Cost-efficient cloud alternative within the Dutch borders

Worldstream’s one-stop shop

BICT Group is a Dutch managed service provider that has been working closely with Worldstream since 2017. Bas Voermans, director/owner of BICT, calls it a highly innovative partnership. While as an MSP, BICT specializes in delivering and managing advanced and robust private cloud solutions, Worldstream provides the underlying infrastructure from its own data centers in Westland and via Worldstream's global network backbone.

Worldstream's strength is its variety of infrastructure solutions, all working together as one. As a so-called one-stop shop, Worldstream provides BICT with dedicated servers, carrier-neutral connectivity (regional and global), DDoS protection, data center colocation, software-defined infrastructure functionality via Worldstream Elastic Network (WEN), block storage and 24/7 remote hands within the data center environment, among others.

WEN also facilitates BICT's growth ambitions to potential expansion of MSP operations internationally. The software-defined network enables BICT to effortlessly create data center PoP locations in Germany and Belgium that connect to BICT's current core infrastructure.

"We are actively making use of Worldstream's network investments and innovations," says Voermans. "BICT has its own NOC (Network Operations Center) and also its own SOC (Security Operations Center) for the private cloud network, but at the same time we use the wider network that Worldstream offers to its customers. We thus benefit from their anti-DDoS algorithm. And we also use their 10 Gbit/s network connectivity, which ensures that we have unlimited bandwidth available for our private cloud customers."

BICT sees Worldstream's software-defined infrastructure as an ingenious additional component within their infrastructure mix. "It is an important add-on on top of our own dedicated core infrastructure, combining the best of both worlds," says Voermans. "As an MSP, we don't have to invest in expensive block storage solutions ourselves because we can make use of them within WEN. In terms of functionality, we also see that Worldstream offers more and more technology options from WEN, so BICT does not have to reinvent the wheel each time and we do not have to invest in them individually. These add-ons ensure that we can keep our investments low and continue to deliver as an MSP at reduced costs."

What does the future hold for BICT?

"We as an MSP can now move much faster in the market," says Voermans. "We have far fewer movements nationwide with our vehicles, which brings cost advantages but also environmental benefits. And thanks to the bespoke partner agreement with Worldstream, we can make extensive use of their remote hands services. Moreover, the response time of Worldstream's engineers is very fast. They are thus a 24x7 extension of our own engineering teams. In the past, our specialists had to go to the data centers in the evening and at night, on weekends, or on public holidays for migrations, expansions or emergencies. They still sometimes have to be there to manage our own innovations, but for placement of hardware or replacement of hardware components, we nowadays deploy Worldstream's remote hands."

WEN also offers BICT the opportunity to spread its wings internationally. "Further expansion of scale, also across national borders in Germany and Belgium, for example, we do not rule out for the future," says Voermans. "I still foresee room in these countries for established MSPs that can apply past knowledge and experience on an international level. Through Worldstream, we are able to effortlessly create data center PoP sites in these countries that connect to our current core infrastructure. But even at the existing data center location, we expect Worldstream to do well in facilitating our Dutch growth ambitions, given their advanced plans to build a third data center."

The outsourcing of the core data center, server, and network infrastructure together with extensive automation of BICT's delivery street for private cloud solutions, makes the MSP compete in the market with significantly larger ICT service providers. "If we were to deliver ICT services in the conventional way, we would have needed a multitude of FTEs. We also see this reflected in the market. An average competitor has between 80 and 140 FTEs, where we can do the work with 35 specialists."