Public sector & education
Backup for government organisations: provinces and water boards
Mindtime keeps immutable copies of your virtual servers, databases, mail and files in its own Tier III data centres in the Netherlands and Germany, plus an air-gapped copy, and monitors every job around the clock.
In Dutch, German or English.
- NL · DEStored only in our own Tier III data centres in the Netherlands and Germany
- ImmutableObject Lock storage plus an air-gapped copy; every backup job is checked
- ISO 27001 · NEN 7510Audited security, with a data processing agreement in every contract
- NL · DE · ENSupport from people, no offshore call centres or chatbots
In short
Provinces and water boards need off-site, tamper-proof backups because permits, asset registers and board decisions must stay retrievable for objections, audits and the archive. Both are essential entities under the Cyberbeveiligingswet, and BIO2 is mandatory self-regulation for them. Mindtime holds immutable, air-gapped backups in its own Tier III data centres in the Netherlands and Germany.
What's at stake
The data provinces and water boards can't afford to lose
Permit and enforcement files
Decisions on permits, exemptions and enforcement, plus the correspondence behind them, have to remain retrievable for objection and appeal procedures. If a file store goes down, so does your ability to defend a decision.
Asset registers and geographic data
Water boards keep maintenance and inspection records for dikes, waterways and treatment plants; provinces do the same for roads, bridges and canals. These datasets sit in GIS and asset-management databases that take years to rebuild by hand.
Board and assembly records
Decisions of the Provinciale Staten, the executive and a water board's general board, with their minutes and supporting papers, form the public record. Mailboxes and shared drives of officials often hold the only copy of how a decision came about.
Rules and obligations
What the rules ask of provinces and water boards
Summarised from the sources listed at the bottom of this page. This is general information, not legal advice.
Essential entities under the Cyberbeveiligingswet
The Cyberbeveiligingswet, which implements NIS2 in the Netherlands and has applied since 15 August 2026, names provinces and water boards as essential entities. No size threshold applies to them. [1]
Two different supervisors
For provinces, Cbw supervision lies with the Rijksinspectie Digitale Infrastructuur (RDI). Water boards are supervised by the Inspectie Leefomgeving en Transport (ILT) instead. The RDI names BIO2 as the starting point for meeting the law. [3]
BIO2 is mandatory self-regulation
BIO2, the renewed government information-security baseline adopted on 23 September 2025, is binding self-regulation for provinces, water boards and central government. It replaces the old three security levels with a risk-based approach. [5]
Archiefwet: a shorter route to the archive
From 1 January 2027 the new Archiefwet applies to all government, including provinces and water boards. Records selected for permanent keeping must be transferred after 10 years rather than 20, and digital information must be stored in a durable, accessible way from creation. [7]
Selection list for water boards
Records that water boards created or received from 1 January 2012 fall under the Selectielijst Waterschappen 2012, which the Nationaal Archief lists as current. It determines which records are destroyed and which are kept permanently. [8]
When it goes wrong
A failed storage update
Illustrative example: during a routine firmware update, a water board's storage system corrupts the virtual machines holding its permit archive and its GIS database. Local snapshots sat on the same storage and are damaged too. Because every Mindtime backup job is checked, the IT team knows which restore point is sound and restores the virtual machines and database from the off-site copy. With disaster recovery in place, critical servers can run on Mindtime's standby infrastructure while the storage is repaired.
How Mindtime protects it
Backup for provinces and water boards, workload by workload
- VMware and Hyper-V backupMost provinces and water boards still run core applications on virtual servers in their own data centres.
- Database backupPermit, asset and geographic data lives in SQL Server, PostgreSQL or Oracle databases that need consistent, checked backups.
- Microsoft 365 backupOfficials' mail and shared documents record how decisions were prepared, so they need a copy outside Microsoft's own platform.
- Laptop and endpoint backupInspection and field work happens on laptops that rarely sit on the office network.
- Disaster RecoveryStandby infrastructure and quarterly DR tests support the continuity duty that the Cbw places on essential entities.
- NIS2 ComplianceProvinces and water boards are essential entities under the Cbw; Mindtime helps with the backup part of that duty.
The software you use, and what we protect around it
| iBabs (assembly and board meetings) | Meeting papers and decisions are published through iBabs as a SaaS service. Check its export terms, and keep the source documents in a backed-up file store or SharePoint site. |
|---|---|
| GIS and asset-management databases | Where these run on your own SQL Server or PostgreSQL servers, Mindtime backs up the databases and the servers they run on. For hosted platforms, check the supplier's export and retention terms. |
| Virtual servers on VMware, Hyper-V or Proxmox | File servers, document management and application servers are backed up as complete virtual machines and can be restored in an isolated recovery environment. |
| Microsoft 365 | Mail and files of officials, executives and board members are backed up to Mindtime's own data centres in the Netherlands and Germany. |
| Laptops of inspectors and field staff | Staff who inspect dikes, roads or permits work on laptops and mobile devices away from the office. Mindtime backs up Windows, macOS and Linux laptops as endpoints. |
Before you switch
What provinces and water boards ask us first
We run our own data centre and already make backups there.
A backup inside the same building, or on the same storage, can be lost with the original. The 3-2-1-1-0 rule asks for an off-site copy, one that can't be changed and checked jobs with zero errors. Mindtime supplies that off-site, immutable layer in its own Tier III data centres in the Netherlands and Germany, alongside what you already have.
Our IT is run by a shared service organisation.
That works well with Mindtime. Shared service organisations and IT partners use the multi-tenant console to manage each organisation separately, with REST APIs and hooks to fit their own processes. White-label options are available if they want to offer the service under their own name.
We are moving workloads to Azure or AWS. Isn't the cloud provider our backup?
The cloud provider keeps its platform running; a deleted resource or encrypted data is still yours to recover. Mindtime backs up AWS, Azure and Google Cloud workloads to its own data centres in the Netherlands and Germany, so you keep a copy outside the platform you are protecting.
FAQ
Questions about backup for provinces and water boards
Is BIO2 mandatory for water boards and provinces?
Yes. BIO2 was adopted on 23 September 2025 by the Overheidsbreed Beleidsoverleg Digitale Overheid and is binding self-regulation for provinces, water boards and central government. It is also being built into the obligations under the Cyberbeveiligingswet. Mindtime is ISO 27001 audited, which makes it easier to account for a backup supplier in your own BIO2 assessment.
What is CERT-WM?
CERT-WM is the cyber security incident response team for the 21 water boards, run through Het Waterschapshuis and officially designated as the sector's CSIRT. As a CSIRT, its focus is incident response for the sector. Mindtime complements that work by keeping clean, immutable copies to restore from once an incident is contained.
Does the Woo affect how we handle backups?
Indirectly. Article 2.4 of the Wet open overheid requires every administrative body to keep the documents it receives or creates in good, ordered and accessible condition. A request under the Woo can reach any part of your information. If a server or mailbox is lost, documents can't be found or released, so being able to restore them supports that duty.
Is a backup the same as archiving under a selection list?
No. The selection list decides what you keep permanently and what you destroy, and when. A backup is an operational copy that lets you restore data after deletion, failure or an attack. You need both: the archive for the long-term record, and Mindtime's immutable backups so the records survive until they reach the archive.
Where is our data stored, and who can reach it?
Mindtime stores backups only in its own Tier III data centres in the Netherlands and Germany. Data is encrypted with AES-256 in transit, admin actions require multi-factor authentication and backups are scanned for malware. Every contract includes a data processing agreement, and support is given in Dutch, German or English.
See it with your own data
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