Constructive talks with Dutch cloud service providers
Prospects for ultimate return to a Dutch service provider look good
In 2024, we announced that we intended to move part of our generic technical infrastructure to the public cloud. That led to us reaching an agreement with the Minister of Economic Affairs at the start of 2025, about the steps we would take to assure the continuity, security, stability and autonomy of the .nl domain in the context of such a move. It was agreed, for example, that the database used for the generation, signing and publication of the zone file would be hosted by a Dutch cloud service provider, while a smaller portion of our domain registration system than originally envisaged would be migrated to the AWS public cloud in Frankfurt. The Dutch parliament’s lower chamber subsequently passed a motion asking the government to engage in dialogue with us and with Dutch cloud service providers to explore how the portion of the domain registration system that we intend to migrate to AWS can ultimately be moved back to a Dutch service provider. Today, the Minister of Economic Affairs informed the House of Representatives in a letter about the progress on this issue. Due to the fall of the cabinet, the Minister was unable to inform the House of Representatives before the summer recess, as originally intended.
16 organisations involved
In line with the request, we and the Ministry of Economic Affairs invited Dutch cloud service providers to meet us for discussions. The companies that expressed an interest in taking part were sent a list of our requirements ahead of the meeting, and were asked to indicate which of the requirements they were able to meet. Ultimately, 16 of them participated in the meeting, with a representative of the Board of the Registrars' Association also attending in an observational capacity.
Ground covered at the meeting
The meeting was held in mid-May, chaired by the Ministry of Economic Affairs. It was a constructive session, with an open and positive atmosphere. At the outset, the ministry reiterated that the aim of the meeting was the identification of a Dutch cloud service provider to whom the relevant portion of the registration system could ultimately be migrated. SIDN’s CTO Loek Bakker then made a presentation explaining our core duties and setting out the context within which we operate, including the stagnant growth of .nl, the increasingly strict compliance requirements we must meet, the changing threat landscape and our aging systems. He also explained our ICT strategy, sourcing strategy, requirements and exit strategy. At the end of the presentation, the representatives of the cloud service providers were given ample opportunity to ask questions.
Prospects for ultimate return to a Dutch service provider look good
The cloud service providers that, in light of everything discussed at the meeting, believed that they could (within a reasonable time frame) meet our requirements were given the opportunity to register their interest; 12 of them ultimately did so. We then held talks with each of the 12 individually. The discussions were again open and technically informative, adding further detail to our understanding of the Dutch cloud service landscape and the ambitions of Dutch service providers. On the basis of the talks, it has been agreed that we will continue discussions with 3 Dutch service providers, whose services and strategies could align with our long-term needs.
We are confident that a sound basis exists for constructive dialogue with the 3 services providers about the possible realisation of an appropriate solution for us within the Netherlands. The ultimate objective being to enable the portion of our registration system that we’re migrating to AWS to be returned to a Dutch service provider in due course – as was always our intention.
