A sovereign AI platform for SWIS - built and hosted in the Netherlands
How SWIS delivers secure AI services from Dutch servers with Vragen.ai
AI in the public sector? That immediately raises questions about data sovereignty. Where does that data reside? Who has access to it? And what about those compliance requirements?
For SWIS, creator and builder of Vragen.ai, it was clear: if you want to offer AI to government bodies and healthcare institutions, you need to guarantee full control. No detours via American hyperscalers, no uncertainty about data location. A sovereign AI solution on Dutch soil, where organizations themselves decide what happens to their data. That distinction is unique.
Together with TrueFullstaq, they built an infrastructure where GPU workloads run on a Kubernetes platform in the Netherlands.
How SWIS makes local AI possible
The challenge: AI without fear
Anyone wanting to use AI in municipalities or in healthcare runs into a wall of compliance requirements. Rightfully so, as it concerns sensitive data from citizens and patients. Where does that data reside? Who has access to it? With many standard AI solutions, that's not clear.
SWIS builds an alternative with Vragen.ai: an AI search engine that organizations can deploy on their own content. Think of municipal websites where citizens can ask questions, or healthcare institutions making their knowledge base accessible. To illustrate what's possible: SWIS developed Postbus42: an alternative search engine for Rijksoverheid.nl.
But you also need to guarantee that data doesn't leave the Netherlands. And that's where the interesting technical story begins. Because AI models don't just run on any server - they need GPUs and significant computing power.
"I would very much like to play a role in AI on Dutch soil, where you control the responses generated by a chatbot from A to Z."
GPUs in Kubernetes - you don't see that often
SWIS had been hosting its applications with TrueFullstaq for years. More than 500 websites and applications run on our Kubernetes platform. When the request to also run AI workloads came, it was new territory for both parties.
The beauty is that SWIS could simply continue working through its existing Kubernetes environment. No separate cluster, no new management tool. Together with our consultants and Managed Services team, we expanded the infrastructure with GPU workloads. That sounds simple, but running GPUs in a Kubernetes cluster - you don't see that often.
The result is a fully managed solution. SWIS doesn't need to worry about the underlying infrastructure; we handle 24/7 monitoring and support. And most importantly, everything runs in our data center in the Netherlands.
For SWIS, this makes their pitch to municipalities and government bodies much easier. With AI projects, suppliers often receive extensive questionnaires about compliance and data location. By working with us, SWIS can immediately confirm that data stays in the Netherlands, on dedicated servers, entirely under its control. That eliminates a lot of explanation and paperwork.
Sovereignty as USP
The numbers speak for themselves: 80% of SWIS clients choose to run entirely on Dutch servers. That's no coincidence: it shows there's genuine demand for local AI solutions. Organizations want to have that choice.
"We can now give clients the choice to keep everything within the Netherlands. That's quite unique in the market. We're pretty much the only one in the Netherlands who has that now."
But it goes beyond just technology. We've removed some of the fear around AI. Because the biggest concern organizations have is: where does my data go? Who has access to it? Which company processes my prompts?
With this solution, government bodies and healthcare institutions regain that control. A sovereign solution: Dutch organization, Dutch digital agency, Dutch servers. That's data sovereignty in practice. Organizations retain control over their own data.
SWIS is optimistic about the future. There's a trend of organizations wanting to bring technology closer to home again, with companies even leaving the cloud. The combination of our expertise and modern technology aligns perfectly with that shift.
And us? We see a growing market for sovereign AI solutions. For many use cases, a local alternative isn't just safer - it's simply better.
