On 24 and 25 June, the Netherlands hosted its first-ever NATO summit, at the World Forum in The Hague. This was a huge international event, marked by the presence of 45 heads of state along with their foreign ministers and defence ministers, around 6,000 delegation members, 2,000 journalists, 200 speakers and 90 guests. The summit was also widely broadcast online and televised in many countries. 

To ensure that this major meeting ran smoothly, Axians teams provided all the network and digital security infrastructure, in partnership with Cisco and Fortinet. Despite considerable pressure on the network, all the equipment (cameras, audiovisual tools, information systems and security devices) were securely interconnected via entirely “software-defined” network architecture (Cisco SDA).  The Axians network and security operations centres (NOC and SOC) were fully mobilised before and during the event to provide constant technical support, and to detect and report any anomalies to government intelligence and security services. 

Ron Tetteroo, Business Unit Manager at Axians ICS Government, explains: “We passed an external audit of our network infrastructure and security without the slightest issue. And the technical audits of providers and internal government services did not require any modifications either.” 

At the end of the summit, the temporary infrastructure was completely dismantled and will be reused for future projects. 

The successful completion of this project was made possible thanks to collaboration between SSCIT and the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs with Axians, Cisco and Fortinet.