COUNTRY FOCUS: BELGIUM
“
WE HAVE BEEN ABLE
TO DEMONSTRATE THAT WE CAN
SERVE THE CUSTOMERS AND
PARTNERS WITH EVERY TYPE OF
CLOUD DELIVERY MODEL, AS WELL
AS WITH A COMBINATION OF THESE
DELIVERY MODELS.
The challenge The solution
Proximus is no stranger to VMware. The
internal IT infrastructure consists of over
12,000 virtual servers. So, it should come
as no surprise that it turned to VMware
when it wanted to start its Infrastructure-
as-a-Service (IaaS) offering. When it
decided some years ago to offer enterprise
cloud, it seemed only logical that Proximus
should consider VMware as a principal
supplier for the indispensable virtualisation
technology. “When we started this enterprise
cloud journey, there was no other vendor
who could supply us with the same
grade of reliable, performant and secure
virtualisation,” said Fabrice Feyten, Product
Line Manager Cloud solutions at Proximus.
“We needed a partner who could provide us
with a solution that allowed for a multi-
tenant platform without compromising
on performance or security. The only way
you can succeed as a cloud provider is
by reaching the benefits of scalability,
flexibility and cost-effective computing while
taking away the worries around security,
performance and availability. A reliable
virtualisation partner such as VMware was
key to the success of this journey.” For the basic, so-called ‘naked’ IaaS offering
branded as Proximus vContainer, the
organisation uses approximately 2,000 virtual
machines; for the managed IaaS offering,
Proximus Belgium uses another 1,500-2,000
virtual machines. Additionally, Telindus
Luxembourg uses another several thousand
virtual machines for its local IaaS offerings.
Additionally, the virtualisation solution would
have to enable the hybrid cloud model,
allowing the customer to experience the best
of both worlds. That way, the customer can
choose to combine their own private cloud
with Proximus’ cloud infrastructure and even
rely on Proximus as a broker for public cloud
offerings such as Amazon or Azure. This
would not be possible without an overarching
virtualisation platform, which allows for easy
integration of all these environments. Business results and benefits
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INTELLIGENTCIO
The IaaS offering started in late 2010-early
2011 and was mostly based on ESX, vCenter
and vCloud Director. Starting from some
isolated use cases, this offering grew month
after month, both in the corporate and in
the SMB customer base. The growth was
generated from direct sales as well as from
local smaller integrators using Proximus’ IaaS
offering as a base for its own cloud solutions.
In 2015, Proximus launched an ‘SMB in the
Cloud’ solution: a one-stop shop solution
consisting of IaaS with some value-adding
components such as Office 365, security or
Lync. Smaller customers can thus benefit
from a worry-free environment for a fixed
price per month. This offering has already
been adopted by roughly 3,000 SMB users.
Overall, this cloud IaaS solution, in its
different forms, has known a healthy double-
digit growth ever since its inception. “The
enterprise-grade quality that was offered
from the start has been enhanced even
further throughout the years,” said Feyten.
“It has become available for both larger
and smaller organisations, both directly and
through the partner channel.”
Proximus has always strived to provide
the best possible quality for an affordable
price. When the cloud era started, this
ambition had not changed at all – quite
the contrary. “Customers and partners are
relying on Proximus to provide enterprise-
grade services and infrastructure. This is
what we have developed the past five
years as a cloud offering as well. We
want to offer superior value and service
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