Background

Switch Datacenters is a leading data center operator running multiple sites across the Netherlands, serving a highly regulated customer base that includes hyperscalers, financial institutions, and enterprise customers. To serve this customer base, Switch must continuously demonstrate compliance with a wide range of requirements: ISO 27001, ISO 9001, ISO 14001, NIS2, GDPR, and customer-specific contractual controls.

The compliance landscape was not only complex but constantly evolving. While individual controls were largely in place across sites, maintaining consistent oversight, demonstrating compliance to customers, and managing vendor obligations had become increasingly time-consuming for the teams responsible.

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Challenge

Switch Datacenters faced several interconnected challenges as their compliance obligations grew:

• Fragmented oversight of compliance requirements across laws, standards, and customer contracts
• Limited visibility into control ownership and control status across multiple sites
• Increasing effort required to manage assessments, audits, and client questionnaires
• Difficulty maintaining consistency in vendor and supply chain compliance
• Compliance fatigue within the organization, leading to reduced ownership and awareness

The organization needed a centralized approach that would allow it to remain demonstrably in control, without continuously increasing the operational burden on teams.

Solution

Switch Datacenters implemented InControl Hub as a centralized platform to align all compliance requirements in one integrated control environment.

Unified requirement management
Requirements from legislation, ISO frameworks, and customer-specific contracts were consolidated into a single control framework. Controls are mapped once and reused across certifications, audits, and customer requests, eliminating duplicate work across frameworks.

Multi-site and multi-certification oversight
InControl Hub provides management with clear visibility across all data center locations and certifications, with real-time insight into compliance status, gaps, and control ownership at both site and organizational level.

Vendor and supply chain compliance
Supplier requirements and third-party controls were incorporated into the same framework, giving Switch structured oversight of its supply chain and consistent visibility into vendor compliance status.

Self-assessments and questionnaires
Self-assessments were distributed across the organization via InControl Hub, increasing awareness of the control framework and clarifying accountability among control owners and operational teams.

AI-assisted assessments
The built-in AI capabilities reduced the burden of completing assessments by suggesting responses based on existing documentation and previously approved evidence, accelerating the process while keeping human validation in place.

Results

Since implementing InControl Hub, Switch Datacenters has achieved:

• A single, centralized view of all compliance requirements across legislation, ISO frameworks, customer contracts, and vendor obligations
• Consistent compliance oversight across all data center sites, with clear accountability per control
• Reduced audit and assessment effort through reuse of controls and evidence
• Stronger control awareness and ownership throughout the organization, driven by structured self-assessments
• A more structured and transparent approach to supply chain compliance
• A lower perceived compliance burden for operational teams through AI-assisted assessments

Reflection

This case illustrates that compliance complexity is often driven not by a lack of controls, but by a lack of structure and visibility. By consolidating regulatory, framework-based, and customer-specific requirements into a single control environment, the organization regained control over its compliance landscape without introducing unnecessary overhead.

The use of self-assessments and questionnaires played a key role in embedding compliance into daily operations, increasing both awareness and accountability. While compliance obligations remain unavoidable, the intelligent use of technology, including AI-supported assessments, significantly reduced friction and improved efficiency.

For Switch Datacenters, operating across multiple sites, ISO certifications, and a demanding customer base, InControl Hub provided a scalable foundation to remain demonstrably in control, today and as regulatory requirements continue to evolve.

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