The municipality of Hoeksche Waard in South Holland does not see itself as an early adopter of new technology, but it does want to be at the forefront of innovative Dutch municipalities. Microsoft Azure had already been rolled out in the run-up to the 2019 municipal reorganization, and Microsoft 365 was also implemented due to the pandemic. In early 2023, the municipality decided to undertake a professionalization initiative: no longer working in different environments, but developing the entire IT landscape based on a single platform. A special “landing zone” is designed to ensure that applications are deployed to the cloud in a secure and controlled manner.
Customer perspective
A gradual transition to Azure
“Databalance (formerly 3fifty) has long supported the municipality of Hoeksche Waard and also guided the municipality during the merger process. For this project, they were asked to oversee the transition from Citrix to an Azure environment and to assist in setting up multiple Azure products. The goal was to gradually expand Azure’s presence within the municipality. The recommendation was to set up a landing zone so that we could migrate things to the cloud step by step. But a landing zone like that doesn’t just appear out of nowhere; it requires a different installation method using scripts. In the past, we could simply click a server together; now we roll out infrastructure using Bicep. In addition, we work with Azure DevOps in combination with wikis, which is quite a new way of working.”
Knowledge transfer as a foundation
“We want to ensure that the knowledge we’ve gained is effectively embedded within our own organization. That’s where Databalance excels: knowledge transfer. With the Knowledge as a Service (KaaS) concept, their role in a project shifts from consulting to implementation, with the goal of gradually transferring more and more knowledge so that we can stand on our own two feet. A lot has happened in the past year and a half: the landing zone has been set up, our people have been trained and familiarized with the system, new workflows using scripts have been implemented, and knowledge is being captured using wikis in Azure DevOps. Databalance’s current role is one of support, particularly for the more technically complex issues.”
Data-driven work and information security
“In recent years, the municipality has also been actively working on dashboarding to better enable data-driven work. We have built a new data warehouse based on Azure Synapse Analytics and successfully deployed the first data project on it. All new data projects will now be developed exclusively on this platform. An additional benefit is that, in the future, dashboards can be more easily made available to residents via the cloud. With such data initiatives, security is naturally a major concern. We place a high priority on information security: our architectural landscape and security requirements have been tested against the GDPR in a pilot setup, and this is woven into our entire portfolio process.”
Now that the landing zone has been set up, the municipality of Hoeksche Waard can deploy more applications to it. Thanks to this setup, it is now very easy to roll out a complete OTAP pipeline for an application. New applications can first be developed, tested, and accepted before they go into production. Azure Virtual Desktop will also be brought to the landing zone; a task in which Databalance will once again share its insights.
Databalance’s approach does not result in a “big bang,” but rather a phased transition to a new IT landscape. System and network management have converged, particularly in the Azure domain. By thinking more proactively upfront rather than dealing with troubleshooting afterward, and by documenting everything in Azure DevOps, the municipality is embedding knowledge within its own organization.
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