As the calendar turns the page to another year, the journey of Zure Belgium continues to unfold. Since 2020, our venture has evolved, encountered its own challenges, and celebrated numerous milestones. A journey marked by a dedication to building a strong community, staying at the forefront of technology, and a commitment to continuous improvement.

Team’s cake break

Before we dive further into our 2023 story, I just wanted to highlight something that stood out while browsing through our media library. Cake… lots of cake! I didn’t even realize we’d eaten that many cakes, but looking back at these photos I cannot be other than grateful towards the people that I get to work with on a daily base!

Another piece of the cake

Flashforward to May 2023, don’t worry we’ll come back to the beginning year, but first things first! Who needs chronologic blog posts anyway…

We welcomed Frederik as the newest addition to our team in May of this year. Finally outgrowing our four people’s kitchen table!

Introducing a new member to the team always comes with a bit of excitement and nervousness. How will they blend into the existing dynamics? Did our recruitment process work so the new members will align with our core values? However, with Frederik’s arrival, those initial worries quickly disappeared. Frederik seamlessly integrated into the team, bringing his unique talents, enthusiasm, and passion to the table. It’s always great to have a refreshing dynamic added to the team.

New office, big moments

As mentioned in our last year’s post – at the beginning of 2023 we relocated to a new, more spacious office. The change of scenery brought along the delightful task of furnishing our workspaces. As we navigated through the aisles, selected pieces, bought groceries, and put together desks, chairs, and shelves, laughter and camaraderie filled the room. Another remarkable moment where we not only assembled a cozy workspace but more importantly assembled another set of great memories.

The new office also opened up exciting opportunities, including the chance to host an Azug (Azure User Group Belgium) session. As one of the platinum sponsors, this was a significant milestone for us – we were thrilled to finally have the room to host one.

We strongly believe in sharing knowledge, both internally and with the community. Next to the exchange of information, it’s also about personal development, skill-building, and the continuous journey of becoming a better version of ourselves. By creating that knowledge-sharing platform for both internal and external sharing, we not only enrich our capabilities but also challenge ourselves to stay at the forefront of innovation and that’s something really meaningful for us all!

The anticipation and excitement in the weeks leading up to the Azug session could be felt around the office, especially with Ruben who dedicated himself to delivering a session around the different stages of building a product on top of Azure PaaS services. During the event itself, around 45 eager participants gathered in our office to share knowledge and of course do some racing with Zpeedy, our IoT-Powered Racetrack.

Embracing the cloud

As we’re writing this post, we’re preparing ourselves for another round of CloudBrew, the biggest Azure-focused conference in Belgium. Zpeedy has evolved, both thanks to external and internal feedback and improvements. With over 430 attendees, CloudBrew was sold out 5 weeks before the event.

It’s my strong belief that the early sell-out of CloudBrew is more than just linked to the popularity of the event, it signifies a shift in Belgium’s technology landscape. While we’ve already acknowledged in previous posts that cloud adoption in Belgium is somewhat behind compared to the Nordics, the interest in events like CloudBrew, Techorama, K-Tech, and Azug is a clear indicator that the tide is turning. Interest in the cloud is growing, both among individuals and organizations.

This year we decided to heavily invest our time in creating a series of articles that delve into the why, how, and what of the public cloud. These articles aim to shed light on the key obstacles of cloud adoption and migration, as well as explain different cloud adoption strategies. It’s our way of sharing our insights and learning about building (Azure) cloud solutions since 2011!

You probably already read them all, but in case you’ve missed one of them, here’s the complete journey…

• Not embracing the public cloud will put you out of business sooner rather than later
• Obstacles for Cloud Adoption and Migration
• Migrating to the cloud: Maximizing your cloud potential
• A tale of four Cloud Adoption Strategies

Moving Forward

It’s great to look back on another year filled with significant milestones, as you’ve probably seen, we’ve won the prestigious Partner of the Year for App Innovation award from Microsoft in Finland. Furthermore, in Belgium we’ve continued to grow, with a 30% increase in revenue, but more than these numbers and awards, it’s the everyday work and the collective dedication of the team that truly matters.

As we’re getting closer to celebrating our 4th Zanniversay for Zure Belgium and entering our 5th year of operations our commitment to building a strong community where everyone is challenged and can be themselves is unchanged. We’re steadily growing, but we’ve chosen a path where we don’t want to rush ourselves. Growing healthily, with people as the center of our focus now and in the future.

By choosing this path we ensure that we stay true to our values, our commitment to building a strong community, and our unwavering dedication to remaining at the edge in the ever-evolving world of technology!

Looking back at how we’ve improved the organization this year. I’m very glad about the way we’ve been building our community organically. At the same time, this year I feel we really improved our know-how and systematic approach to sales, marketing, and recruitment. In the future too, we want to grow in that healthy manner, with people as the center of our focus.

As we look ahead to the horizons of 2024 our ambitions remain sky-high and we eagerly anticipate the chapters that lie ahead, which we will gladly share with you again. Same place, next year!

Here’s some additional content we’ve produced during our journey since 2020:

Zure Belgium – 2022

Zure Belgium – 2021

Thank you for your continuous support by reading this post, see you next year!