The joint IT organization for Belgian public institutions, Smals, has selected Google Cloud to be its primary cloud provider.

Under the agreement, Smals' members will gain access to Google Cloud services.

Smals will incorporate Google Cloud into its infrastructure strategy alongside existing on-premise systems and the governmental community cloud (G- Cloud), as well as maintaining a private cloud environment.

Smals members will also have access to Google's AI technologies, while maintaining operational control over the environments hosted on Google Cloud.

"The inclusion of Google Cloud as a third pillar alongside our community cloud and on-premise systems provides member institutions with additional technical options," said Dirk Deridder, CTO of Smals. "This framework agreement allows us to address specific workload requirements in public administration, while adhering to established security and sovereignty mandates."

"Google Cloud is providing the technology required to support both Smals' own ambitious AI plans and those of its members in Belgium," added Kurt Rommens, head of Public Sector, Google Cloud Benelux. "Our focus is on delivering a secure environment that meets the portability and sovereignty standards defined by the Belgian federal authorities."

Smals is an association of over 300 public institutions in Belgium, including social security and healthcare institutions. According to its 2024 activity report, Smals has three data center facilities in the Brussels region, consisting of two primary data centers with a net capacity of 2,000 sqm (21,527 sq ft), and a third backup data center with 170 sqm (1,829 sq ft) of floorspace.

From these data centers, Smals offers data center-as-a-service and infrastructure-as-a-service offerings to the public sector.

Google pledged to invest €5bn ($5.8bn) in cloud and AI infrastructure in Belgium over the next two years in October 2025.

Google first established its data center campus in Belgium in 2009, home to the company's europe-west1 region.

The company is in the process of building out a campus in Farciennes, in the province of Hainaut, breaking ground in April 2024. Official plans for that campus were first announced in July 2023.

The Saint-Ghislain campus was Google's first in Europe, and the company has since expanded it. As of April 2024, it had five data centers on the 90-hectare site, as well as a solar plant.

Since 2007, Google says it has invested more than €5bn in Belgian data center infrastructure.