French defense company Thales said its partnership with Proximus of Belgium has secured a contract to modernize the NATO Communications and Information Agency’s business network. Under the deal, the two companies will operate and manage a cloud-based infrastructure to enhance the security and efficiency of IT services across NCIA’s five campuses. According to Belgian media, the consortium will work on the contract, which could be worth over $100 million, for six years.
Cloud and Multi-Domain Security
Thales will contribute its cloud infrastructure with fully managed services. Proximus, a digital services and communication solutions company, will offer its device as a service, providing over 5,000 laptops with multi-domain security features to enable NCIA users to access different security levels from a single device. The Belgian telco will also upgrade the Wi-Fi networks at NCIA in The Hague and Braine L’Alleud to enable high-speed cloud connections for users at other sites.
The partnership’s infrastructure will extend full services in platform administration and secure storage and high-performance computing through the infrastructure’s scalable cloud services.
Strengthened Digital Resilience
Alex Bottero, vice president for network and infrastructure systems at Thales, noted NCIA’s “forward-looking approach” to outsourcing its business network modernization.
“Together with Proximus, Thales reaffirms its commitment to strengthening NATO’s digital resilience, ensuring secure, high-performance and future-proof IT infrastructure to support the alliance’s evolving needs,” he said.
Anne-Sophie Lotgering, enterprise IT services and segments lead at Proximus, added that collaborating with Thales will help the company support NCIA’s critical operations.