Gemeente Eindhoven - follow-up

Municipality of Eindhoven Eases IT Workload and Takes a Step Toward Common Ground with Fundaments' Sovereign Private Cloud

The IT department of the Municipality of Eindhoven (gemeente Eindhoven) was facing a clear challenge: the existing infrastructure was outdated, the workload was high, and a lot of time was spent on ad hoc management. The municipality decided to issue a tender for a new Private Cloud environment, including support and management. This tender was led by IT Architect Cor Brandenburg, Cloud Consultant Sander de Rijk, and Project Manager Marcel de Vries.

Fundaments Scores Highest on Quality

Fundaments was ultimately selected for its strong technical quality and best price-to-quality ratio.
Sander explains: “For us as a municipality, the technical layer of the solution was especially important, and Fundaments made a very strong impression in that regard. During the collaboration, we were also impressed by their approach. We first explored together what we wanted to achieve, and only then looked at the contract. ”Cor adds: “During the implementation phase, a results-driven partnership emerged. We connected through a pragmatic mindset and open, honest conversations—which really added to the quality of the collaboration.”

A Combination of VMware and Open Source

The original tender focused on delivering IaaS, BaaS, and DRaaS to create a technically solid foundation for the future. As conversations progressed, the municipality added a new requirement: to build a modern cloud environment for Common Ground that would also comply with the Haven standard—a platform-independent cloud hosting standard endorsed by the Association of Dutch Municipalities (VNG).

Sander explains: “Many municipal applications come from the same few vendors. With Common Ground, we wanted to reduce that dependency and access our applications in a more modern way. Using the ‘buddy concept’, we worked with Fundaments to design a suitable environment. The IaaS environment is based on VMware, and to meet the principles of Common Ground, we chose the open-source Kubernetes platform. Both run on our Private Cloud at Fundaments. The result is a solid technical foundation that we can truly build on.”

Cor is very pleased with the opportunities the new infrastructure brings: “By decoupling our data from the middleware and the application/process layers, we remain the owners of our data. We place it in one central location and access it through microservices, which reduces the influence of the application vendor. This solution not only enables sovereignty but also gives us concrete tools to phase out existing case management systems.”

Current Status: Stability, Control, and Peace of Mind

The new cloud environment is now up and running smoothly. So far, only two minor incidents have occurred—both fully within the SLA and unnoticed by Eindhoven’s employees. On top of that, this new way of working has already resulted in significant cost and workload savings.

But for Sander and Cor, the biggest win lies in the peace of mind and confidence they now have in the solution.
Sander: “The environment is running smoothly, and we’ve been relieved of the technical burden. Now we just need our tech people to let go,” he laughs.
“That human aspect takes the longest.”
Cor agrees: “But the convenience and future opportunities this setup provides are by far the most important.”
“Sovereignty really became a hot topic last year. What’s happening now in the U.S. shows how critical it is to know where your crown jewels are stored. I’m already hearing from colleagues in other municipalities who are following our approach with great interest.”

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