One Sovereign Cloud for Local Governments
At a glance
CLIENT
A regional public services consortium of municipalities
SERVICE
- Cloud strategy, sovereign cloud architecture, data center consolidation, cloud devops, cloud security assessments, managed cyber security, software development services
INDUSTRY
- Public Sector / Government Services
A regional consortium of municipalities was running critical public services—tax, education, healthcare administration, social care, and utilities—on dozens of small server rooms and local data centers. Each municipality procured its own hardware and ran its own backups. Energy consumption was high, ageing equipment drove outages, and IT teams struggled to meet national requirements for data residency and cyber security with limited budgets.
LeanCoded partnered with the consortium to design and build a sovereign cloud platform hosted in hydro-powered regional data centers. Over a multi-year program, we consolidated several dozen local data centers into a single, shared cloud backbone, cutting energy consumption by roughly 90% and giving the municipalities a secure, residency-compliant environment for digital services. The platform combined network security cloud computing, cloud cost optimization solutions, and devops consulting services so that local governments could focus on services, not servers.
From Scattered Server Rooms to One Shared Cloud
Before the program, each municipality operated its own infrastructure: small racks in basements, local backup tapes, and a patchwork of monitoring tools. Hardware refreshes were delayed, and several critical systems were already beyond vendor support. Incident records showed frequent power and cooling issues, and no one could clearly state how many systems were fully redundant. LeanCoded started with a joint assessment across all participants, mapping more than 200 applications, 400+ servers, and the interdependencies that tied them to local offices and citizen services.
The consortium wanted a different model: one sovereign cloud platform with guaranteed data residency, strong security, and predictable costs shared across municipalities. LeanCoded designed a regional cloud built on modern virtualization and container platforms, hosted in energy-efficient, hydro-powered data centers within the same legal jurisdiction. Using enterprise software solution patterns and data warehousing services foundations, we ensured that critical workloads, reporting systems, and future analytics initiatives could all run on the same backbone with clear segregation between municipalities.
Designing Sovereign, Residency-First Cloud
LeanCoded first defined residency and compliance requirements with legal and security stakeholders from the consortium. Together we agreed on where data could be stored, how it should be encrypted, and what audit trails regulators would require. That blueprint drove the technical architecture: dual data centers in the region for active-active availability, dedicated network links to municipal offices, and strict separation between management, tenant, and public network zones.
We then implemented a layered security model combining identity federation, role-based access control, and centralized logging. As a managed cybersecurity service provider for the platform, LeanCoded embedded managed cyber security and cloud security assessments into the design, including external penetration tests, continuous vulnerability scanning, and incident playbooks. On top of this, we provided software development services and platform APIs so that existing vendors and in-house teams could onboard applications without bespoke one-off integrations.
Business drivers and targets
Sovereign architecture and residency
Migration factory for public services
Security, monitoring, and operations
Financial model and cost transparency
What LeanCoded Changed for the Consortium
The project was not just about infrastructure; it reshaped how municipalities collaborate on digital services. LeanCoded helped the consortium move from isolated, hard-to-secure server rooms to a shared cloud that is safer, greener, and easier to grow.
- One platform, many municipalities
A single sovereign cloud backbone now hosts dozens of public-sector applications, with logical separation between municipalities and shared core services like identity and logging. - Security and compliance built in
Security controls, audit trails, and residency policies are enforced at platform level. Regular cloud security assessments and managed cyber security services keep the environment aligned with evolving regulations. - Greener infrastructure by design
By consolidating workloads into hydro-powered data centers, the consortium cut energy use for core infrastructure by around 90%, supporting sustainability goals without sacrificing reliability. - Ready for future digital services
With standardized APIs, CI/CD pipelines, and cloud devops practices, the platform can host new e-services, portals, and analytics solutions without re-architecting the underlying infrastructure.
Impact on Resilience, Energy, and Trust
Within the first year after migration, core administrative systems on the sovereign cloud achieved an average availability close to 99.95%, compared to frequent outages and maintenance windows in the old local server rooms. Consolidated monitoring and clear incident processes reduced time to detect and resolve infrastructure issues, while municipalities reported fewer service interruptions for citizen-facing portals and back-office systems.
Energy reporting from the new data centers showed that power consumption for the consortium’s infrastructure dropped by roughly 90%, largely due to the move from inefficient local rooms to hydro-powered facilities with modern cooling. At the same time, audits by national authorities confirmed that data residency and security requirements were met, increasing trust in digital services among both officials and citizens. By engaging LeanCoded as a long-term partner for custom software development, cloud devops, and managed cyber security, the consortium now has a stable, sovereign cloud foundation for future e-government initiatives.