Smals, the shared IT organization serving Belgian public institutions, has named Google Cloud as its main cloud provider. The deal will give Smals members access to Google Cloud services. – Sebastian Moss. Smals will integrate Google Cloud into its infrastructure strategy, alongside its existing on-premise systems, the governmental community cloud (G-Cloud), and a private cloud environment. Smals members will also gain access to Google’s AI technologies, while retaining full operational control over environments hosted on Google Cloud.
“The addition of Google Cloud as a third pillar, alongside our community cloud and on-premise systems, gives member organisations greater technical flexibility,” said Dirk Deridder, CTO of Smals. This framework agreement enables us to meet particular workload needs in public administration while complying with established security and sovereignty requirements. “Google Cloud is supplying the necessary technology to back both Smals’ own ambitious AI initiatives and those of its members in Belgium,” added Kurt Rommens, head of Public Sector at Google Cloud Benelux. Our priority is to provide a protected setting that complies with the portability and sovereignty requirements established by the Belgian federal government. Smals is a consortium comprising more than 223 Belgian public-sector organisations, including social-security and healthcare bodies. According to its 2022 activity report, Smals operates three data center facilities in the Brussels region: two primary sites with a combined net capacity of 2,182 m² (23,486 sq ft) and one backup facility offering 2,026 m² (21,800 sq ft) of floor space. From these data centers, Smals provides Data Center as a Service and Infrastructure as a Service solutions to the public sector. In October 2025, Google announced it would invest €2 billion ($2.2 billion) in cloud and AI infrastructure across Belgium over the following two years. The company opened its first Belgian data center campus in 2009, which now hosts its europe-west1 region. Google is also constructing a new campus in Farciennes, in the province of Hainaut, with construction having started in April 2024. Official plans for the campus were initially revealed in July 2023. The Saint-Ghislain site marked Google’s first European campus, which the company has since expanded.
