Kalmar Energi scales up operations with VMware Cloud Foundation

“It’s been an incredibly positive journey, both technically and organizationally,” says Mattias Hagelin, Head of IT and Digitalization at Kalmar Energi.

At the turn of 2024/25, Kalmar Energi consolidated all IT expertise into a new IT department with 13 employees. The team now handles everything from operations, infrastructure and management to software development, metering and data expertise, as well as security—covering both information security and physical security.

“I enjoy being part of shaping new organizations,” says Mattias Hagelin, who has a long background as an IT consultant before taking on his current role at Kalmar Energi.

The choice fell on VMware Cloud Foundation

VMware has long been part of the company’s IT environment, but at the start of the year the need arose for a complete infrastructure refresh and a more robust solution. After evaluating several options, Kalmar Energi selected VMware Cloud Foundation together with HPE’s hyperconverged infrastructure.

Cloud Foundation is an integrated software platform that enables organizations to build and operate private clouds with the same flexibility and scalability as public clouds, while maintaining full control over security and data.

“It was the best solution for our business and also the most cost-effective option, which allowed for the smoothest migration,” says Mattias.

For Kalmar Energi, the solution spans two data centres—a necessity for an energy company where downtime can have major and costly consequences. Mattias emphasizes the importance of maintaining uninterrupted operations, even during unforeseen events.

“We want as little downtime as possible, combined with the highest level of security,” he says.

Availability and security in focus

The goal was to have everything in place before Midsummer 2025—the only time of year when the company’s combined heat and power plant shuts down for maintenance.

“The timeline was our biggest challenge when implementing Cloud Foundation, but together with Broadcom we were able to meet our strict deadline, which was critical for the migration,” says Mattias Hagelin.

When asked about the benefits so far, he highlights availability and security, as well as simplicity and performance.

“Previously, we had to shut down production for maintenance, but after implementing Cloud Foundation, that is no longer necessary—a huge advantage for the organization and something that can lead to significant financial gains. It costs us a great deal when we have to stop our turbines to perform IT system maintenance,” he explains.

The implementation is also part of Kalmar Energi’s security efforts and its preparations for NIS2 compliance, which came into effect in January 2026—making a reliable infrastructure more critical than ever.

Nothing but positive feedback

So far, the organization has not encountered any drawbacks—neither from users nor those actively working with the solution.

“It has actually been all positive so far, which is great and quite unusual. I’ve worked in the consulting industry for a long time and delivered new systems myself, and it doesn’t always go this smoothly,” says Mattias Hagelin.