Critical applications require control over data and infrastructure

“The infrastructure on which applications run has increasingly become the foundation of many solutions that are critical to national security. At a time of growing hybrid threats and geopolitical tensions, it is becoming ever more important to know where data is located, who has access to it and who operates the systems,” says Rasmus Kirkebæk Jensen, Head of Business Development at Netic.

For more than 20 years, Netic has operated complex and critical IT infrastructure, delivering solutions from its own data centres to sectors including healthcare, public administration, energy, utilities and national security. Rising geopolitical tensions led to the development of Contain Core – a cloud-native platform built on open-source technology and designed as an alternative to the public clouds offered by US Big Tech companies, which are subject to the US CLOUD Act.

Contain Core is delivered as a preconfigured physical rack – effectively a ‘private cloud in a box’ – installed on the customer’s premises. Essentially, it requires only power, cooling and a network connection to become operational.

The platform can also operate completely isolated from the internet in an air-gapped environment. This is crucial for the the defence industry, as many defence applications must not be connected to the internet but still require modern cloud capabilities such as flexibility and scalability – both of which Contain Core provides.

Security is also embedded in the platform’s architecture. Contain Core uses an immutable operating system, keeping the underlying foundation as simple and unchangeable as possible to reduce the attack surface. The platform has also been designed to support requirements such as NIS2, DORA and CER, as well as NATO’s highly demanding approval processes (AC/322-D/0048).

Netic takes care of the complexity

However, the solution is about more than supplying hardware and software. The combination of critical IT operations and stringent security requirements has become extremely complex, making it highly demanding for many organisations to build and retain all the specialist expertise required in-house.

Netic therefore provides Contain Core as managed infrastructure and handles round-the-clock operations, updates and monitoring. Several Netic teams are involved in developing and delivering the platform. 

“There are a great many moving parts that must be maintained and kept secure. We take responsibility for that complexity, allowing customers to focus on the application and the task that are genuinely critical to their business or mission,” says Rasmus Kirkebæk Jensen.

An alternative to becoming locked in

He does not rule out that some organisations may be able to build the necessary capabilities themselves. However, Netic finds that many customers have instead purchased a ready-made product, typically from a major US supplier. This is where vendor lock-in becomes an issue.

The organisation effectively becomes dependent on a single supplier, making it both difficult and expensive to switch. It is also exposed to the risk of substantial price increases imposed by that supplier – something many companies have experienced in recent years. VMware customers, for example, have faced dramatic price increases following Broadcom’s acquisition of the company.

Contain Core removes that risk. Because the platform is built on an open-source foundation, elements such as the hardware, virtualisation and application layers can be replaced without rebuilding the entire solution.

“We are not saying that organisations should avoid all US technology. We also use certain US technologies ourselves to some extent. What we are saying is that sovereignty needs to be given greater consideration – particularly when dealing with systems that are critical to national security or defence. Organisations need to regain a degree of control,” says Rasmus Kirkebæk Jensen.

Regaining that control restores freedom of action and prevents an organisation from becoming so tied to a single technology stack or licensing model that other options effectively disappear.

“That is when vendor lock-in becomes a problem. If moving is no longer a realistic option, organisations end up in a situation where prices, terms or restrictions are dictated to them. We believe Denmark needs to start taking that dependency far more seriously.”