AI Native Netherlands

From Azure Security Castles to Agentic AI in Production

Wed, Mar 4 · 6:00 PM CET

TomTom, De Ruyterkade 154, 1011 AC Amsterdam, Amsterdam, NL

We are thrilled to welcome you to our 8th edition of the AI Native Netherlands, hosted at the TomTom headquarters in Amsterdam.

We’re shaking things up! We are incredibly excited to debut an interactive panel at the end of the evening. Throughout the talks, you’ll be able to submit your technical questions online in real-time. We’ll then bring our speakers together to dive deep into your specific challenges. We’re excited to try this new format with you and get the whole room involved in the conversation.

A massive thank you to our host, TomTom, for their generosity in providing the venue, food, and drinks for this evening and for supporting the Dutch AI engineering community.

We’ll cover:

• Implementing Zero Trust principles and network controls within mission-critical Azure environments.
• Scaling secure cloud foundations by mapping real-world bottlenecks and architectural "dragons."
• Adapting cloud-native patterns for the non-deterministic execution paths of AI Agents.
• Managing observability and latency challenges in production-grade MCP server deployments.
• Extracting deep technical insights from our speakers during the interactive community Q&A.

Speaker 1: Ahmed Hussien (Schuberg Philis)
Ahmed is a Mission Critical Engineer specializing in Azure security, cloud governance, and real-world architecture. Known for turning complex cloud concepts into visual stories, he builds “security castles” on stage—complete with sentinels, defenses, and a few unexpected dragons. He combines practical field experience with humor and animation-heavy presentations to make security both understandable and memorable.

After years of solving high-severity incidents, navigating Azure’s quirks, and surviving more than one cloud outage, he now shares those lessons with a mix of clarity, honesty, and a touch of comedy. His goal? Help teams build stronger Azure security foundations — one castle wall at a time.

Talk: Building the Azure Security Castle That’s Never Finished
In this high-energy, visual session, Ahmed explores Azure security as a growing medieval castle. We’ll start with a simple blueprint and expand layer by layer—uncovering Zero Trust, network controls, and storage encryption. Each "stone" of the castle appears gradually, mapping real-world bottlenecks and best practices from the field. You’ll leave with a grounded understanding of how to strengthen your AI infrastructure foundations, one stone at a time.

Speaker 2: Metin Yazici (TomTom)
Metin is a Senior Software Engineer at TomTom, where he's helping bring AI-powered agentic assistants to vehicles. From early prototypes to production-grade deployments, he's been hands-on with the challenges of making agentic AI systems reliable, fast, and observable. He spends his days building reliable, scalable infrastructure and keeping production systems healthy.

Talk: TomTom's journey towards deploying agentic products
Deploying a traditional cloud service? You can estimate resource usage from request volume. Deploying an AI agent? Not so simple. A single user query might trigger one LLM call or twelve, fan out to maps, routing, traffic, and web search APIs, and take a completely different execution path every time. This talk follows TomTom's journey from prototype to production with the AI Agent and MCP server. It covers lessons on adapting cloud-native patterns for AI, handling observability for non-deterministic flows, building fine-tuning pipelines, and chasing latency when 'fast' is unpredictable.

Agenda:

• 18:00 — Arrival, food & drinks
• 18:30 — Talk #1 | Ahmed Hussien
• 19:15 — Talk #2 | Metin Yazici
• 20:00 — The Interactive Panel: Open conversation & audience Q&A
• 20:30 — Networking & more drinks
• 21:00 — Wrapping up

What to bring: Just curiosity and questions. We'll be diving into Azure Security, Agentic AI, and MCP servers, and we’d love to hear the audience's specific questions about the talks during the interactive panel.

Who is this for: Platform engineers, AI/ML engineers, SREs, architects, and engineering leaders focused on building and validating reliable AI systems in production.

Where to find us: TomTom De Ruijterkade 154, 1011 AC Amsterdam, Netherlands View on Google Maps

Pattern Cards Workshop: Diagnosing & Planning Your Transformation

Tue, Mar 17 · 5:30 PM CET

Amsterdam, NL

We’re happy to announce a new edition of this workshop! It’s the same format as the previous sessions we’ve run, but due to high demand, we’re opening up another date.

⚠️ IMPORTANT: REGISTRATION & APPROVAL PROCESS ⚠️
To ensure a high-quality, hands-on experience for everyone, we are curating the guest list for this session.

Please follow these 2 steps to apply for a spot:
👉 Step 1: RSVP 'Yes' on this Meetup page.
👉 Step 2: Submit your official registration on our website.

Please Note: Due to the interactive nature of the workshop and limited capacity, registration does not automatically guarantee entry. We review every application to ensure the right mix of attendees and will send you a final confirmation email shortly if your spot is secured.

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Description
The technology landscape is in constant motion. Just as your organization masters the currents of the Cloud Native paradigm, the next great wave—AI Native—is already on the horizon. Successfully navigating these continuous shifts is the defining challenge for modern technology leaders. How do you move from abstract strategic ideas to a concrete, co-created plan that your entire team can get behind?

This hands-on workshop provides the tools and a structured process to do just that. At the heart of this session is a unique and powerful "pattern language"—a physical deck of Paradigm, Antipattern, and Transformation cards. These tangible tools provide a shared vocabulary to diagnose your current state with unflinching honesty and design a future that is both ambitious and achievable.

Join us to turn complex strategic conversations into a dynamic, engaging, and visual planning session. You will leave not with a document that sits on a shelf, but with a collaboratively built roadmap and a clear, unified vision for your transformation journey.

How it Works
We will guide your team through a structured, 3-hour collaborative process:

1. Diagnose Your Digital DNA (Current State Analysis) We begin by defining your "North Star"—the single most important objective for your transformation. Using Paradigm Cards, we will visually map your organization's maturity across the three great waves of innovation: Legacy (Waterfall), Cloud Native, and AI Native. Crucially, we will also use Antipattern Cards to expose the hidden traps and cultural pitfalls currently slowing you down.

2. The Strategic Pause Before planning the future, we introduce three powerful mental models: The Product Lifecycle, The Waves of Innovation, and The Six Modes of Operation. This brief "teaching moment" ensures everyone in the room has the strategic context needed to build a robust plan.

3. Build Your Actionable Roadmap This is where strategy becomes action. Using Transformation Pattern Cards, you will co-design a multi-wave roadmap. You will sequence the key moves needed to mature your current practices, responsibly "strangle" legacy systems, and prepare for the AI-native future. Finally, we pressure-test this plan against your identified antipatterns to ensure it solves your most critical problems.

Who Should Attend?
This workshop is designed for technology leaders, architects, product managers, and cross-functional teams who are:

• Kicking off a new transformation initiative.
• Feeling "stuck" in their current Cloud Native or digital transformation.
• Seeking to align leadership and delivery teams on a shared strategic vision.
• Looking for a structured, repeatable process to build actionable technology roadmaps.

What You Will Achieve
By the end of this interactive session, your team will have:

• A Shared Language: A common vocabulary of patterns to make strategic conversations more effective and inclusive.
• A Clear Diagnosis: A visual, honest snapshot of your organization's current state, including your maturity across the waves of innovation (e.g., Waterfall, Cloud Native, AI Native) and the hidden antipatterns holding you back.

An Actionable Roadmap: A collaboratively built, multi-wave transformation plan with clear, prioritized next steps to implement immediately.