Cloud Services without cost surprises
From the first inventory of your applications to monthly cost control: we design, migrate and manage your cloud environment in Azure, Microsoft 365 and AWS: vendor-independent, with a plan and a price that are fixed in advance.
Architecture first, migration second
For most organisations the question is no longer whether they move to the cloud, but how. And that is where it often goes wrong. Not in the technology, that part works, but in the choices you make at the start: which applications you move, how your environment is structured, who gets which permissions and how your consumption stays visible.
Lift an existing server one-to-one into a virtual machine and you end up with a bill your finance department cannot explain afterwards. The cloud is not automatically cheaper than your own server room; the cloud is more flexible. Mixing up those two is something we see regularly in practice, and it costs you money.
So we put the architecture and the cost model in place first, and only migrate after that. You get independent advice. We are not a reseller with a platform to push, so you get a plan, a price and an end date that are fixed before we start.
What you can expect from us
- Vendor-independent. We are not tied to Azure or AWS. The advice follows from your applications and your licences, not from a sales target.
- Fixed agreements, fixed price. Plan, amount and end date are agreed before the start. Additional work is discussed in advance, not afterwards on the invoice.
- Cost control is part of it. Grip on your consumption is not a separate project but a monthly routine: adjusting capacity, taking out reservations where they pay off and setting budget alerts.
- ISO 9001 and ISO 27001 certified. Our processes and information security have been audited externally, which matters if you have to pass audits yourself.
- Honest about when it does not fit. Does your data have to stay in a fixed location for legal reasons, are you about to replace your system landscape, or do you already have a fully staffed internal cloud team? Then we will simply say so.
ITproposal was founded in 2019 and now works for more than 150 clients. You get a permanent contact in the Benelux who knows your environment, and everything is picked up locally. That keeps monitoring of your environment running 24/7, including outside Dutch office hours.
Cloud for SMEs
Most smaller businesses are already half in the cloud without anyone having decided so. There is a server in a cupboard, mail runs through Microsoft 365, two departments share files through a service that was free once, and the backup runs to a disk somebody takes home.
The question is then not whether you move to the cloud, but what still belongs on your own hardware and what does not. Sometimes that is everything; sometimes a machine deliberately stays because a package cannot do without it. We cost out both directions and will say so when moving gains you nothing.
- Start with mail and files The two where the most is gained, and where a mistake shows up soonest and can therefore be undone soonest.
- Use what you already pay for In many smaller environments half of what is needed already sits unused in the existing Microsoft 365 licence.
- Costs that do not double We work out what it becomes per month rather than only what the migration costs, because that second figure is the smaller one.
- The way back stays open What we move stays reversible; a migration is not a reason to be tied to a supplier for a year.
Cloud for enterprise organisations
In larger organisations the cloud bill is rarely one department’s problem. There is something in Azure from one project, something in AWS from an acquisition, a VMware estate nobody dares touch, and three subscriptions whose owner has left the company. Together that grows every quarter and nobody can say why.
We reduce that to a picture you can decide on: what runs where, what it costs, what depends on it, and what happens when it fails. Then migrate, consolidate or deliberately leave alone, and where data residency is a requirement we look at sovereign cloud rather than the cheapest region.
- Several platforms side by side Azure, AWS, Microsoft 365 and VMware in one picture, so the choice is made per workload and not per supplier.
- A grip on the monthly figure Allocation per department, clearing out what nobody claims, and reservations where consumption is predictable.
- Data residency as a hard requirement Where law or a customer requires data to stay in Europe, that is a design choice and not a setting applied afterwards.
- Migration without stopping everything Per workload in waves, with a way back per wave, instead of one weekend in which it has to work.
Four defined phases
We work in defined phases with a price agreed up front. So before the start you know what happens, what it costs and when it is finished.
Inventory & strategy
We map applications, dependencies, licences and data flows, and record which platform is the most logical fit for each application.
Setting up the foundation
Network, identities, backup, monitoring and the assessment framework for laws and regulations are ready before a single production server moves.
Migration in waves
Applications move across in waves, in an order we agree beforehand. Every wave is tested, transferred during a maintenance window and only then closed off.
Ongoing management & optimisation
After that, management turns into routine: 24/7 monitoring, a monthly cost review and a quarterly conversation about what can still be improved.
What we set up and manage in Azure, Microsoft 365 and AWS
You choose what you need. Only a migration, only the management, or the whole programme including cost monitoring, always within the same agreement and with the same point of contact.
Cloud strategy & architecture
We assess your applications one by one: what can move straight away, what has to be adapted first and what is better off staying where it is.
Foundation & setup
Network layout, identities, permissions and naming according to one standard, so your environment stays manageable as it grows.
Migration delivery
Moving in phases or rebuilding first, depending on the application. Every wave has a fallback scenario that only lapses after handover.
Management & monitoring
24/7 monitoring, automatic scaling up and down during peaks, and updates that follow fixed schedules instead of happening when it suits.
Monthly cost control
Every month we scale back what is oversized, take out reservations where they pay off, label resources consistently and set budget alerts that make unusual consumption visible straight away.
Security & compliance
Security settings, logging and access management that line up from day one with NIS2, the GDPR and the requirements that apply in your sector.
Something always stays in your own server room
In almost every migration some equipment stays behind: a machine attached to a production line or a checkout line, an application for which the supplier has no cloud version yet, or data that has to stay in a fixed location for legal reasons. That mixed picture is not an interim phase you clear up in a few months. It is the environment you will be working with for the time being. So we design around it from the first phase, instead of repairing it later.
- One connection, not two worldsWe set up the link between your own server room and your cloud environment so that your users never notice where an application runs.
- Monitoring across the whole chainMonitoring does not stop at the edge of your cloud subscription: switches, connections and the servers you keep yourself are all part of the same 24/7 monitoring.
- One set of identities and permissionsWho is allowed access to what is arranged in one place, not separately for the cloud and separately for whatever keeps running locally.
- A fallback scenario per waveFor every migration wave the old route keeps working until the new one has been tested and accepted. Only then do we clean up.
A good match with cloud
A cloud programme rarely stands on its own. These are the services that most often run alongside it in practice.
Questions we get about this
The ones that come up most, answered briefly.
Do we have to move everything to the cloud?
No, and we do not start from that assumption. Something almost always stays in your own server room, because a machine sits next to it or because a supplier delivers it that way. We look at the architecture first and at the migration second.
How do we stop the cost running away?
By deciding up front what runs where and why, and then keeping measuring. Cloud cost climbs when nobody looks: test environments left running, storage never cleared, licences for people who left. With us that sits inside the management, not in a separate report.
How long does a migration take?
We work in four defined phases, and after the first you know what the rest will cost in time and money. A Microsoft 365 migration for a mid-sized organisation usually runs in weeks rather than months, but that depends on what hangs off it.
Do you only work with Microsoft?
No. We set up and manage Azure, Microsoft 365 and AWS, and where VMware or your own environment fits better we say so. Our advice is independent; we earn nothing from the choice itself.
Microsoft 365 or Azure, which do we need?
Those are two different things that often get mixed up. Microsoft 365 is where your people work: mail, documents, Teams. Azure is where your systems run: servers, databases, applications you own. Most organisations start with the first and only reach the second when there is a server that has to go. We look at what runs today and where it hurts, not at which package is easiest to sell.
Does our data stay in the EU?
Yes, if you want it to, and we record that. With Microsoft and most other providers you choose the region during setup, and that is a choice you only get to make easily once: moving it afterwards is a migration. For organisations that have to be able to prove it (healthcare, government, financial services) we record per system where it sits and who can reach it.
What happens to the servers we have now?
They do not automatically go. For some systems your own hardware is still cheaper or faster, certainly when a lot of data moves back and forth or when equipment in the building depends on it. We calculate per system what it costs to stay and what it costs to move, licences included, and the outcome is often that some goes and some stays. Whatever goes is disposed of under the lifecycle arrangement, with data erasure and a certificate.
The brands above, one page each
What the brand makes, which lines we supply and what we do around it.
Deeper into this subject
Pages that work out a single question from this service.
Our own certifications
ITproposal is certified for ISO 9001 (quality), ISO/IEC 27001 (information security), ISO 14001 (environment) and Kiwa NEN 4400-1 (labour hire and secondment). That says something about how we work and how we have our own processes assessed; it is not a certification you inherit from us.
Want to know whether the cloud really pays off?
In a no-obligation introductory conversation we go through your current environment, your goals and a realistic migration route. Including an honest answer if postponing is the smarter move.
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