IQES

Daniele, what exactly does IQES do?

‍"IQES was founded in 2006 in Winterthur, Switzerland. We provide web-based services to schools, such as our Evaluationcenter application. This is a survey tool that allows schools and teachers to receive feedback and conduct evaluations. We also offer online materials and tools for school and educational development, focusing on helping school principals improve their schools and teachers enhance their teaching skills. Our goal is to improve education for students by focusing on the development of schools and teachers. We serve as many as 10,000 schools across German-speaking Europe, including Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and parts of Italy." "Since we are a small company, we work with strategic partners to focus on our core business. Two of these partners are Fundaments and codenic. Codenic is our partner for software development and system administration, while Fundaments is our partner for cloud services. We choose our partners carefully to provide the best service to our customers."

‍Jens, can you tell us what codenic does for IQES?

‍"Codenic specializes in full-stack web development. We develop web applications, such as IQES's Evaluationcenter. In addition, we provide system administration services, both on our own infrastructure and on that of our clients. In the case of IQES, this means the infrastructure provided by Fundaments. We offer a complete package, from application development to deployment and monitoring."

‍How did you experience the transition from a traditional hosting environment to Kubernetes?

‍Jens: "We started using container virtualization (Docker) eight years ago, so the move to Kubernetes was a logical step. Although we encountered some challenges along the way, the migration was one of the best decisions we've made because it offers many development advantages. It is easier to perform updates and scale applications. Furthermore, we are satisfied with the stability and reliability of the VMware Tanzu platform."

‍What was the biggest challenge?

‍Jens: "Understanding Kubernetes can be quite complex. Fortunately, we had the time to transition to Kubernetes, which allowed us to perform extensive testing. Fundaments played an important role in this process for us." Daniele: "It was a matter of trial and error for us. We had numerous discussions with Fundaments to determine the right setup, and we were provided with a proof-of-concept cluster for testing. This was very important to us, given that we had to migrate 10,000 schools with all their data. Fundaments responded quickly whenever we had questions or encountered issues. Ultimately, it became an excellent solution with clear responsibilities. Fundaments focuses on setting up and maintaining the clusters, while codenic manages everything within the clusters. I would say that the better the partner, the easier the migration to Kubernetes. Fortunately, we found a competent and reliable partner in Fundaments."

‍What are the benefits of this solution for you and your customers?

‍Jens: "Rolling updates have made things much simpler, eliminating downtime. We no longer have to schedule updates in the evening or at night. This is not only convenient for us but also for our customers, as they receive fixes and new features faster. The ease of scaling clusters is also important to us, especially when we see a spike in load. Scaling individual clusters or the entire cluster is easy. Even when IQES gains new schools as customers, scaling is simple." Daniele: "Key points for me are the improved availability of the platform, better scalability, and enhanced security. The migration to Kubernetes has been important for us. Although we still monitor, we rarely have to intervene, which used to be a time-consuming process. It simply gives us more time for our customers instead of constantly being busy with IT. This gives us confidence in our ability to grow in the future. We used to worry about scalability when we gained new customers. We would wonder if we could handle the increased numbers. Now, we are 100% sure that we can."

‍At Fundaments, we work with a Pay-as-you-Go model. How do you experience this?

‍Jens: "Having control over costs and transparency is very useful. When we need a test system, we can easily scale up resources for testing and then scale them back down. Even in production environments, we can efficiently scale resources up and down. This is a major advantage for IQES. For codenic, it is great to have this level of control."

‍Fundaments is the first cloud provider in the Netherlands with VMware Sovereign Cloud status. What does this mean for IQES?

‍Daniele: "I wasn't familiar with the concept at first, but I quickly realized it was exactly what we needed. We require an IT environment that is transparent and under our control. When we started in 2006, government agencies asked how we managed data security and server locations. Thanks to Fundaments' Sovereign Cloud, it's easier to explain. We truly have control over our cloud and comply with relevant laws and regulations. Fundaments' ISO certifications have also been valuable during discussions with government agencies."

‍Finally, how would you describe your partnership with Fundaments?

‍Daniele: "We initially considered Azure and Amazon, but they lacked a personal relationship, which was a key reason for choosing Fundaments. For a small company like ours, it's important to have a partner with a 'face'—someone on the other end who understands what we do and cares. We are happy and look forward to a long-term collaboration. The partnership is very personal, and the people we work with are competent and helpful in an unbureaucratic way. This is essential to me. Fundaments is a great fit for us." Jens: "I'd like to add that we are keeping a close eye on Fundaments to see if there are other services we can use in the future. Fundaments is the right partner for us, both now and in the future."