Recent geopolitical tensions and changing international trade relations make us reconsider our choice of suppliers. In 2024, we started an exercise to map the use of non-European products and services and consider European alternatives.
Today, there is no cause for concern: we are not experiencing any issues with the security or availability of our DNS services. We continuously evaluate whether our current suppliers are the best choice, particularly in terms of price, performance, and security. In addition to this usual analysis, we are also anticipating changes in the world order. This leads us to examine whether it is desirable and feasible to switch to European service providers or products.
We are the first to encourage Belgian entrepreneurs to build their business online with a .be website or email address. Digitally independent, away from the tech giants of the US or China where you have no influence over privacy rules, content, or cybersecurity. We owe it to ourselves to apply the same principle to the services we use.
This is not an easy analysis. Certain IT systems are so intertwined with our operations that they cannot be easily replaced. Think of Microsoft products or hardware. Our current priority is to evaluate whether we continue to use AWS as a cloud provider.
Emergency scenario ready
Although we are not experiencing any direct issues today, we have had an emergency scenario ready for several years in case something goes wrong with AWS or we need to switch quickly. We have a backup plan that guarantees the accessibility of our services in the short term, even in the event of a severe and sudden disruption or immediate termination of AWS services. For critical DNS services, we are independent of AWS.
We expect to complete our supplier analysis this year and start possible discussions with new partners. In the meantime, we continue to commit to the highest standards in technical, legal, and security aspects. As a critical IT service provider, we have high demands on ourselves and our suppliers.
With this article, we support the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.