My journey in IT didn’t begin in a datacentre—it began with a suitcase.

I left The Netherlands and moved to the United Kingdom with one goal: build a career in IT. Armed with determination and a MCSE study guide, I expected to stay for three months to learn the basics and move back. Those three months became more than four years.

Starting as a local Support Engineer, I quickly progressed to IT Administrator within an international manufacturing company. It was an era of physical servers, on-premises infrastructure, manual deployments, and late-night maintenance windows. Those early years taught me the value of building reliable infrastructure from the ground up and solving problems where technology directly supported business operations.

After returning to The Netherlands, I continued my career in Managed Services, supporting a wide range of organizations and gaining broad experience across infrastructure, networking, virtualization, storage, and enterprise platforms. During this period, I discovered VMware, a technology that would become a cornerstone of my career. I witnessed firsthand the evolution from traditional datacentres to virtualised platforms, software-defined infrastructure, hybrid cloud, and today’s identity-driven security models.

Over the past 20+ years, my career has evolved from engineer to project leader, solution architect, security architect, and trusted advisor. I have had the privilege of delivering complex transformation projects across healthcare, government, education, managed services, and enterprise environments. These projects have included large-scale server migrations, datacentre modernization, VMware Cloud Foundation designs, hybrid cloud strategies, Microsoft Intune implementations, Identity & Access Management, Backup & Disaster Recovery, and Zero Trust security initiatives aligned with frameworks such as ISO 27001, NEN7510, BIO, ENSIA, and NIS2.

Today, as the founder of KeyDigit IT, I help organisations design secure, scalable, and future-ready hybrid IT environments. My work combines enterprise architecture, cybersecurity, cloud strategy, and technical leadership with a practical, hands-on approach. I believe architecture should be more than diagrams—it should enable organizations to innovate securely while remaining resilient, manageable, and aligned with business objectives.

I’m also passionate about sharing knowledge. As a Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT), it allows me to combine consulting with technical training and knowledge sharing to IT professionals develop their skills.

Technology has changed dramatically since I first installed my first physical server in the early 2000s, but the main principle has remained consistent: successful technology is built on strong architecture, thoughtful security, and a commitment to sharing knowledge.