 53, is now part of management at Adobe, creating a new field in IT security. As part of this role, he gives keynotes at conferences from time to time, and was named “Business Hamburger of 2019 – in particular for the innovativeness of Adobe’s office in Hamburg. 
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