Sovereign Cloud as the foundation for municipal digital transformation

Why digital sovereignty is becoming essential for municipalities

Municipalities manage large 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 moving up the administrative agenda. The VNG now explicitly identifies digital autonomy as a municipal theme and is calling for more control over vendor lock-in, continuity, and public values within Cloud usage. At the same time, municipalities such as Amsterdam and Ede are actively working on policies to reduce digital dependencies and maintain 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 directives
• 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 service delivery.

The challenge of municipal IT

Many municipal IT environments have grown organically over time. Legacy systems, limited capacity within IT teams, and a fragmented application landscape make innovation complex. At the same time, municipalities must accelerate toward Common Ground, API-driven architectures, and HAVEN-compatible Cloud platforms. These developments require an infrastructure that is flexible, scalable, and platform-independent, allowing municipalities to maintain greater control over their data, applications, and digital services.

This creates a tension:

• Innovation requires flexibility and scalability
• Legislation requires control and compliance
• Residents expect continuously available services
• IT teams have limited time and capacity

A traditional on-premises environment often lacks sufficient flexibility. A standard public Cloud does not automatically solve issues surrounding data sovereignty, governance, and control. Depending on the sensitivity of the data, the requirements of laws and regulations, and the risks to service continuity, municipalities are increasingly opting for a sovereign private Cloud environment or a hybrid Cloud strategy where the right workloads are placed in the right location.

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

A concrete example of this is the Municipality of Eindhoven.

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

Together with Fundaments, a sovereign Private Cloud was realized, combining VMware technology, Kubernetes, and open-source components. The platform runs entirely within Dutch data centers and complies with the VNG's Haven standard.

What makes this approach unique is that the municipality is not just purchasing infrastructure, but is actually laying a foundation for further digital autonomy. By decoupling data from applications, a flexible platform is created on which new services can be developed and rolled out more quickly.

In addition, management was largely outsourced, allowing the internal IT organization to focus more on innovation and governance rather than daily operational management.

Common Ground requires a different foundation

More and more municipalities are moving towards Common Ground. This involves decoupling data, processes, and applications so that municipalities can collaborate more flexibly and become less dependent on specific vendors.

But Common Ground only works when the underlying infrastructure supports it. That is why there is growing attention for HAVEN, the standard for platform-independent cloud hosting developed by municipalities. HAVEN helps municipalities move applications and data more easily between environments and prevents 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 case study from the Municipality of Eindhoven, this approach not only provides more control but also significantly accelerates development processes. Thanks to Managed Kubernetes from Fundaments, development processes became three times faster. The service is based on open standards and Kubernetes technology from SUSE and aligns with the principles of HAVEN. This provides municipalities with a future-proof platform that accelerates innovation while maintaining control over data, applications, and infrastructure.

Sovereign does not mean going back to "old-fashioned IT"

A common assumption is that a sovereign cloud would be less innovative than public cloud platforms. In reality, the exact opposite is true.

Modern sovereign cloud environments combine:

• The flexibility of cloud-native technology
• 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 on existing VMware environments. As a Broadcom VMware Pinnacle VCSP Partner, Fundaments supports both scenarios. This allows municipalities to modernize in a way that aligns with their existing IT landscape, knowledge level, and strategic goals.

At Fundaments, it is not just about providing infrastructure, but about fully managing a secure digital foundation for public organizations. This includes lifecycle management, monitoring, security, failover mechanisms, and support for compliance issues. Both VMware Cloud Foundation environments and cloud-native platforms can be deployed, depending on the requirements regarding sovereignty, availability, and innovation.

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

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Continuity of public services

For municipalities, downtime is not a theoretical risk. Digital service counters, permit applications, civil affairs, and internal processes must always be available. This is also evident from recent ransomware incidents at municipalities in Europe, where digital services were temporarily halted and organizations had to fall back on emergency procedures and recovery processes.

Ransomware or outages directly affect residents, entrepreneurs, and chain partners. That is why redundancy, disaster recovery, and availability are crucial within municipal IT strategies.

Fundaments therefore designs its infrastructure with high-availability architectures, redundant data center setups, and clear SLAs. The infrastructure runs within Dutch Tier 3+ data centers and supports failover and recovery scenarios that are essential for public service delivery.

From supplier to strategic partner

Today, municipalities are not just looking for a hosting provider, but for a partner that understands what public responsibility means.

This became clear in the collaboration between the Municipality of Eindhoven and Fundaments. It was not just about technology, but also about cooperation, knowledge sharing, and the joint further development of the environment.

That distinction is becoming increasingly important within the public sector. Municipalities want to be able to rely on a party that not only provides capacity but also actively contributes ideas regarding 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

In the coming years, municipalities will continue to digitize. At the same time, the need to maintain control over data, infrastructure, and continuity is growing.

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

With Dutch data centers, in-depth knowledge of the public sector, and experience with complex municipal Cloud transitions, Fundaments explicitly positions itself as a partner for municipalities that want to shape their digital transformation in a secure, scalable, and future-proof way.