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With seven high-performance and high-security data centers located throughout the Netherlands and full array of cloud services and solutions, including Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) that enables customers to harness the strengths of the private, public and hybrid cloud with ease, Fundaments is trusted by enterprises in numerous industries. The company is equally well-known among independent software vendors for its cloud platform and mission-critical business and e-commerce applications.

Recently, Fundaments became the first provider of VMware Cloud Verified solutions and services to earn the VMware Sovereign Cloud distinction. Now the company has joined the elite rank of partners to join VMware’s Zero Carbon committed initiative. This effort is one that Fundaments’ Chief Technology Officer Larik-Jan Verschuren says is important to him personally.

“The changing climate is clearly visible in our day-to-day lives,” he says. “We must make a collective effort to get energy consumption down.” He stresses the need to view this effort not just as it relates to the impact of global warming on people and businesses today, but on future generations. For Verschuren, who has two young kids, that’s a significant motivator.

“I want them to have a promising future, to enjoy our beautiful world, and to enjoy the simple pleasure of skiing,” he says. “We must set the stage to lower emissions, set the right example and educate others. The more we do now, the more future generations can do to improve these kinds of initiatives.”

Verschuren is quick to note that being environmentally friendly and genuinely dedicated to efforts that minimize reliance on fossil fuels is also good business. Enterprises, he says, increasingly want to partner with organizations that make it easy for them to immediately decrease their carbon footprints.

It made good sense to partner with VMware in the effort to achieve net zero carbon emissions. Not only is the Fundaments IaaS based on VMware technologies, but the company’s wide array of cloud offerings such as Backup-as-a-Service, Disaster Recovery-as-a-Service, and Security-as-a-Service draw on many VMware innovations, for example Kubernetes clusters based on VMware Tanzu.

“Fundaments’ own Carbon footprint is in the datacenters, so we make sure that everything we do within them is done in the most efficient way,” explains Verschuren. “Joining the VMware Zero Carbon Committed Initiative provides a clear statement about our commitment to the environment in a concrete format.”

Not only has Fundaments committed to run all of its data centers off of renewable sources of energy for a net Zero Carbon footprint by 2030, but it also has a number of initiatives on tap for 2023.

These include steering all of its data centers to an even great PUE level, completing the energy use labeling of its services, mapping the power used per gigabyte of RAM and decreasing it, reducing the percentage use of spinning disks in the terabytes of storage it sells, using only the most efficient hardware and creating more cold and hot corridors in data centers to decrease heating and cooling requirements.

Fundaments employees are also committed to dramatically decreasing the use of paper in the company’s offices, encouraging the use of electric vehicles, implementing car-free working days, decreasing the use of shipping and freight services, and minimizing corporate travel.

Learn more about Fundaments and its partnership with VMware here.

Cloud Management, Green IT, IT Leadership

Posted on Posted in Digital transformation, General topics Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Fundaments, A VMware Cloud Verified partner operating from seven data centers located throughout the Netherlands, and a team of more than 50 vetted and experienced experts – all of whom are Dutch nationals – is growing rapidly. With an expanding customer base that includes public and private-sector leaders, demand for the company’s solutions is being driven by enterprises that must monitor their data and ensure that it remains on Dutch soil at all times.

We recently connected with Larik-Jan Verschuren, chief technology officer at Fundaments, to learn more about the company’s recently announced honor of being the first to earn the VMware Sovereign Cloud distinction in the Netherlands, find out what’s driving the demand for sovereign approaches to data management, and get his thoughts on future demand.

“One of the unique things about Fundaments is that we offer a mission-critical, sovereign cloud and Infrastructure-as-a-Service for managed service providers and independent software companies as well as other private-sector businesses and government agencies,” says Verschuren. “Sovereignty means having true control from A to Z – from the physical hardware and services that are located here in the Netherlands, to the engineers operating workloads, and everything that is under their orchestration and management. At Fundaments, all data is stored in the Netherlands and we have a completely Dutch organization. Customers’ data is not exposed to any foreign input in any way.”

Verschuren notes that Fundaments, which operates a network of seven tier-3 datacenters across the nation, chose to achieve the VMware Sovereign Cloud distinction after seeing a significant increase in demand for data to be stored in the Netherlands. Just as importantly, these same enterprises had to be able to demonstrate certification and compliance with sovereignty requirements.

“Due to the increase in globalization and digitization more and more data is being used in the cloud, and more and more companies find it important to know that this data, their most important asset, is accessible and safe on a Dutch cloud platform,” adds Verschuren. “The introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) also prompted companies to think carefully about where their data is stored and the sovereignty issues that must be considered to be compliant.”

Verschuren also notes that compliance officers and chief information security officers are increasingly mindful of data integrity and demand the strongest levels of protection. Simultaneously, the pandemic accelerated digitization and contributed to the growing demand for innovation, analytics, and the capabilities the cloud delivers. Both factors directed organizations to Fundaments.

“By virtue of our VMware Sovereign Cloud status and the innovation and focus on compliance inherent in our work, Fundaments fulfills all of these needs,” he says. “Our customers know that their data sovereignty requirements will be met and that they are compliant with all relevant regulations here in the Netherlands – all on a platform that enables them to transform their businesses with the power of the cloud.”

Notably, Fundaments has worked extensively with VMware for years while serving its customers.

“We of course aren’t new at offering sovereign cloud services,” says Verschuren. “For two decades we’ve built our hosting operation around geographically dispersed, high security data centers in the Netherlands,” says Verschuren. “We wanted our cloud offerings to be a fully certified, all Dutch answer to the large hyperscalers, and we wanted them to be utterly stable, reliable, and scalable – qualities that differently reflect the VMware technologies we use in our platform and services.”

Verschuren believes that the demand for sovereign cloud services will only grow in light of geopolitical events and efforts to protect personal information. He also predicts that Fundaments’ ability to provide highly personalized service 24/7 will remain a significant differentiator for organizations that need to manage sensitive workloads that demand sovereignty.

“Our customers can consult with one of our engineers within minutes on any day and at any time,” he says. “With our focus on technology, processes, and people we are able to embrace and address the constantly evolving IT needs of our customers and our partners in an environment that is purpose-built to meet and exceed the most demanding sovereignty requirements.”

Learn more about Fundaments and its partnership with VMware, here.

Cloud Computing, IT Leadership