Inetum and the Federal Public Service Mobility and Transport are launching a partnership focused on cloud sovereignty. With a new sovereignty-by-design approach, they aim to keep sensitive government data under federal control and inspire other federal services.
Cloud sovereignty is receiving increasing attention within European governments, including Belgium. In this context, Inetum and the FPS Mobility and Transport are joining forces to develop a concrete approach for the secure management of government data in the public cloud. The collaboration aims to keep the management of sensitive data in cloud environments such as Microsoft Azure and Microsoft 365 entirely under the control of the federal government.
read also
Belgian government launches its own messaging app for civil servants
Sensitive data under federal control
The FPS Mobility and Transport manages large amounts of mobility data via various cloud platforms. The need for sovereignty is high, as this information is essential for mobility and transport policy and often contains sensitive data. Therefore, a solution was chosen where data remains under federal control at all times.
Inetum and Microsoft jointly delivered a solution based on Azure Managed HSM, with Customer Managed Keys at its core. This allows the federal service to generate, manage, and deploy encryption keys themselves to encrypt and decrypt data within Azure and Microsoft 365. This ensures that no one outside the legal frameworks of the Belgian government can force access to this data.
read also
Inetum and FPS Mobility develop blueprint for sovereign cloud in Belgium
This approach has been developed as a blueprint, so that other federal services can apply the same strategy. “From the beginning, this project was designed to go beyond a single implementation and serve as a ‘sovereignty-by-design’ reference for other federal services,” said Thomas Breuer, General Manager of Inetum Belgium.
Strategic governance
To make the solution future-proof, more than just technical measures have been taken. Inetum and the FPS Mobility and Transport combine architectural choices with governance principles, contractual safeguards, and a clear exit strategy. A cycle of recurring security and legal evaluations is being established, aligned with changing legislation and threat levels, including the US Cloud Act.