COUNTRY FOCUS: NETHERLANDS
services are disrupted, a sector of society
goes dark. The changing infrastructure
means that IT security services have to be
smarter and better organised.
Interconnected society
As lovely as it would be, there is simply no
single comprehensive answer to all of these
challenges. Digitisation has many different
facets, after all. It makes sense that they
would require multiple solutions. One
key to the conundrum is the increasing
necessity of organisations being able to
exchange data in a way that is safe,
secure and fast. This facet is also known
as interconnection and it’s not a new
phenomenon. For years, telecom and cloud
providers have offered direct connections
for exchanging data. However, the
enormous growth of interconnection is
striking. The Global Interconnection Index,
an annual survey by Equinix, predicts that
the number of private connections will
grow by 51% in each of the coming years.
Currently, organisations have an average of
340 direct connections to cloud providers
and partner organisations.
Michiel Eielts, Managing Director
Benelux, Equinix
government entities, highlighted the
challenge in its vision statement. Public
organisations will need to engage with
suppliers and partners in the chain far more
than they currently do. For government
institutions to cooperate with other parties
and work flexibly, they must deploy and use
platforms and ecosystems. It’s the only way
to simplify collaboration and provide easy
access to the necessary links and domains.
These new digital possibilities, however,
offer new risks at the same time. It’s
more important than ever before to know
where data is stored and how information
is exchanged. Additionally, these digital
services have to be constantly available
once deployed, always and everywhere. If
In fact, this explosive growth of
interconnection highlights how the
Netherlands is rapidly developing into a
breeding ground for digital ecosystems
and new business models. The new
interconnected society is largely designed
by Dutch entrepreneurs and based in data
centres in the Netherlands. Unfortunately,
government organisations themselves
are still on the sidelines. There are a few
reasons for this, but there are two major
ones. Often, government organisations rely
on outdated systems while the decisionmakers
are concerned about security and
worry about the cloud.
Digital future
If the Netherlands wants to remain a
front-runner in the digital economy, the
public sector itself must quickly engage
with the hubs, networks and ecosystems.
The direct exchange of data in a secure
and scalable manner offers numerous
opportunities to improve services to
citizens and companies. It creates new
opportunities for entrepreneurs and
contributes to economic growth. •
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