Municipality of Eindhoven

The Municipality of Eindhoven is a growing city in a knowledge-driven environment. The vast number of technology companies places high demands on the municipality's development—not only in terms of infrastructure and facilities (such as the expansion of the sports stadium), but also regarding technological provisions. Marcel de Vries, IT project manager at the municipality, states: "We want to facilitate, support, and stimulate our residents, businesses, and visitors, but that means our security must be in order, as must the reliability of what we deliver. It is varied and challenging in a fun way, but the question is increasingly arising within the IT department: Do we want to keep doing everything ourselves?"

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Own data center or in the Cloud?

That question came to the table in concrete terms when the contract for the current server storage environment expired. Marcel: "Did we want to invest in a product again, or should we choose infrastructure as a service? Our architects drafted an extensive memo on the benefits of the Cloud, and we decided to put the request out to the market. It turned out there were many companies offering a private Cloud, but not in a Dutch data center, which is what we wanted. Fortunately, for Fundaments, such a sovereign Cloud was a given."

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Switching to IaaS is quite a step

He continues: "I found switching to Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) quite a step. You are, after all, relinquishing a certain amount of control. However, Fundaments quickly won our trust. From our very first meeting, they demonstrated knowledge, openness, and drive. They have maintained that standard. For example, they didn't outsource the installation of our hardware in the data center; they did it themselves.

The flexibility of IaaS is also great: Fundaments is able to scale up as desired as soon as we need more hardware. But most importantly, our environment is not shared with other customers. We have a so-called dedicated platform, so our hardware belongs only to us and no one else."

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Working together as partners

"I'm not the easiest person when it comes to collaboration," Marcel admits. "I believe partners and suppliers should deliver what they promise. At the same time, I don't think you should immediately start pointing fingers when you run into a problem. My idea of a partnership is that you identify an issue, discuss it, and then arrive at a solution together. Fundaments sees it the same way. What we also have in common is that we both appreciate clear language in a relaxed atmosphere. I have to be honest: I don't encounter that very often. The openness with which we discuss matters is indicative of our mutual relationship—not just at the management level, but also among those who do the actual work."

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Status: in the middle of the test phase

Now that the foundation is in place, the test phase follows. In this phase, those who will be working with the new environment receive a workshop. The municipality and Fundaments are also carrying out the first ten migrations together. Upon approval, the environment will be released and the old environment transferred to the new one. Marcel: "That is truly the moment of truth. Should the new environment—for whatever reason—go down, the disaster recovery system should kick in. We are, of course, testing that in advance as well, but I have full confidence. Fundaments has kept every promise so far."

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Faster response, less management burden

"Our collaboration with Fundaments is exactly what we need at the Municipality of Eindhoven," Marcel concludes. "Starting with IaaS. In a growing municipality like ours, a huge amount changes in a short time. Thanks to IaaS, we can provide municipal departments with what they ask for more quickly: the space to run an application. In addition, we expect to reduce the internal management burden at the municipality because the management of our IT environment will soon lie with Fundaments. That leaves time for tasks we otherwise wouldn't get around to."