The City of Breda is located in the southern part of the Netherlands and is home to more than 180,000 citizens. Breda is known for its historic buildings and downtown area that is popular among tourists with shops and restaurants lining the streets.
Breda aims to be a technology leader and they are always looking for new ways to offer digital government services and transform how they interact with their community. Breda is seeking ways to convert data from networks into actionable insights and information in order to enhance the citizen experience within their community.
Clemens Garritsen, Head of ICT at the City of Breda, recognized the dynamic environment of a modern city and wanted to transform their IT department into an “Information Factory” to make informed decisions on how to best meet the needs of citizens.
“Network is more than just connectivity, it’s about what it means for the people and organizations of Breda,” Garritsen said. “We want to convert the data from those networks into knowledge and information that can help us improve our services as a municipality.”
In order to reach their desired outcomes, the City of Breda built their data center infrastructure based on the Extreme Fabric Connect solution. With the help of this solution, the city has been able to deploy temporary and permanent infrastructure in a more cost effective and efficient way, and provide a resilient network backbone that can support new applications and initiatives designed to enhance the citizen experience. They do all this in partnership with Conscia, a leading service provider in the Netherlands that helps them both implement and manage networking solutions, as well as bring their broader IT vision to life.
“It’s so much more than just issuing passports and disposing of household waste. Everything is connected to everything these days, so the real question is: what do we, the people and organizations of Breda, want from the city and how does the network infrastructure contribute to this?.”
Clemens Garritsen, Head of ICT
