Smooth migration and full control: Syddjurs Municipality took the leap to EU hosting

For over five years, Syddjurs Municipality has used FirstAgenda manage agendas and minutes. As part of future-proofing their setup, the municipality has chosen to move its data in FirstAgenda a purely European hosting solution at Binero. This is driven by a desire to maintain control over data location and ownership in a new geopolitical era.

A conscious choice for full control

For Syddjurs Municipality, the decision to move data to a European location was not because their previous setup was technically insecure. Global cloud solutions often meet the highest international security standards, but in the current geopolitical climate, the municipality wanted to eliminate any uncertainty about data location and ownership outside the EU. It was a decision made out of due diligence and a desire to simplify the information security narrative—to achieve full transparency and avoid having to deal with complex data chains and supplier relationships.

Jon Badstue Pedersen, IT and Digitalization Manager at Syddjurs Municipality, explains that this is a deliberate priority:

"For us, it provides an important sense of security to know that the data is stored in Europe. Although global solutions are technically sound, there is significant symbolic value in the fact that the systems our citizens and politicians use are located in familiar places and feature transparent data flows. It makes things much simpler when we can point to our European setup and know that we have taken a stand on the world we live in."

Migration: Minor bumps in an otherwise tight schedule

For Syddjurs Municipality, it was crucial that the move did not disrupt political work. The migration itself was scheduled for a weekend at the end of June, immediately after the last political meeting before the summer break.

Although data migration always involves complexity, the process went largely as planned. The schedule slipped by a few hours, reminding us that IT projects of this size rarely proceed without minor adjustments along the way, but for users, the transition was smooth.

"It was a very straightforward process for us. We had a tight schedule in place with FirstAgenda, and even though we ran a couple of hours behind schedule, it didn’t affect the end result. When our users returned from vacation, they simply had to log in again for the first time—that was essentially the only change they encountered."

— Jon Badstue Pedersen, Head of IT and Digitalization, Syddjurs Municipality

Communication and visible security

To ensure a positive experience for city council members and managers, communication was kept brief and concise. The management secretariat sent two messages to city council members: one about the planned downtime over the weekend, and one about how to log in to the new environment.

The change has been well received within the organization. It is not just about GDPR and technical specifications, but also about the psychological security of knowing exactly where data is stored.

"The fact that politicians now see an EU icon when they log in may be a minor detail from a technical standpoint, but it matters when it comes to understanding security. It shows that we are engaging with the world we live in and making informed decisions about where we store our most sensitive data."

— Jon Badstue Pedersen, Head of IT and Digitalization, Syddjurs Municipality

Future-proof and ready for the next agenda

For Syddjurs Municipality, switching to European hosting was a conscious choice based on common sense, GDPR and data security, as well as the current geopolitical situation. By placing their data securely on Swedish servers, the municipality has ensured full transparency to both the outside world and elected officials. Now that the migration is complete, the organization can put its strategic considerations behind it and focus on what it's all about: the political process and the good meeting experience.