Fundaments and inlumi find each other in the sovereign Cloud

Published by Dutch IT Channel

For almost three years, inlumi and Fundaments have been working together a lot. In this cooperation, Fundaments takes care of the data centre infrastructure and inlumi takes care of the technical management of the application stack, amongst other things. Wessels: ‘The collaboration exceeds expectations, especially because Fundaments is very proactive. If there is anything that needs extra attention, Fundaments already arranged something or provided a solution.’ Verschuren: ‘inlumi keeps us on our toes in a good way and challenges us technically. We make each other better and more professional.’

Originating from Utrecht, the full-service provider inlumi is a major player, with offices in 10 countries and over 250 employees. It has around 75 large and often well-known clients operating in a wide range of sectors. Wessels: ‘In 23 years, we have developed from a technical implementation specialist on enterprise performance management software to an all-round service provider that provides the entire cycle of implementations, managed services, management, support and advice. In doing so, we focus on digital transformation for the CFO. Enterprise performance management is still the foundation: software for financial reporting and planning, among other things. However, automated integrations and extracting insight from data are becoming increasingly important. Our customers are often companies with multiple business units and an annual turnover of over EUR 500 million. The fact is, there is financial complexity involved in this, so there is a need for additional insight.’

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Data sovereignty

Both CTOs see the world of Cloud changing. The issue of data protection is playing an increasing role. Fundaments delivers ‘Sovereign Datacenter as a service’, guaranteeing data sovereignty. This means that all data is on Dutch soil and fully compliant with Dutch laws and regulations. Fundaments takes this subject very seriously and is not without reason among the select group of companies with the VMware Sovereign Cloud status. Verschuren sees that the big hyperscalers are also slowly moving in that direction. ‘Google recently proudly announced that they have their first sovereign cloud. You can see from this that the story is now resonating. There are more frameworks on how to manage data and there are voices calling for regulation on data interoperability between the big Cloud providers, so that you can easily extract data from some place again. This all has to do with data sovereignty. I also notice that companies are looking at it in a different way than before. It is no longer just about going to the Cloud, but they are increasingly thinking about what exactly happens to their data, especially with today's geopolitical situation.’

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Astonished

Wessels also sees a development. ‘The maturity of organisations varies. Sometimes I am still surprised by the fact that a large listed organisation dealing with all kinds of regulations still does not have the right IT or security strategy. Yet in other organisations, the sovereign Cloud already plays an important role and they know exactly where the data is and how to deal with it. The latter group is fortunately growing. Companies now also pretty much ask for certifications. I also see more value being placed on data availability and data integrity.’

Verschuren nods approvingly at Wessels' story. ‘That is exactly what is going on. The technology in data centres is so advanced, it's just good everywhere. But where it used to be very easy to just put everything in the Cloud, now the question is increasingly being asked where that data actually goes. Many companies are in that phase now. In addition, you see a kind of division emerging between enterprise Cloud applications and applications that I would call ‘born in the Cloud’. You regularly see that those enterprise applications don't fit so well with the technology of the big hyperscalers. Different applications land in different places as a result.’

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Cultural match

The two companies are actually aligned in everything which is the foundation of a successful collaboration. It started three years ago. Wessels: ‘We once had our own colocation in Dutch data centres where we provided hosting services for a number of clients. We decided a few years ago to part ways with it because managing hardware, connectivity and contracts is not part of our core business. We decided to leave that to a partner with a technically sound solution and the same rigorous requirements we set. We also looked for a cultural match, because the party must also be able to deliver customised solutions together with us. We talked to a number of parties and Fundaments stood out both technically and culturally. Over the past three years, it proved to be a good choice. We accelerated our internal wind-down process and have already said goodbye to our last own rack in a data centre. Everything is now with Fundaments.’

Wessels and his colleagues are putting a step on top of Fundaments' foundation, including with regard to designing and supporting custom infrastructure, connectivity and secure access methodologies. Among these are services such as solution development, office integrated chatbot, Robotic Process Automation, load and performance testing, functional availability testing, unit testing and release testing. Overall, this ensures that the end user can focus on directing and functional management, allowing employees to focus on what they are good at and what they enjoy doing. Verschuren therefore speaks of a perfect partnership. ‘The way inlumi works is a very nice complement to the semi-finished data centre we offer. Apart from the product that inlumi offers, we also see them as a partner we can use to manage enterprise applications well. That gives us the opportunity to help clients with a particular issue well. It's often about governing these days, which we fill in very nicely together.’ Wessels: ‘We have created an environment that allows us to help our customers with our own processes and procedures, plus our people, to their satisfaction. The IT piece that Fundaments provides combined with our interaction with customers and technical application management is just a very fine proposition.’

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