Common Ground & Haven: start of digital autonomy for Dutch municipalities

Name: Previder
Price range: $

Common Ground is an initiative of the Association of Netherlands Municipalities (VNG) to modernise the digital infrastructure of Dutch municipalities. The aim is to make municipal IT systems more efficient, flexible, secure and collaborative. This is important because of the increasing dependence on digital services and the growing demands for data protection, privacy and cost control. With Haven, you create a generic layer that fits within a municipality's IT landscape, connecting to all Common Ground solutions.

Kubernetes as a Service (KaaS)The Haven initiative, part of the Common Ground programme, provides the basis for a new, future-proof digital infrastructure for Dutch municipalities. At a time when digital autonomy is becoming increasingly important, Haven provides a platform that allows municipalities to keep control over their data, applications and digital services. This avoids dependence on large international cloud providers and promotes security, flexibility and cost savings. With Haven, municipalities build a modern, secure and flexible digital future in which they remain in control. This makes municipalities more agile and ensures more efficient and transparent services to residents and businesses.

Previder as first Dutch party Haven-compliant

Previder has become the first Dutch party to develop a Haven-compliant Reference Implementation in collaboration with the Association of Dutch Municipalities (VNG): this means that we are now the only party in the Netherlands to offer municipalities a platform that meets the strict requirements of the Haven Initiative. With this, we help municipalities increase their digital autonomy by offering a secure, flexible and locally managed cloud infrastructure. By keeping data within Dutch borders and working according to open standards, we offer a future-proof solution that fully meets the needs of the public sector. With Previder, municipalities regain control of their digital environment without depending on foreign hyperscalers.

Meeting Port standards: With the Reference Implementation, our infrastructure is fully compliant with the requirements of the Haven initiative, which means we have embraced Common Ground principles such as data storage at source and the use of open standards and APIs.
Development of Previder Kubernetes Engine: we have developed our own Kubernetes solution (KaaS: Kubernetes-as-a-Service), which is fully automated and compliant with Haven's standards if the Reference Implementation is followed. This allows municipalities to implement applications flexibly and quickly. Our applications are hosted and managed in our own 100% Dutch data centres, with redundancy across multiple data centre locations guaranteeing high availability.
CNCF membership: Previder is a member of the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), a requirement to meet Haven's requirements with its own Kubernetes Engine and to support modern cloud-native technologies. In addition, we are recognised Kubernetes Certified Service Provider (KCSP). Read more about this in this article.

Benefits of Port at Previder for municipalities

Full control over data

With Haven at Previder, all municipal data remains within Dutch borders, stored in data centres that comply with strict security standards. This guarantees the protection of personal data and ensures that municipalities comply with the AVG and other privacy legislation.

Platform-independent

Haven stands for platform-independent cloud infrastructure. So it does not matter which cloud or on premise solution is used by the municipality: an application or website running on one Haven environment is reusable on all Haven environments.

Modular and reusable applications

Municipalities can easily develop and implement digital services that comply with the Haven standard. An application that works on one Port environment can be reused on other environments, leading to faster development, lower costs and better collaboration.

Flexibility and scalability

Haven uses open standards and APIs, allowing systems to easily communicate and integrate with each other. This gives municipalities the flexibility to add new technologies, such as Kubernetes, and services quickly, without major modifications to existing systems.

Cost-effectiveness

Door standaardisering en automatisering kunnen gemeenten hun IT-infrastructuur kostenefficiënter inrichten en beheren. Haven stelt gemeenten in staat om innovatieve digitale diensten te ontwikkelen zonder te hoeven investeren in complexe, dure infrastructuren.

Better cooperation between governments

Haven fits seamlessly with the Common Ground initiative, which ensures better data sharing and cooperation between municipalities and other government organisations. This leads to more efficient processes and better services to citizens.