SOURCE URL: http://www.ibm.com/midmarket/be/en/att/pdf/Dutch_Cloud_REDM_02674_IBM_Inspire_magazine8_Belux_P44-45.pdf

1. CASE
Dutch Cloud BV delivers highly
available, cost-efficient cloud services
As businesses demand more availability, security, efficiency and flexibility from their IT departments,
more are turning to infrastructure as a service (IaaS) providers to significantly reduce the cost,
complexity and risk associated with running their infrastructures. Dutch company, and IBM Premier
Business Partner, Dutch Cloud offers SMBs a range of cloud-based services, from fully managed IaaS
to disaster recovery solutions.
In building its offering, the company
our service layer,” says Martijn Van
needed to find the right balance –
Zoeren, CEO of Dutch Cloud.
High-quality, low-touch
provisioning
In a fiercely competitive industry,
ensuring its platform was standardized
enough to enable easy scalability,
Dutch Cloud must continually find
based on IBM System x3650 M3 servers
ways to enhance service levels for
features best suited to different types of
connected to multiple IBM Storwize®
clients while keeping costs low.
workloads. Working with IBM, Dutch
V7000 disk systems. Kernel-based virtual
Cloud designed an environment that
machine (KVM) and VMware virtualization
Initially, the company used internally
separates customers on the network level
technology are used to enable clients to
developed provisioning tools based on
versus the service layer (virtual local area
run multiple virtual machines on Linux
open-source technologies. However, as
network [VLAN] separation). “Separating
or Windows images. “KVM is close to both
the company grew, the staff couldn’t
client environments at the network layer
the kernel and the hardware, so we can
keep up with this approach. “We had
provides better security and enables us
optimize performance and work with
to keep changing our tool to support
to deliver any type of architecture within
44 | Case
The fully virtualized infrastructure is
while offering the specific technical
cutting-edge hardware.”
all new versions of VMware, KVM and

2. Microsoft software coming out, and
easy for customers to migrate their
all the new storage versions,” explains
virtual machines into our service
Van Zoeren. “So we were spending 80
layer. KVM also saves us a lot of money
percent of our time maintaining the
through lower licensing costs.
tool and 20 percent on supporting
client requirements.”
“We are using both KVM and VMware,
so IBM SmartCloud Provisioning
Dutch Cloud needed a solution that
enables us to bring in customer
would enable rapid provisioning of
environments on VMware and reduce
new cloud services with a high degree
costs by moving them to KVM. We’ve
of automation, while supporting
also found KVM much easier to install
the delivery of ‘white-label’ services
and manage.
(which enable resellers to apply their
own branding, marketing and pricing
“Our clients are often surprised –
strategies when reselling Dutch Cloud’s
many think we’ll need 10 to 15 days to
infrastructure services). At the time,
migrate them to our environment. In
IBM was working on its SmartCloud
most situations, we can complete it in
Provisioning offering and invited Dutch
four hours.”
Cloud to participate in beta testing.
As a result, Dutch Cloud delivered the
Measurable ROI
first commercial implementation of
Since deploying IBM SmartCloud
the solution in the Netherlands.
Provisioning software, Dutch Cloud
has seen its client base expand
By implementing IBM SmartCloud
significantly, and the high degree of
Provisioning software, Dutch Cloud
automation built into the IBM solution
simplified and standardized its
has greatly reduced Dutch Cloud’s
cloud infrastructure and improved
administrative workload. Now the IT
efficiencies through dynamic
team spends 80 percent of its time on
provisioning and self-service
client migrations and only 20 percent
capabilities. “Our time spent
on administration – a more than 70
maintaining the administration layer
percent decrease in administrative
changed enormously when we started
time. The business impact has been
using IBM SmartCloud
tremendous: Dutch Cloud’s monthly
Provisioning,” says Van Zoeren.
recurring revenue has tripled twice
in the last year, while the operational
An important differentiator, he adds,
costs have remained flat.
is that IBM separates the provisioning
layer from the underneath
Crucially, new services can now be
infrastructure, so that migrating client
deployed in minutes rather than
infrastructures is transparent.
hours, placing Dutch Cloud in an
ideal position to respond rapidly to
“Using capabilities within the
changing client needs. “We’ll see more
hypervisor layer makes it difficult
competition in the IaaS market in the
when migrating client environments
coming years. Our technology choices
into the cloud,” he explains. “But
have given us the ability to thrive in this
SmartCloud Provisioning separates
competitive market,” says Van Zoeren. n
the grid layer from the underlying
’s Gravelandseweg 46d
infrastructure, so that we don’t have
1211 BT Hilversum
to depend on the underlying hardware
+31 35 82 00 252
or hypervisor layer. That makes it very
info@dutchcloud.com
Case | 45