Sovereign Cloud as the foundation for municipal digital transformation

Why digital sovereignty is becoming essential for municipalities

Municipalities manage vast amounts of sensitive data while becoming increasingly dependent on digital suppliers and Cloud platforms. As a result, digital autonomy, Cloud governance, and data sovereignty are rising rapidly on the administrative agenda. The Association of Netherlands Municipalities (VNG) now explicitly identifies digital autonomy as a key municipal issue and calls for greater control over vendor dependency, service continuity, and public values in Cloud adoption. At the same time, municipalities such as Amsterdam and Ede are actively developing policies to reduce digital dependencies and retain greater control over their digital infrastructure.

A sovereign Cloud offers municipalities:

• Full control over data and infrastructure
• Hosting within the Netherlands
• Transparency regarding access and management
• Support for GDPR, BIO2, NIS2, and future European regulations
• Reduced dependence on hyperscalers
• Greater control over continuity and security

According to Fundaments, data sovereignty is not a luxury for the public sector, but a prerequisite for modern digital services.

The challenge of municipal IT

Many municipal IT environments have evolved over decades. Legacy systems, limited IT capacity, and fragmented application landscapes make innovation complex. At the same time, municipalities must accelerate their adoption of Common Ground, API-driven architectures, and HAVEN-compatible Cloud platforms. These developments require infrastructure that is flexible, scalable, and platform-independent, enabling municipalities to maintain greater control over their data, applications, and digital services.

This creates a clear tension:

• Innovation requires flexibility and scalability
• Regulations require control and compliance
• Citizens expect uninterrupted digital services
• IT teams have limited time and resources

Traditional on-premises environments often lack the flexibility required to support modern digital services. At the same time, a standard public Cloud does not automatically solve challenges related to data sovereignty, governance, and control. Depending on data sensitivity, regulatory requirements, and the risks associated with service continuity, municipalities are increasingly choosing sovereign private Cloud environments or hybrid Cloud strategies that place the right workloads in the right location.

Municipality of Eindhoven: digital transformation based on a sovereign private Cloud

A concrete example is the Municipality of Eindhoven.

The municipality was looking for a future-proof infrastructure that would allow it to modernize existing services while aligning with Common Ground principles. Data sovereignty, scalability, and infrastructure control were key requirements.

Together with Fundaments, a sovereign Private Cloud was implemented, combining VMware technology, Kubernetes, and open-source components. The platform operates entirely within Dutch data centers and aligns with the HAVEN standard developed by the VNG.

What makes this approach unique is that the municipality is not simply consuming infrastructure services but is actively building a foundation for further digital autonomy. By separating data from applications, a flexible platform is created that enables new services to be developed and deployed more quickly.

In addition, day-to-day management has largely been outsourced, allowing the internal IT organization to focus on innovation and governance rather than operational management.

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Common Ground requires a different foundation

An increasing number of municipalities are embracing Common Ground. The concept focuses on separating data, processes, and applications, enabling municipalities to collaborate more effectively and reduce dependency on specific vendors.

However, Common Ground only works when the underlying infrastructure supports it. This is why attention is growing for HAVEN, the platform-independent Cloud hosting standard developed by municipalities. HAVEN enables municipalities to move applications and data more easily between environments while preventing unwanted dependence on a single vendor or Cloud platform.

A modern municipal architecture therefore requires:

• Container platforms such as Kubernetes
• API-first infrastructures
• HAVEN-compatible Cloud platforms
• Open standards
• High availability
• Flexible scalability
• Security by design
• Sovereign hosting

According to the Municipality of Eindhoven case study, this approach not only delivers greater control but also significantly accelerates development processes. Thanks to Fundaments Managed Kubernetes, development processes became three times faster. The service is based on open standards and SUSE Kubernetes technology and aligns with the principles of HAVEN. As a result, municipalities gain access to a future-proof platform that accelerates innovation while maintaining control over data, applications, and infrastructure.

Sovereign does not mean going back to “traditional IT”

A common misconception is that a sovereign Cloud is less innovative than public Cloud platforms. In reality, the opposite is true.

Modern sovereign Cloud environments combine:

• The flexibility of cloud-native technologies
• The scalability of automated infrastructure
• The security of dedicated environments
• The control of Dutch hosting

There is no single path to a future-proof municipal infrastructure. Some organizations choose Kubernetes platforms based on open standards and HAVEN principles, while others build upon existing VMware environments. As a Broadcom VMware Pinnacle VCSP Partner, Fundaments supports both approaches. This enables municipalities to modernize in a way that aligns with their existing IT landscape, expertise, and strategic objectives.

At Fundaments, the focus is not simply on delivering infrastructure but on fully managing a secure digital foundation for public-sector organizations. This includes lifecycle management, monitoring, security, failover mechanisms, and support for compliance requirements. Depending on sovereignty, availability, and innovation requirements, both VMware Cloud Foundation environments and cloud-native platforms can be deployed.

For municipalities, this means they can modernize without compromising on control, security, or freedom of choice.

Ensuring continuity of public services

For municipalities, downtime is not a theoretical risk. Digital service portals, permit applications, citizen services, and internal processes must always remain available. Recent ransomware incidents affecting municipalities across Europe have demonstrated how digital services can be disrupted, forcing organizations to rely on emergency procedures and lengthy recovery processes.

Whether caused by ransomware or technical failures, disruptions directly affect citizens, businesses, and public-sector partners. This makes redundancy, disaster recovery, and availability essential components of municipal IT strategies.

Fundaments designs its infrastructure with high-availability architectures, redundant data center configurations, and clearly defined service level agreements. Operating from Dutch Tier 3+ data centers, the infrastructure supports failover and recovery scenarios that are critical for public services.

From supplier to strategic partner

Today, municipalities are looking for more than just a hosting provider. They need a partner that understands what public responsibility means.

This became evident in the collaboration between the Municipality of Eindhoven and Fundaments. The focus was not solely on technology but also on cooperation, knowledge sharing, and the joint evolution of the environment.

This distinction is becoming increasingly important within the public sector. Municipalities want a partner they can rely on—not only for infrastructure capacity but also for strategic guidance on architecture, security, continuity, and future developments such as Common Ground and HAVEN.

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The future of municipal it lies in digital autonomy

Municipalities will continue to digitize in the years ahead. At the same time, the need to maintain control over data, infrastructure, and service continuity will continue to grow.

A sovereign Cloud is therefore not a temporary trend, but a strategic choice for digital autonomy. Municipalities that invest today in a modern sovereign Cloud foundation create room for innovation without losing control.

With Dutch data centers, deep expertise in the public sector, and extensive experience supporting complex municipal Cloud transformations, Fundaments is positioning itself as a trusted partner for municipalities seeking to shape their digital transformation in a secure, scalable, and future-proof manner.