Across Europe, the Middle East, and select regions in Asia Pacific, organizations are increasingly prioritizing "sovereign cloud" solutions to gain greater control and independence over their IT infrastructure and data. This shift is driven by heightened German vertical data privacy regulations (like BDSG to the E-Health Act and Social Code/SGB), concerns about reliance on foreign cloud hyperscalers, and the desire for more flexibility and autonomy in deploying and managing technology.
At Arvato Systems, a Broadcom Pinnacle partner and sovereign cloud certified VMware Cloud Service Provider (VCSP), one of our most notable sovereign cloud engagements has been with kubus IT, a subsidiary and IT services provider for AOK Healthcare, one of Germany’s largest public healthcare organizations. Kubus IT faced a critical need for a technology refresh as one of its data centers became obsolete and no longer met certification requirements. The company sought a partner to modernize its infrastructure and establish a flexible, cloud-enabled, locally controlled IT environment. Arvato Systems stepped in with a clear goal: transition kubus IT’s thousands of servers, applications, and services to a sovereign cloud using VCF within 15 months, while minimizing operational impact on kubus IT and AOK’s users.
Addressing Key Challenges
Kubus IT supports AOK Healthcare, which serves over eight million insured users in Germany. Downtime during the migration was not an option. The company faced several challenges:
- Outdated Data Center: One of kubus IT’s two on-premise data centers was no longer certified, making it unable to meet strict regulatory requirements.
- Staffing Shortages: kubus IT struggled to find enough employees to manage its IT infrastructure effectively.
- Need for Modernization: The company wanted to take a bold step into the future by adopting cloud technology.
- Migration scale, uptime and timescale: kubus IT’s estate consisted of 24,000 concurrent users, 7,000 virtual servers and 15,000TB of mission critical data to be migrated with zero downtime in a 15 month operational window.
The urgency of the situation was compounded by the fact that the certification for the data center was set to expire by the end of 2024, leaving kubus IT with only a few months to remain operational in the existing facility. These challenges drove kubus IT to seek a solution that could address its immediate needs and not impact users and services during the migration while still laying the groundwork for future growth.
Why VMware Cloud Foundation?
A key factor in Arvato Systems’ selection was its deep expertise with Broadcom technologies, particularly VCF. VCF enabled the delivery of a fully integrated private cloud solution that combined the agility and scalability of public cloud services with the security and control of Arvato's sovereign cloud services. Sensitive healthcare data and workloads could be live migrated, without service interruption and remained housed within Arvato Systems sovereign German data centers under kubus IT’s control.
The implementation process was not without its hurdles. Integrating various Broadcom components—networking, security, storage, and virtualization—proved more complex than anticipated. Undocumented product limitations posed unexpected challenges, requiring close collaboration between Arvato Systems, kubus IT, and Broadcom’s professional services team. Transparent communication and a partnership-driven approach were critical to overcoming these obstacles and delivering the solution within a tight seven-month timeline.
Transparent Collaboration and Results
Throughout the project, Arvato Systems maintained open communication with kubus IT, proactively addressing challenges rather than glossing over them. This transparency fostered trust and momentum, even as the project encountered speed bumps. The result was a modern, flexible, and secure IT infrastructure fully aligned with kubus IT’s sovereign cloud objectives.
By consolidating on the VCF platform, kubus IT streamlined its operations, reduced reliance on hard-to-find IT talent, consolidated infrastructure from ~1200m2 to ~240m2 data center space, and established a foundation for future cloud service consumption. Most importantly, the company retained control over its data and systems within German borders, ensuring compliance with stringent data privacy regulations. As more organizations seek to reduce dependence on hyperscale technologies and take greater control of their IT, Arvato Systems’ expertise in architecting and deploying locally tailored cloud solutions has become a distinct competitive advantage.
Benefits of VMware Cloud Foundation
The VCF platform provided kubus IT with a private cloud that operates like a public cloud. Key benefits included:
- Speed: Rapid setup of essential IT components like firewalls and load balancers.
- Virtualization: Streamlined IT operations through virtualization of infrastructure.
- Flexibility: Enhanced agility to adapt to evolving business needs.
These capabilities allowed kubus IT to modernize its infrastructure quickly and efficiently, positioning the company for future growth.
Looking Ahead
The sovereign cloud journey is ongoing, and kubus IT still has work ahead to optimize its application landscape and cloud consumption model. However, the foundation is now in place, enabling the company to navigate the evolving IT landscape while keeping its most sensitive data and workloads under its own supervision.
For organizations aspiring to achieve greater IT sovereignty, the kubus IT experience highlights the importance of choosing the right technology partner. Success depends not only on technical expertise but also on a collaborative and transparent approach to overcoming challenges. This strategy has proven effective for Arvato Systems and kubus IT and will likely become increasingly critical as more European enterprises chart their own sovereign cloud roadmaps.
In conclusion, the kubus IT project demonstrates the transformative potential of sovereign cloud solutions powered by VMware Cloud Foundation. By addressing immediate challenges and laying the groundwork for future growth, Arvato Systems has helped kubus IT take a bold step into the future of cloud technology while maintaining control over its critical data and infrastructure.
Read more about Broadcom’s Sovereign Cloud momentum.
Read more about Arvato in the case study here.