Nederland Housing Association Ymere Selects Proact

Ymere, a housing association operating in the Amsterdam metropolitan area, have opted for a scalable cloud storage platform supplied by Proact IT Group AB for which they only pay according to consumption.

This brings the housing association cost savings. The solution consists of storage-as-a-service on the basis of data replications to an external, secondary data centre.

Ymere was on the verge of replacing the cornerstone of its IT environment, the storage. The organisation currently makes use of a NetApp-based storage solution from Proact, which operates satisfactorily, but not in line with the new IT infrastructure strategy. The professional bottlenecks were a technical IT environment that needed updating, CAPEX investments and increased management effort.

Arno Diefenbach, ICT Manager, said: “The solution that we chose from Proact is the next step in our long-standing partnership, and fits seamlessly with our vision of growing into an ICT governance organisation. The innovative IT infrastructure brings Ymere substantial savings, and ensures risk reduction. We are also very pleased that the service to users and tenants will be increased.“

Within this managed and monitored service, Proact takes responsibility for ensuring an optimal service level of the IT infrastructure in terms of availability and performance. The chosen solution will keep step with the internal and external changes in both the technical and innovative area. This also enables Ymere to migrate from a more or less unpredictable CAPEX-based investment strategy to a transparent and more predictable OPEX exploitation strategy.

Lucas den Os, MD, Proact Netherlands says: “We are pleased to be able to take the next step in our long-standing collaboration with Ymere in order to achieve an IT governance organisation. Many organisations, including various housing associations, have already taken this step, and we look forward to achieving the objectives in terms of cost savings and risk reduction, among other aspects.“