“The port used to be a rather traditional sector but now we have really taken the lead,” says Koen De Groof, commercial manager at Brabo. “So we are increasingly focusing the IT on the business – we are developing our own very specific applications to make our services even better, faster, safer and more efficient.”

Time is a crucial factor for Brabo: the company often needs to be able to respond very quickly to new demands. For the port, it is also important that every day as many ships as possible are safely moored and unmoored or safely piloted to their destination.

Switch to the cloud

The first step towards more automation, higher efficiency and better planning was Brabo's switch to the cloud. "Previously we had our own local server room, which gradually became filled with server infrastructure," says Johan Kenens, IT manager at Brabo. "But we couldn't carry on with this approach due to growth of our activities and our focus on digitisation and innovative projects. "

The IT environment was growing due to the continuous development of applications and the high level of automation. “However, our IT department did not grow at the same pace," says Johan Kenens. “Our IT infrastructure became so diverse and complex that we had to hire specialists more and more often to optimally manage the infrastructure. We could no longer deliver the quality needed without recruiting and training new people. Moreover, for faster development we needed flexibility in setting up new environments, so that we could innovate and respond to the demands of the business faster. So we had plenty of reasons to switch to an externally managed IT infrastructure in the cloud.”