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Bron: Schiphol
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    Schiphol

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  • Markt

    Reizigersvervoer

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  • Foto's:

    Amsterdam Airport Schiphol

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  • Publicatiedatum

    8 June, 2026

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  • Deel

Foundation for the Autonomous Airport: Conclusion Xforce accelerates Schiphol towards Vision 2050 Schiphol

Royal Schiphol Group aims to be a home base for global travellers, delivering a seamless experience for passengers and airlines while remaining in balance with its surroundings. To realise this vision, technology is indispensable.

Behind autonomous buses, intelligent baggage processes, and sustainable energy systems lies an IT foundation that must be scalable, reliable, and highly automated. In collaboration with Conclusion Xforce, Schiphol established a critical platform that makes this future possible.

 The challenge: IT as an accelerator for Vision 2050 

Within Schiphol, the Enabling Technology department delivers IT services to the business. These services form the backbone of operational processes relied upon daily by hundreds of thousands of passengers, airlines, and employees.

 

Roel Donker, Technology Lead Enabling Technology at Schiphol, explains:
“From our IT strategy, we set the ambition to move towards self-service: instantly available, fully automated IT services. This is essential if you want to evolve towards an autonomous airport.”

 

In practice, however, the delivery of IT services was still largely manual. Teams had to submit separate requests to different departments, after which building blocks were repeatedly assembled from scratch. Roel adds:
“That approach doesn’t align with Schiphol’s scale and complexity, let alone our ambitions for 2050.”

 

"We did not have this expertise available in-house, and it is also difficult to source in the market."

Roel Donkers

Technology Lead Enabling Technology at Schiphol

 

The ambition was clear: a single platform that can automatically compose IT services, triggered from multiple channels, where playbooks and workflows intelligently combine the underlying building blocks (component-based architecture). A logical concept, but one that is technically and organisationally highly complex.

“The cognitive load on engineers increases significantly,” Roel explains. “We did not have this expertise available in-house, and it is also difficult to source in the market. That’s why we engaged Conclusion Xforce.”

 The solution: platform engineering as an enabler of autonomy

For this initiative, Schiphol brought in Alex Bron and Ronald den Otter from Conclusion Xforce. Both took on the role of Platform Engineer within Schiphol’s Automation & Development Tooling team.

“Ronald and I worked on this closely together,” Alex explains. “From design through to realisation.”

 

 
Design validation and phased delivery


The programme started with design validation: assessing whether existing plans aligned with technical reality and Schiphol’s broader IT strategy. “You begin with the question: what exactly are we trying to build—and is it truly feasible?” Alex explains. “Only once that is clear do you move forward step by step.”

 

The approach was deliberately iterative:

  • Start with an MVP to deliver value quickly
  • Evolve towards a stable version 1.0
  • Continuously upgrade and optimise thereafter

Today, the platform operates across three environments: development, QA, and production. Multiple teams are already live.

"We deliberately chose to define everything as code, starting from the very foundation."

Alex Bron

Consultant and Technical Coach at Conclusion Xforce

 
Core principles and key technologies


Everything was defined as code, from the very foundation. This was a deliberate core principle within the project and fully aligned with modern platform engineering practices. Configurations were managed as Configuration as Code using the Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform, while the underlying infrastructure was built through Infrastructure as Code with Terraform. All code is stored in Git repositories as a single source of truth.

To ensure stability and compliance, configurations are reapplied periodically, automatically correcting any drift.

“The fact that everything is defined as code makes the platform reproducible and robust,” says Alex. “We even have configurations reapplied every night.”

The platform is built on a modern, enterprise-grade technology stack, including Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Terraform, and Azure DevOps.

 

 
Collaborating in an
 
 
enterprise environment


The platform needed to integrate seamlessly with Schiphol’s existing landscape. This required close alignment with OS, network, and storage teams, as well as with the platform’s end users. A key concept here is inner sourcing:

“Instead of receiving feature requests, we receive pull requests,” Alex explains. “Teams build functionality themselves and contribute it, enabling us to develop further together. That requires guidance and frequent interaction.”

 

Collaboration followed a structured and transparent rhythm:

  • Agile delivery in sprints
  • Regular demos and reviews
  • Validation on security, risk, and compliance
  • Formal sign-off by senior management

“The implementation was iterative and controlled,” says Roel. “That’s exactly what you need in an enterprise environment like Schiphol.”

 

 
The result: acceleration with impact


The most important outcome is tangible: the platform is live. With it, a solid foundation has been established for large-scale acceleration.

 

Concrete impact:

  • Onboarding of IT services reduced from weeks to minutes (and ultimately seconds)
  • Dozens of requests now processed automatically on a daily basis
  • Faster time-to-market for IaaS services
  • Greater autonomy for teams, with less manual effort

“As you add it all up, the impact will be significant,” says Roel.

 
More than technology:
 
 
knowledge sharing and partnership


What Roel particularly values in the collaboration with Conclusion Xforce is the strong focus on knowledge transfer:
“Conclusion Xforce is not focused on retaining knowledge. Alex and Ronald actively train our people, enabling us to maintain and further develop the platform ourselves.”

Ronald adds: “The goal is for Schiphol’s team to become as self-sufficient as possible, with us acting as a safety net.”

Conclusion Xforce’s close relationship with Red Hat also adds value:
“As a partner, we can move faster and access deeper levels of support when needed,” Alex explains.

 

"If IT becomes available faster, everything built on top of it accelerates as well."

Alex Bron

Consultant and Technical Coach at Conclusion Xforce

What is everyone
 
 
proud of?

Roel is proud of the steps Schiphol is taking towards realising its platform engineering vision: “This project directly contributes to our IT strategy, and with that to Vision 2050.” Ronald takes pride in the Ansible Automation Platform now in place: “How great is it that we’ve built a stable, scalable platform based on configuration as code?!”

For his colleague Alex, it hardly even felt like work: “The fact that everything is reproducible and consistently works as intended, that’s what makes our work so exciting.”

Are you ready to accelerate?

Reach out to us
Foto van Mark Dudock.

Mark Dudock

Accountmanager Projecten & Services

mark.dudock@conclusionxforce.nl
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