The third Swiss Digital Day takes place on Tuesday, 3 September 2019. This year, more than 300 free talks, speaking opportunities, stage shows, startup pitches, expos and courses will be offered at over 12 locations throughout Switzerland. Speakers will include numerous top-class guests from Federal Councillors and CEOs from the various areas of digitisation.
The patronage and presence of Ueli Maurer, President of the Swiss Confederation and Federal Councillor Guy Parmelin as well as the keynote speech of Federal Councillor Simonetta Sommaruga reinforce the importance of Digital Day. This year, the national event, initiated by digitalswitzerland, is dedicated to the topic of ‘lifelong learning’. The official programme of the Digital Day can be found below: https://www.digitaltag.swiss/
About the Digital Day
“Digital Day was launched in 2017 by digitalswitzerland. Since then, Digital Day has pursued the goal of making digitalisation a tangible experience, highlighting its opportunities and challenges and encouraging an in-depth discussion on this topic. digitalswitzerland is a Swiss-wide, multi-stakeholder initiative created from the shared vision of its over 150 members to strengthen Switzerland’s position as a leading innovation hub. By engaging government, business, academia and the public, we create a platform to lead Switzerland forward.” We at VSHN are of course very pleased that the Digital Day will bring digital topics into focus and make them “touchable and perceptible” for everyone. What do you think about Digital Day? We are looking forward to your feedback!
Markus Speth
Marketing, Communications, People
Latest news
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Open Source
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Open Source as State Policy: What the EU Strategy and the Swiss Ständerat Vote Mean for IT Decision-Makers
topsoft 2019 is one of the most important Swiss IT trade fairs for systems, technologies and know-how for future-oriented companies. Together with our partners Batix, Webgate and Migros, VSHN exhibited at topsoft 2019.
topsoft at Umwelt Arena Spreitenbach
topsoft 2019 took place from 28 to 29 August in the Umwelt Arena in Spreitenbach and became the meeting place for the Swiss IT industry. Presentations, workshops and a large exhibition area provided variety and a great setting, bringing together trade visitors, influencers and decision-makers from Switzerland and abroad.
The VSHNeers on-site obviously had a lot of fun. 🙂
VSHN Workshop: Advantages of DevOps in practice
Our VSHNeers Matthias Indermühle and Markus Speth held a workshop on “Advantages of DevOps in Practice” on Wed. 28. August 2019: “How a lived DevOps culture improves cooperation and puts customer benefits in the foreground. In a world where software is becoming increasingly important, the success of a company increasingly depends on how quickly software can be developed and deployed. DevOps stands for a new culture and approach in the collaboration of previously separate departments. Development (software development) and Operations (IT operations) are pulling in the same direction to increase software quality and availability and thus to increase customer satisfaction”. https://www.topsoft.ch/lineup/vorteile-von-devops-in-der-praxis/
Slides of our DevOps Workshop
For those of you who couldn’t participate, here are our slides to watch (in German):
And if you feel like it, you can of course also take part in our DevOps Workshop Quiz:
🙂
APPUiO Voucher Code
APPUiO Voucher Code for topsoft is: topsoft19 You can easily redeem the code on appuio.ch and receive 2048 MiB RAM / 1100 mC for 30 days for free (from the date of redemption).
Feedback and more about DevOps
As always, we are looking forward to any feedback and to seeing you again at a future event! If you want to learn more about DevOps, check out the Netzwoche article “DevOps in der Praxis”. Your VSHNeers
Markus Speth
Marketing, Communications, People
Latest news
General
Open Source
Sovereignty
Open Source as State Policy: What the EU Strategy and the Swiss Ständerat Vote Mean for IT Decision-Makers
Hi Microsoft Cloud and Azure Regions Zurich & Geneva!
28. Aug 2019
Microsoft Cloud Switzerland
Now the time has come: the Microsoft Cloud Switzerland with its Azure Regions Zurich and Geneva has officially gone live. With two data center locations in Zurich and Geneva, the importance of Switzerland as a business location is emphasized and geo-redundancy is ensured at the same time. This step demonstrates the importance of local data storage for many Swiss companies. A large number of Azure Services and Office 365 from the Swiss Microsoft Cloud are planned to be offered. Among the first customers to use the Swiss Azure Cloud are SwissRE, UBS and Swisscom. We are looking forward to welcoming another Hyperscaler in Switzerland and of course to many exciting joint projects! 🙂 A warm welcome!
VSHN at the award ceremony for the Rising Star award Cloud Transformation/Operation Services & XaaS from ISG in Berlin
28. Jun 2019
VSHN receives Rising Star award
VSHN – The DevOps Company receives the award Rising Star of the ISG Provider Lens Switzerland 2019 study at the award ceremony night in Spreespeicher Berlin. We are of course very happy that we were able to place ourselves so successfully in the study alongside many well-known global players from the IT world. The VSHNeers Patrick Mathers (CEO) and Markus Speth (CMO) receive the Rising Star from ISG Director Heiko Henkes and are very pleased about the award.
Heiko Henkes statement about VSHN:
“We have been watching VSHN for several years now and our extensive research in 2019 has come to the conclusion that VSHN can be regarded as Unicorn and one of the most innovative IT service providers in the area of Cloud Transformation/Operation Services & XaaS. As an absolute expert in Managed Services and the operation of modern Container Platforms such as OpenShift and Kubernetes, VSHN supports many companies in an agile and innovative way both in Switzerland as well as internationally with their digital transformation and the implementation of a holistic DevOps strategy. VSHN relieves software developers in their daily work like no other company in Switzerland and despite the size of the company, VSHN is able to manage and scale large and complex projects thanks to sophisticated management & automation.”
Such kind words are of course very nice and at the same time underline our daily work and strategic orientation.
Importance of the award for VSHN
What does the Rising Star award mean for VSHN? On the one hand, the study confirms us in our daily work and in our strategy not to do everything ourselves, but to focus on the operation of modern hosting platforms and future technologies such as Docker, OpenShift and Kubernetes, to automate and to cooperate with partners. On the other hand, the study results also confirm that Switzerland is a multi-cloud country and DevOps is “the way to go”. For this reason, we are extremely happy about the award as Rising Star and see it as a confirmation of our previous path and at the same time as an incentive to become even better in the future.
Berlin is always worth a visit, of course all the more so if you are receiving a prize. Following a few impressions of the ISG Provider Lens Award Ceremony Night 2019 at the Spreespeicher in Berlin on Wed. June 26 2019.
ISG annually awards the Rising Star to the product challenger with the highest potential for the future, which convinces in particular by its promising product portfolio and promising roadmap, focusing on key market trends and customer value. ISG defines the selection criteria of the Rising Star as follows:
“Rising Stars are mostly product challengers with high future potential. When receiving the “Rising Star” award, such companies have a promising portfolio, including the required roadmap and an adequate focus on key market trends and customer requirements. Also, the “Rising Star” has an excellent management and understanding of the local market. This award is only given to vendors or service providers that have made extreme progress towards their goals within the last 12 months and are on a good way to reach the leader quadrant within the next 12-24 months, due to their above-average impact and innovative strength.”
About ISG Provider Lens
In the Provider Lens, the market research company ISG rates Swiss cloud providers for the attractiveness of their product portfolio and their competitive strength. ISG is one of the leading market research and consulting companies in the information technology segment, helping more than 700 clients worldwide to achieve operational excellence. Customers have the proven expertise in innovative technology solutions, the industry’s most comprehensive database, and more than 50 years of experience and global leadership in an international information and consulting firm. ISG is based in Stamford, Connecticut with 21 locations worldwide and supports its customers in Germany, Switzerland and Austria through its locations in Frankfurt a. M., Kassel and Zurich.
About VSHN – The DevOps Company
VSHN is the leading Swiss partner for DevOps, Docker, Kubernetes, OpenShift and 24/7 Cloud Operations. VSHN helps software developers run their applications agile and 24/7 on any infrastructure while relieving the burden on IT operations. Since 2014, we are managing more than 1500 servers in 20 different clouds as well as on-premises at customer locations with a total of more than 80’000 services for 300 different customers and partners. We are ISO 27001 certified and work to the strict FINMA guidelines to ensure the security and confidentiality of customer information at all times. Take a look at our services and learn more about our services and how we can possibly support you. Subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on Twitter (@vshn_ch and @APPUiO) and don’t miss any news. Follow @VSHN_ch Follow @APPUiO
This article was published on May 8th 2019 in Netzwoche 08/2019 – author: Markus Speth.
DevOps stands for a new culture and approach in the collaboration of traditionally separated departments. Development (software development) and Operations (IT operations) are pulling together to increase software quality and availability and thus customer satisfaction. In a world where software is becoming increasingly important, the success of a business depends more and more on how quickly software can be developed and deployed. Technology is evolving rapidly, is accessible to everyone, and international development teams are on call waiting to get the next assignment – so how can you stand out from the competition? The decisive factor today is how well a company knows its target group and how it satisfies customer needs better and faster than the competition through rapid iteration. DevOps can be an enabler for this.
What is DevOps?
DevOps is a dazzling term, but often just as vague as “cloud” or “container”. Everybody understands something different, and in some cases, DevOps is already used inflationary or only for marketing purposes. However, the majority agree that DevOps has arrived in the mainstream. Fundamentally, DevOps is an artificial word made out of “development”, i.e. software development, and “operations”, i.e. IT operations or system administration. DevOps stands symbolically for a new culture of collaborative departments that historically have pursued rather different goals: software development must be agile, creative and at the cutting edge of technological development in order to be able to constantly deliver new features. In contrast, IT operations is geared towards stability, security and reliability. DevOps now tries to unite exactly this apparent contradiction between agility and stability. As a logical further development of agile software development, DevOps aims to include the entire value chain in an interdisciplinary way. DevOps should break up existing silo thinking.
DevOps affects all sectors and is not limited to software development. Many traditional industries today support their core business with software: no matter if banks, insurance companies, retail or industrial sector – digitization does not stop at any industry. If the customer is happy, so is the team, the individual employee and ultimately the company. In the end, everyone benefits from DevOps.
A DevOps culture that focuses on collaboration and automation not only ensures consistency and predictability and faster code delivery while increasing code quality. Problem solving also benefits from DevOps. Bugs and failures are not prevented by DevOps, but with a collaborative and solution-oriented DevOps team and a mature level of automation, troubleshooting and problem solving becomes many times more efficient and faster, reducing the cost of a failure. DevOps stands for the lean concept of Continuous Improvement and a conscious and active feedback culture. Mistakes may be made in order to continuously improve cooperation and processes. The software development and IT operations departments are jointly responsible for the application.
DevOps in practice
In practice, a functioning DevOps organization is characterized by frequent and fast release cycles, automated deployments (including automatic rollbacks if required), continuous integration and automated testing. The ideal picture is a fully automated pipeline without the need for manual intervention. It is also important that the management gives the teams the authority to make decisions autonomously without having to wait for a “go”. A practical example is self-service: The developer can create a development or test environment him or herself if required, without having to wait for the IT administration. The biggest obstacle to team collaboration is often the deadlocked approach and the “power of habit”. In such cases, it takes a lot of persuasion and time before a DevOps culture can become a commonplace. One only has to imagine how a company must also change culturally so that it can evolve from a few software releases per year to daily or even hourly releases through the use of continuous delivery. Software delivery cycles are getting shorter and shorter through Continuous Integration / Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) as production pipelines can increasingly be scaled through microservices and cloud native environments. Ideally, errors are detected before they go into production. The earlier an error is found and corrected in the chain, the cheaper it is to correct it. DevOps principles and automation make this possible, for example by using several test environments. Today’s most successful product companies like Netflix deploy their applications several hundred to thousand times a day. Failures cannot be prevented, but can be scheduled in to continuously learn from them. Netflix has significantly increased the stability and robustness of its service through the use of chaos engineering, i.e. the deliberate and accidental termination of servers and processes in production as well. Server failure is taken for granted and built into the DNA of the service. Without a mature and comprehensive DevOps mentality throughout the entire organization, it would be impossible to deliver software at this speed and quality. Software companies are also on the rise in Switzerland, which are constantly improving their applications and placing their customers in the foreground through a lived DevOps practice. For example, Sherpany with their software for management and board meetings or Amazee.io, who have developed Lagoon, a modern docker build and deployment system for Kubernetes and OpenShift.
Conclusion
In contrast to Agile, DevOps goes beyond the development part and focuses on the entire value chain: DevOps teams are responsible for a product throughout its entire lifecycle. DevOps helps to scale while remaining flexible and offers a number of quantifiable benefits such as shorter development cycles, increased deployment frequency and faster time-to-market. But DevOps is not just there to accelerate software development by increasing the level of automation and efficiency and agility. DevOps can be an enabler of an organization’s cultural change and improve overall collaboration, work climate and motivation. DevOps stands for collaboration, flexibility, agility and concentration on a joint business success: satisfied users, market-driven products and long-term motivated and loyal employees.
Want to learn more about DevOps?
We have conducted a study of the state of DevOps in Switzerland which will be published soon. If you or your organization would like to learn more about DevOps and would like to find out whether there is still room for improvement in your current application architecture, VSHN offers a DevOps workshop to find out.
Markus Speth
Marketing, Communications, People
Latest news
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Open Source
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Open Source as State Policy: What the EU Strategy and the Swiss Ständerat Vote Mean for IT Decision-Makers
Cloud-to-Cloud Migration: Aarno contributed a technical article in iX Magazine
1. Apr 2019
iX Magazine article: Cloud-to-Cloud Migration
Our CTO Aarno Aukia has contributed an article in iX Magazine 4/2019 on cloud-to-cloud migration.
The challenge of Cloud-to-Cloud Migration
There are many reasons to change the cloud provider or the cloud model. But migration is not an easy task. There are different migration options based on the underlying data.
For different reasons, it may be necessary to change the cloud model or provider.
There are different migration methods depending on the nature of the application being migrated.
The use of open source products such as Docker and Kubernetes allows faster migration and vendor independence.
Mastering the Migration
By Aarno Aukia, published in iX Magazine 04/2019. The question is no longer if, but which services should be used from a cloud and when, and which systems, services and applications are best suited for this purpose. By outsourcing infrastructure and operating services, companies can concentrate on their core competencies such as software development or core business processes. In addition to the personnel capacities freed up in the core areas, they also benefit from the agile provision of services through self-service, automation and pay-per-use. In order to survive in this dynamic world and to meet the expectations of application development and software operations, software development and operations today must work together according to DevOps principles and have a common goal in mind: customer benefit. Before a company decides on a suitable cloud for its data and applications, it should be clear what the implications of the choice are. How can the use of open source in a company avoid vendor lock-in in the cloud? Which locations can the cloud provider offer? Is the preferred location included? Does the cloud provider offer all the technologies that are important? How big and reliable is the provider? And what happens if the provider no longer operates the cloud? Will the company be able to access its data without much effort? When it comes to selecting a public or private cloud, it is usually the case that a public cloud offers more flexibility in terms of greater scalability, more functions and a larger selection of peripheral systems. Going private cloud is interesting for industries with high security requirements where environments need to be physically separated. But a private cloud can also be the cheaper alternative to the public cloud in the long term, especially if the required resources are more or less precisely determined in advance and no major performance peaks are to be expected as with the Christmas business. For this reason, many large companies today use a multi-cloud strategy: depending on requirements, budget and long-term perspective, a public and/or private cloud is used. The motives for choosing a cloud provider are different. Many users can access AWS, Google Cloud or Microsoft Azure via inexpensive offers or test accesses. Others choose an alternative or regional provider because they value a nearby location and personal contact. Whatever the original decision, whether it was price, reliability, ease of access, security requirements or compatibility, the starting point may have changed in the meantime. Perhaps the architecture of the application or business requirements has changed in such a way that a change of vendor is necessary. Or the cloud provider’s decision requires it to look for alternatives.
Read more
Read the full article in iX Magazine 04/2019 (in German).
About iX – Magazine for professional information technology
IX – Magazine for professional Information technology is a computer magazine founded in 1988 and published in German. According to its own description the name derives from the operating system Unix. The edition is published by Heise-Zeitschriften-Verlag. It has about 170 pages and is published monthly. The target group are professional administrators and programmers. In contrast to its sister journal c’t, the iX is mainly aimed at professional readers. The advertising slogan “Not everyone understands – which is also better” tries to sharpen this demarcation by forming an elite group of readers.
Markus Speth
Marketing, Communications, People
Latest news
General
Open Source
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Open Source as State Policy: What the EU Strategy and the Swiss Ständerat Vote Mean for IT Decision-Makers
UPDATE: The winner was drawn and informed by us – congratulations!
KubeCon and CloudNativeCon from May 20 – 23 2019 in Barcelona
The flagship conference of the Cloud Native Computing Foundation will gather users and technology savvy people from leading open source and cloud communities from May 20 to 23, 2019 in Barcelona, Spain. Be part of the Kubernetes, Prometheus, OpenTracing, Fluentd, gRPC, containerd, rkt, CNI, Envoy, Jaeger, Notary, TUF, Vitess, CoreDNS, NATS, Linkerd, Helm, Harbor and etcd community and meet with like-minded people four days long, to promote the know-how and further development of cloud computing. The conference continues to record strong growth: In 2019, more than 6’000 participants are expected to attend KubeCon and CloudNativeCon Europe in Barcelona.
Interested in Tapas and Kubernetes?
We are giving away 2 tickets for you and your companion: attend the KubeCon / CloudNativeCon Europe 2019 together and enjoy a few exciting days in Barcelona!
What do you have to do?
Share this article until Monday, February 4th 2019, 12.00am on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn and tag the person you’d like to take with you. From all comments and shares we will draw the lucky winner. Good luck and hopefully see you soon in Barcelona! 🙂 Arrival and accommodation in Barcelona has to be organized by yourself. VSHNeers are excluded from the contest. The winner will be notified by us.
VSHN is official sponsor of KubeCon and CloudNativeCon
VSHN supports acrevis bank on their way to digitalization
23. Jan 2019
Zurich, January 21, 2019 – Together with our partner Puzzle ITC, VSHN AG is building an OpenShift-based technology platform for the Eastern Swiss regional bank acrevis. The technology platform consists of business, integration, security and delivery layers and enables acrevis to implement a two-speed IT. VSHN and Puzzle thus support acrevis in the ongoing digitalization of its business area in order to react to the growing customer needs and market requirements.
VSHN and Puzzle ITC support acrevis bank on its way to digitization
After an intensive evaluation and detailing phase, acrevis decided on a partnership with VSHN and Puzzle ITC for the implementation, realization and operation of IT platforms. Together we will develop a technology platform, which enables acrevis to use two-speed IT. In addition, it distinguishes the regional bank as an active player in the ongoing digitalization of the financial sector. Michael Steiner, CEO of acrevis Bank: “We are starting small and want to grow consistently and jointly with the needs of our customers and the bank”. The modern platform will provide acrevis with a future-oriented foundation for further digitization initiatives and combine security, stability and flexibility. It also enables acrevis to react quickly, easily and efficiently to customer wishes and new market requirements and to integrate them into the existing system landscape. Thanks to the scalability of the new technology platform, future digitization projects can be realized more quickly, easily and cost-effectively. acrevis is an exciting customer for VSHN and Puzzle ITC in the banking sector. We are very pleased to be able to support acrevis in its pursuit of an offensive digital strategy and look forward to a successful cooperation.
The individual needs stand in the foreground
The technology platform is based on the OpenShift-based APPUiO Swiss Container Platform and represents a classic two-speed integration architecture consisting of the two areas “Steady” and “Speed”. The stable and less agile backend systems (Steady area) are preceded by modern and agile components (Speed area). This architecture forms the basis for reacting flexibly and quickly to changes in applications and services that use data and services from the backend systems. In addition, the new platform provides a standardized environment for future applications and services, enabling them to benefit from the prepared environment in terms of operation, security and deployment. Thus, the new platform enables an optimal response to individual customer needs and new market requirements.
About Puzzle ITC
As an innovative IT service provider, Puzzle ITC covers the entire life cycle of business-critical applications and infrastructures. We consistently rely on open source technologies as well as state-of-the-art methods and tools. Since 1999, the start-up has grown into a successful software and technology SME with over 120 employees in Bern, Zurich and Tübingen (DE). Today, an interdisciplinary and qualified team works on projects in these areas: consulting, applications, delivery, infrastructure and own open source solutions. More information: www.puzzle.ch
About VSHN AG
VSHN AG is the leading Swiss partner for DevOps, Docker, Kubernetes, OpenShift and 24/7 Cloud Operations. VSHN helps software developers to run their applications agile and 24/7 on any infrastructure and to relieve IT operations. Since 2014, we have been supporting over 1000 servers in 20 different clouds for 300 different customers & partners as well as on-premises for customers with a total of more than 70000 services. VSHN is ISO 27001 certified and works according to the strict FINMA guidelines to ensure the security and confidentiality of customer data at all times. VSHN is the first Kubernetes Certified Service Provider (KCSP) in Switzerland. More information: www.vshn.ch
About acrevis Bank AG
acrevis Bank AG was created in 2011 from the merger of Bank CA St.Gallen AG and swissregiobank AG. As the leading regional bank between Lake Constance and Lake Zurich, acrevis positions itself through systematic coverage of the market area and segment-specific offerings. Its core competencies lie in the financing of private real estate, investment advice, asset management and commercial business with SMEs, trade and self-employed persons.
What does Kubernetes Certified Service Provider (KCSP) mean?
The KCSP program is run by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) in partnership with the Linux Foundation and honors service providers with extensive experience in the successful deployment of Kubernetes in the enterprise environment. KCSP partners provide support, advice and professional services, as well as training for organizations looking for container solutions. The KCSP program ensures that businesses get the support they need to deliver new applications faster and more efficiently, and find a reliable and proven partner to support their production and operational needs.
Requirements for the KCSP program
To be admitted for the KCSP program, you must have at least 3 employees who have successfully passed the Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) exam, employ a business model which supports enterprise end users and you have to be a CNCF member. More information about the requirements of the KCSP program can be found here.
VSHN is the first KCSP in Switzerland
As the only KCSP headquartered in Switzerland, VSHN collaborates with international partners and the CNCF to create a strong and vibrant Kubernetes culture and promote the Cloud Native community. As a KCSP, VSHN demonstrates advanced know-how within container technology and the architecture and management of cloud native platforms to enhance Enterprise DevOps workflows. For various reasons, containers have taken the IT world by storm, and Kubernetes is the de facto standard for automating the deployment, scaling, and management of container applications. As one of the most active open source projects, the usage and deployment of Kubernetes is currently reaching unprecedented heights and creating a high demand for specialists who can assist companies with expert knowledge. KCSP is a confirmation of VSHN’s commitment to contributing to the success of Kubernetes as an open source technology and to supporting the growing community.
Tobias Brunner, our Head of DevOps & Partner says:
“We are very pleased to be a partner in the Kubernetes and Cloud Native Computing ecosystem and to officially become the first Kubernetes Certified Service Provider (KCSP) in Switzerland. VSHN will continue to promote the distribution of Kubernetes by supporting companies in their cloud and container journey and together unleash the full potential of Kubernetes.”
Among other things, VSHN supports the CNCF by organizing the Cloud Native Computing Meetups in Zurich. The dates for the next Meetups and other events can be found here.
VSHN sponsors KubeCon and CloudNativeCon 2019 in Barcelona
Do you also want to attend KubeCon and CloudNativeCon 2019?
As a CNCF member we can offer you a 20% discount on the official ticket price – simply contact us via the contact form below and we will send you a discount code.
About VSHN – The DevOps Company
VSHN AG is the leading Swiss partner for DevOps, Docker, Kubernetes, OpenShift and 24/7 Cloud Operations. VSHN helps software developers run their applications agile and 24/7 on any infrastructure while relieving the burden on IT operations. Since 2014, we are serving more than 1000 servers in 20 different clouds as well as on-premises at customer locations with a total of more than 66’000 services for 300 different customers and partners. We are ISO 27001 certified and work to the strict FINMA guidelines to ensure the security and confidentiality of customer information at all times. With APPUiO.ch, we have created a Red Hat OpenShift based Swiss container platform, where we can offer Managed Services as a PaaS solution (Platform-as-a-Service) on any infrastructure: public, dedicated, private and on-premises. At VSHN, we believe in openness and transparency, so we let you decide where to store your data (we call this multi-cloud strategy). Either locally in your own data center (on-premise) or at a cloud provider location of your choice. Take a look at our services and learn more about our services and how we can possibly support you. Follow us on Twitter (@vshn_ch and @APPUiO) and don’t miss any news.
The holidays are getting closer and closer and so the year 2018 is coming to an end. With the following year in review we want to take a look back on a very eventful and great year 2018. Of course, we are also there for you during the holidays – see Opening Hours Christmas / New Year 2018. We wish you and your family a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
VSHN year in review 2018
2018 was without exaggeration a groundbreaking year for VSHN. With highly interesting new projects such as the Federal Government’s Linked Data Platform and the GovCMS platform of the Australian Ministry of Finance, reaching the top 10 of the fastest growing ICT companies in Switzerland and last but not least with the award as Rising Star Switzerland in the ISG Provider Lens we have been confirmed again and again this year in our daily work and in our strategy not to do everything ourselves and to automate as much as possible. Also the decision that we focus on the operation of modern hosting platforms and innovative technologies such as Docker, OpenShift and Kubernetes and the close cooperation with partners also seem to pay out. Through this steady and healthy growth, we were also able to increase our workforce to over 30 employees. Our new VSHNeers in 2018 are: Gabriel, Sandra, Peter B., Bashar, Markus, Tobias N., Christian C., Christian H., Patrik H. and Dimitri. We regard the daily feedback from our partners and customers as a confirmation of our chosen path so far and at the same time as an incentive to improve even further in the future and to advance the DevOps philosophy. At this point we want to say a big thank you to our VSHNeers, partners and companions. We will continue to develop steadily in the future and not stand still. But now we are looking forward to the holidays with our families, recover from an intense year and start with new strength into 2019.
VSHN is Rising Star at Cloud Transformation/Operation Services & XaaS. We are delighted to have been awarded Rising Star by ISG Provider Lens Switzerland 2019 – Cloud Transformation / Operation Services & XaaS.
VSHN from Zurich has won two major customers this year: the Australian Ministry of Finance and Opendata.swiss, the Swiss federal government’s open data portal. VSHN founder and CTO Aarno Aukia explains how the DevOps start-up was successful and how it can offer data center services without a data center.
VSHN AG will build and operate the OpenShift platform for amazee.io and Salsa Digital to host the next evolution of GovCMS for the Australian Department of Finance.
The first participation in the Powercoders program for refugees was a complete success: we were able to hire Bashar as fulltime VSHNeer after his internship.
UCC Challenge sponsored by VSHN
Congratulations to Andrey Brito of the Federal University of Campina Grande (UFCG, Brazil) for winning the UCC Cloud Challenge 2018 and the CHF 1’000.- APPUiO voucher with his contribution Secure End-to-End Processing of Smart Grid Data.
VSHN is Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) member. Among other things, VSHN supports the CNCF by organizing the Cloud Native Computing Meetups in Zurich and we sponsor the KubeCon and CloudNativeCon 2019 in Barcelona.
VSHN AG from Zurich and Spryker Systems GmbH from Berlin / Hamburg agree on a strategic cooperation to serve future e-commerce customers jointly with Spryker Commerce OS.
Partnership with A1 Digital and Exoscale
The Container Platform APPUiO will be available on A1 Digital and Exoscale cloud hosting in the future.
In the past few years, Microsoft has transformed itself from a classic Windows and Office provider to a modern cloud provider. The Azure Cloud has become a global hyperscale cloud platform with many interesting features. Red Hat has also recognized this and offers official support from OpenShift to Azure.
Events
KubeCon & CloudNativeCon 2018 North America 2018 in Seattle (report follows)
Our Simon R. and Manuel visited KubeCon & CloudNativeCon North America in December 2018 in Seattle – the report will follow later.
From December 17th to 21st, Zurich will become a hotspot for learning about the latest advances in cloud applications and serverless computing technologies. On the first two days, the 11th International Conference on Utility and Cloud Computing (UCC) is an expert event centered on research and innovation with several sub-events.
This year’s Red Hat Forum was again a great success. We would like to thank the organizers and our partners, for many great discussions and look forward to the next year! 🙂
VSHN took part in the DevOpsDays 2018 in Winterthur again this year! As part of the worldwide DevOps movement, it is already held regularly in different countries, and was held in Switzerland for the second time on May 2nd and 3rd 2018.
Learn more about containerization and moving your application to the cloud, how VSHN and our Swiss Container Platform APPUiO can help your business. Presenter: Aarno Aukia, CTO and founder of VSHN – The DevOps Company.
At VSHN and APPUiO.ch we rely on OpenShift as Kubernetes distribution. What a Kubernetes distribution is, why we use it and where the differences to ‘plain’ Kubernetes are will be explained in this blog post.
I have set up a Docker Swarm cluster on the new Hetzner Cloud. First things first – the Hetzner Cloud is really amazing: Super simple, super cheap and performs as expected. It is not a bloated cloud provider that has 100x services and features that you can use for your servers, this keeps the costs and complexity down – I am really a big fan of it.
Amazee.io set out to make hosting of Drupal websites easier and more flexible. We always strive to stay at the cutting edge of technology. So it does not come to a surprise that we started adopting a container based approach to hosting. We’ll talk about what containers are and why we believe it’s important to go one step further and open source our technology we use to host websites.
“Deploy early and often” is one of the core principles of agile development. One solution to this problem are automated build and deploy pipelines. This project uses such a pipeline, based on GitLab CI and OpenShift. A sample PHP application is built and deployed to APPUiO.
VSHNeer Michael Hanselmann (hansmi) discovered multiple Icinga2 security vulnerabilities that have been reported and fixed now. Read his blog post explaining the discovery and impacts.
In the last twelve months, three VSHNeers enjoyed the birth of their first child, which is why we introduced four weeks of paternity or partner holidays for all.
VSHN AG is the leading Swiss partner for DevOps, Docker, Kubernetes, OpenShift and 24/7 Cloud Operations. VSHN helps software developers run their applications agile and 24/7 on any infrastructure while relieving the burden on IT operations. Since 2014, we are serving more than 1000 servers in 20 different clouds as well as on-premises at customer locations with a total of more than 66’000 services for 300 different customers and partners. We are ISO 27001 certified and work to the strict FINMA guidelines to ensure the security and confidentiality of customer information at all times. With APPUiO.ch, we have created a Red Hat OpenShift based Swiss container platform, where we can offer Managed Services as a PaaS solution (Platform-as-a-Service) on any infrastructure: public, dedicated, private and on-premises. At VSHN, we believe in openness and transparency, so we let you decide where to store your data (we call this multi-cloud strategy). Either locally in your own data center (on-premise) or at a cloud provider location of your choice. Take a look at our services and learn more about our services and how we can possibly support you. Follow us on Twitter (@vshn_ch and @APPUiO) and don’t miss any news.
Markus Speth
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DevSecOps: security for development and IT operations
10. Dec 2018
What is DevSecOps and why should I care?
DevSecOps (development, security, operations, sometimes also called SecDevOps) integrates the topic of application security into the DevOps process. Hence agile software development meets the current challenges of cyber security. By automating and creating a security-as-code culture, collaboration between teams shall remain remain flexible while security will be continuously improved.
What is DevOps?
Before we try to understand the term DevSecOps, we need to understand “DevOps.” What does this widespread term mean? It is almost as vague as “cloud”. Every modern business needs it, but is it something you can simply order and get delivered? We understand DevOps as the interdisciplinary collaboration between developers and software operators that allows a rapid and systematic development and delivery of applications. Our understanding of DevOps is explained in detail in “What is DevOps – what does VSHN do?”
Origin and the meaning of DevSecOps
Just as in the traditional separation of Devs and Ops, security has traditionally been the task of a detached team or individuals. Security concerns were thus considered outsourced and rather down the line in development. Security as a silo, so to speak. Security specialists are good in detecting security holes, but within a traditional environment they rarely understand how modern software development teams – an agile DevOps organization – work together. In order to fully exploit the agility and responsiveness of DevOps while increasing application security, security has to be an integral part of the lifecycle and must be included from the beginning. To underline the ever-increasing importance of cybersecurity, the term DevSecOps has been formed:
DevSecOps means that everyone involved in the software development process is responsible for security and continuously improves and automates and integrates it into the development process right from the beginning.
Incorporate security into your DevOps workflows right from the beginning
What sounds like a matter of course, was (and is) not always the case. The classic developer is more concerned about the functionality than about the security of an application. In addition, new technologies such as container platforms (e.g. Docker) and microservices are, despite the many benefits such as the continuous delivery of code, leading to new problems and security concerns, as ever-shorter release cycles can no longer withstand manual testing. DevSecOps should lead to a rethinking by integrating IT security and security features wherever possible into the automation workflows. The integration of existing security teams and employees and an associated cultural change is just as important as the selection of the right security tools. With the DevSecOps approach, security should be integrated right from the start and should not be added later or considered after the development is completed. Development, IT operations and security teams need to be made aware of information security and pull together. Transparency, continuous feedback, and mutual insights are just as important as sharing known threats and vulnerabilities. For developers, this often requires rethinking because these processes were not always part of application development.
DevSecOps automation = automation of security
A successful adoption of DevSecOps principles requires the automation of repetitive tasks and checks, as manual security checks take a lot of time and are more prone to errors. Technologies that facilitate DevSecOps include containers and microservices: DevOps security practices need to be customized as they are not suitable for static or manual testing. Information security must be integrated throughout the whole application cycle and has to be continuously improved. Modern agile teams already use automated validation and test points within the DevOps pipelines to increase application and code security while enabling fast release cycles. If the tests and checks can not be integrated into the CI/CD pipelines, the development process is likely to bypass the security audit, which in turn can lead to security vulnerabilities. DevSecOps makes security an integral part of the entire development process. DevOps teams must incorporate security from the beginning and automate it as much as possible so they can to continuously test and protect all data, microservices, container, and CI/CD processes. Integrated testing should provide the team with an overview in real time and vulnerabilities and bugs can be quickly identified and closed.
Conclusion: security is more important today than ever
Almost daily reports about cyber attacks, security holes, data losses and lax security standards of large corporations remind us again and again how important security is today. Security should be a standard repertoire in DevOps teams, and with today’s approaches and tools, the overhead is usually manageable. Due to the short development cycles nowadays, it is possible to test earlier and thus also recognize problems earlier. The integration of application security therefore also means using security and testing tools from the early development process and not just in the live operation of the application.
Is DevSecOps worth it?
Of course, the integration of security into the DevOps process means more effort (than not to do it), but in the long run, the investment pays off. Agility and security can not only be combined, they even can benefit from each other, if the team lives transparency, openness and the sharing of know-how. And at least since the negative headlines from the recent past, everyone should be clear about just how important security is.
SIGS DevSecOps Forum
Aarno, our CTO, held a talk about Continuous (Security) improvement in the DevOps process on the SIGS DevSecOps Forum on December 4th 2018 at Mobiliar in Bern.
In agile software development, there is also the term “shift to the left”, which means moving the validation to earlier stages of development (see DevSecOps.org). Or security is treated as a customer feature rather than adding non-functional requirements to the product backlog (Michele Chubirka aka “Mrs. Y” on postmodernsecurity.com).
What do you think about DevSecOps?
What does DevSecOps mean to you? Is it already the new standard or just another step on the way to GitOps? We would be very happy to receive your feedback on the topic, via @vshn_ch, mail or the contact form below.
Markus Speth
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VSHN is Rising Star Switzerland at ISG Provider Lens 2019
26. Nov 2018
ISG has published the Provider Lens Switzerland 2019 study and awarded VSHN the title of “Rising Star Switzerland”.
VSHN is Rising Star at Cloud Transformation/Operation Services & XaaS
We are delighted to have been awarded Rising Star by ISG Provider Lens Switzerland 2019 – Cloud Transformation / Operation Services & XaaS. ISG annually awards the Rising Star to the product challenger with the highest potential for the future, which convinces in particular by its promising product portfolio and promising roadmap, focusing on key market trends and customer value. ISG defines the selection criteria of the Rising Star as follows:
“Rising Stars are mostly product challengers with high future potential. When receiving the “Rising Star” award, such companies have a promising portfolio, including the required roadmap and an adequate focus on key market trends and customer requirements. Also, the “Rising Star” has an excellent management and understanding of the local market. This award is only given to vendors or service providers that have made extreme progress towards their goals within the last 12 months and are on a good way to reach the leader quadrant within the next 12-24 months, due to their above-average impact and innovative strength.”
The Managed Public Cloud Services area takes a look at vendors offering Managed Services on third-party IaaS platforms. The services typically include proactive monitoring, automation and cloud platform management to maximize the performance of workloads in the cloud, reduce costs, and ensure security and availability. In particular, the study emphasizes DevOps willingness, new business models and agility. Also very important is the willingness to constantly evolve, to think outside the box and to be able to leave the comfort zone in order to offer new business models and technologies such as container. Managed Service Providers have become strategic partners for customers on their way to cloud transformation and public cloud usage through their specialization. The biggest challenge for Managed Public Cloud Service Providers is to keep up with the evolutions and advancements of the public cloud, while developing a better understanding of the customers and their business processes. Vendors need to invest in their people and their skills, and further develop DevOps know-how.
Meaning of the award for VSHN
What is the significance of the award as Rising Star for VSHN? Firstly, the study confirms our daily work and our strategy of not doing everything ourselves but focusing on the operation of modern hosting platforms and future technologies such as Docker, OpenShift and Kubernetes, to automate and to collaborate with partners. On the other hand, the study results confirm that Switzerland is a multi-cloud country and DevOps is “the way to go”:
DevOps, the combination of software development (Dev) and operations engineering (Ops).
For this reason, we are extremely happy to receive the Rising Star award and see the award as a confirmation of our path so far, as well as an incentive to become even better in the future.
In the Provider Lens, the market research company ISG rates Swiss cloud providers for the attractiveness of their product portfolio and their competitive strength. ISG is one of the leading market research and consulting companies in the information technology segment, helping more than 700 clients worldwide to achieve operational excellence. Customers have the proven expertise in innovative technology solutions, the industry’s most comprehensive database, and more than 50 years of experience and global leadership in an international information and consulting firm. ISG is based in Stamford, Connecticut with 21 locations worldwide and supports its customers in Germany, Switzerland and Austria through its locations in Frankfurt a. M., Kassel and Zurich.
About VSHN – The DevOps Company
VSHN AG is the leading Swiss partner for DevOps, Docker, Kubernetes, OpenShift and 24/7 Cloud Operations. VSHN helps software developers run their applications agile and 24/7 on any infrastructure while relieving the burden on IT operations. Since 2014, we are serving more than 900 servers in 20 different clouds as well as on-premises at customer locations with a total of more than 62’000 services for 300 different customers and partners. We are ISO 27001 certified and work to the strict FINMA guidelines to ensure the security and confidentiality of customer information at all times. With APPUiO.ch, we have created a Red Hat OpenShift based Swiss container platform, where we can offer Managed Services as a PaaS solution (Platform-as-a-Service) on any infrastructure: public, dedicated, private and on-premises. At VSHN, we believe in openness and transparency, so we let you decide where to store your data (we call this multi-cloud strategy). Either locally in your own data center (on-premise) or at a cloud provider location of your choice. Take a look at our services and learn more about our services and how we can possibly support you. Follow us on Twitter and don’t miss any news.
Markus Speth
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Study DevOps in Switzerland 2018 – participate until Nov 12!
26. Oct 2018
DevOps in Switzerland 2018 Study
Are Swiss companies DevOps ready? Two years after our first check on DevOps in Switzerland, it is time to look more closely on the current state and adoption of DevOps. We are conducting a study on the state of DevOps in Switzerland 2018. With this study, we want to examine how you and your company understand DevOps and whether you are already working with DevOps principles. The current state of DevOps, reasons for and against an introduction of the DevOps philosophy and where you think the trend is going.
Survey
The survey is open until November 12, 2018 and may of course be shared, forwarded and retweeted with others. You only need about 10 minutes. Click here for the survey and enjoy!
We will send each survey participant a (of course anonymised) report ‘DevOps in Switzerland 2018′ upon request. You will be asked for your email address at the end of the survey. Help us determine the current state of DevOps in Switzerland!
What is DevOps?
DevOps is not a fixed term and is often understood differently. Hiring a DevOps engineer does not automatically turn a company into a DevOps organization. Nor is DevOps synonymous with the use of certain tools or software. DevOps can not be ‘bought’ and DevOps is not a detached team within the organization. The cultural aspect should not be underestimated either – if corporate culture is not even the most important reason for a functioning DevOps organization.
Donovan Brown of Microsoft defines DevOps as follows: ‘DevOps is the union of people, process, and products to enable continuous delivery of value to our end users.’
The idea behind DevOps is that people work together in harmony and use processes and techniques to continuously benefit the end customer.
Our understanding of DevOps
DevOps is a common term, but unfortunately as vague as ‘Cloud’: Although everyone knows that he wants it or needs it and yet it is not something that you can just order and get delivered the next day. Our understanding of DevOps is the interdisciplinary cooperation between developers and operations of software in order to use applications quickly and systematically. Our article “What is DevOps – what does VSHN do?” (in German) explains our understanding of DevOps.
What do you think of DevOps? How do you apply DevOps in your company?
Take part in our study and tell us about your experience with DevOps and what role DevOps plays in your business.
We are very excited to see the results of the study. Thank you for the participation!
Markus Speth
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VSHN is Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) member
24. Oct 2018
VSHN is Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) member
We are happy to announce that we are now an official member of the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF).
Who is the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF)?
The Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) was founded in 2015 to promote containers. It was announced with Kubernetes 1.0, an open source container cluster manager, which was contributed to the foundation by Google as a seed technology. Founding members included Google, Twitter, Huawei, Intel, Cisco, IBM, Docker, Univa, and VMware. In order to establish qualified representatives of the technologies governed by the CNCF, a program was announced at the inaugural CloudNativeDay in Toronto in August, 2016. Serial entrepreneur Dan Kohn, who also helped launch CII, is the project’s current executive director. (source: Wikipedia) CNCF is an open source software foundation dedicated to making cloud native computing universal and sustainable. Cloud native computing uses an open source software stack to deploy applications as microservices, packaging each part into its own container, and dynamically orchestrating those containers to optimize resource utilization. Cloud native technologies enable software developers to build great products faster. CNCF is part of the Linux Foundation.
What does CNCF do?
The Cloud Native Computing Foundation builds sustainable ecosystems and fosters a community around a constellation of high-quality projects that orchestrate containers as part of a microservices architecture. CNCF serves as the vendor-neutral home for many of the fastest-growing projects on GitHub, including Kubernetes, fostering collaboration between the industry’s top developers, end users, and vendors. Please also have a look at our blog post “What is a Kubernetes distribution”.
What does Cloud Native mean?
Cloud native technologies empower organizations to build and run scalable applications in modern, dynamic environments such as public, private, and hybrid clouds. Containers, service meshes, microservices, immutable infrastructure, and declarative APIs exemplify this approach. These techniques enable loosely coupled systems that are resilient, manageable, and observable. Combined with robust automation, they allow engineers to make high-impact changes frequently and predictably with minimal toil. The Cloud Native Computing Foundation seeks to drive adoption of this paradigm by fostering and sustaining an ecosystem of open source, vendor-neutral projects. We democratize state-of-the-art patterns to make these innovations accessible for everyone.
Explanation of CNCF regarding the meaning of Cloud Native on Github.
VSHN Cloud Native Computing Meetups in Zurich
Among other things, VSHN supports the CNCF by organizing the Cloud Native Computing Meetups in Zurich. The dates for the next Meetups and other events can be found here.
VSHN sponsors KubeCon and CloudNativeCon 2019 in Barcelona
You also want to go to the KubeCon and CloudNativeCon 2019 in Barcelona? As a CNCF member we can offer you a 20% discount on the official ticket price – simply contact us via the contact form below and we will send you a discount code.
Markus Speth
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Release your applications faster and easier – move them to the cloud
27. Sep 2018
No matter where you work in the technical space of software development, you are probably in a hurry to launch the application that you are currently developing.
Your customers can’t wait – accelerate development
Time is money, and when you are on the verge of launching your next killer application time is a scarce resource. Your customers won’t wait forever, and you need to launch your applications as quickly as possible if you want to succeed in the fast-paced tech market. You might also be pushed internally to keep time to market as fast as possible. No time to build up internal resources, educate colleagues, gather know-how. You need to be faster than the competition. IT teams have to do more and more nowadays so the pressure is on to manage them smartly.
Common Problems With Launching Applications
The road to your application launch date can be a crooked one, with a lot of turns and even dead ends. This is why it is so important to quickly test each small improvement in one or more test environments before deploying it to the end-user visible production environment. The earlier an error in the application or environment is found the quicker and less effort you need to fix it. One of the most costly and time-consuming errors are differences between the testing and production environments. They result in the application behaving correctly during testing, but then suddenly misbehaving in production even though the same application version was deployed, and you don’t know what the differences are that lead to the problems. These problems can lead to error messages or catastrophic failures on public facing apps and long-term damage to your reputation. Another security-focused problem is to keep testing and production environments separate from each other to prevent faulty applications under test toruin real customer data. Instead of synchronizing dev/test/production environments manually and duplicate this labor for each step of the process you can automate your work using best practice cloud-based tools.
Why Should You Move Your Applications To The Cloud?
There may be many different reasons why you may be reluctant to move your application to the cloud. You may be used to the classical way of building and testing applicationsor fear the migration effort, or you might not have the internal know-how or resources. However, a well-prepared DevOps team leveraging the potential of the cloud can rapidly manage the deployment of applications without a substantial increase in either manpower or long-term costs. It can make it significantly easier to scale the application later in the process and provide access to helpful auxiliary services. Unifying the different environments using open-source Docker software container technology helps you leverage the world-wide ecosystem and experience. The more parts of the process that you can automate and integrate, the more efficiently you can build and launch your application.
Whitepaper ‘5 Steps Of Moving Your Applications Successfully To The Cloud’
Migrating to the cloud is a big business decision, so it’s vital to go in with both eyes open. Download our ‘5 Steps Of Moving Your Applications Successfully To The Cloud‘ whitepaper and find out how moving to cloud can help you meet your software and application development goals.
How Docker and container technology can help your DevOps organization
15. Sep 2018
DevOps needs three things: people with the right attitude, shared processes and the right tools. Docker software containers helps solve these challenges and offers a standardized platform for development and operation.
Container from the perspective of the developer
From a web agency perspective, each project places different demands on the target system, such as different versions of programming languages and frameworks. These combinations must be thoroughly tested during development through Continuous Integration (CI), which is time-consuming and prone to error with traditional systems. Container virtualization, for example with Docker, helps. Docker uses so-called images, compilations of software to launch individual instances of an app, called containers. Unlike traditional virtual machines, these images do not include an operating system and are therefore lighter and faster. Ideal for continuous integration. From the perspective of the software developer, it is easy to configure the pipelines with Docker, for example within GitLab CI. The image is specified and the runner takes care of everything else. The application is thus tested encapsulated and requires no additional software on the server.
Container from the perspective of the operator
Docker containers are a standardized and efficient way to package software with everything it needs to run. On the one hand, this helps to minimize external dependencies at runtime, so that the versions of PHP, Java etc. used in the correct version with all required modules, extensions and plugins are not yet to be managed separately on the server. On the other hand, a change of the application code is exactly the same as a change of the application server: a new version of the container image is automatically built and deployed in the test environment, then the same checked image can be rolled out in the production environment.
The Advantages of Standardizing the Software Containers are Analogous to the Containers in Logistics
Standardization makes containers more efficient: Just as a container ship transports 21’000 different containers with the same crew, a PaaS-provider can operate hundreds of thousands of containers on various customer infrastructures and cloud providers.
Containers standardize the handling of contents: in logistics, the pick-up points in the corners are exactly the same whether the contents are liquid, solid or gaseous. In software, entrypoint, list port and storage volumes are defined exactly the same, no matter whether PHP, Java or .NET Core should be executed.
Container technology is portable, so it works on all infrastructures and vendors just like any other means of transport.
The solution of software logistics is therefore called container orchestration and the most well-known implementation thereof is Kubernetes. It standardizes and automates software operations such as deployment / update, scaling, load-balancing, service discovery, storage volume management, monitoring, backup, distribution of containers to multiple servers and isolation of multiple applications, test environments, teams and / or customers.
So what does that mean for you – should you containerize your application?
There may be many different reasons why you may be reluctant to use Docker or container technology in general. You may be used to the classical way of building and testing applications using traditional VM technology or fear the migration effort, or you might not have the internal know-how or resources. Or you might have a legacy application which isn’t easily transferable or movable to the cloud. So should you jump on this bandwagon – or to stay with the same terminology – ship? A well-prepared DevOps team leveraging the potential of container technology can rapidly manage the deployment of applications without a substantial increase in either manpower or long-term costs. Moving your application to the cloud will be way easier using container technology like Docker, Kubernetes or OpenShift. It can also make it significantly easier to scale the application, provide access to helpful auxiliary services and just in general make it more future-proof. So if you are coming from a legacy application, it probably will pay off in the future to invest resources now to make your application container ready. Unifying the different environments using open-source Docker software container technology helps you leverage the world-wide ecosystem and experience. The more parts of the process that you can automate and integrate, the more efficiently you can build and launch your application.
Whitepaper ‘5 Steps Of Moving Your Applications Successfully To The Cloud’
If you want to learn more about migrating your applications to the cloud, download our free whitepaper ‘5 Steps Of Moving Your Applications Successfully To The Cloud‘ and find out how moving to the cloud can help you meet your software and application development goals.
VSHN from Zurich has won two major customers this year: the Australian Ministry of Finance and Opendata.swiss, the Swiss federal government’s open data portal. VSHN founder and CTO Aarno Aukia explains how the DevOps start-up was successful and how it can offer data center services without a data center.
Aarno Aukia: Wir haben VSHN vor vier Jahren gegründet, weil wir gesehen haben, dass sich der Hostingmarkt verändert und zwar insofern, dass sich Hardware und Softwaredienstleistungen im RZ voneinander entkoppeln. Die Hardware mit Servern, Netzwerk, Bandbreite, Rechenleistung, Storage etc. wird von Cloud- beziehungsweise RZ-Betreibern angeboten, und dann gibt es VSHN, die für die Kunden Betrieb, Überwachung, Skalierung und Back-ups von Software sicherstellt. Wir helfen also Softwareentwicklern, ihre Applikationen agil und 24/7 auf beliebiger Infrastruktur zu betreiben.
Warum ist das für Kunden interessant?
Beim Betrieb von Software aus einer Cloud war es bislang so, dass der Entwickler nicht nur entwickelte, sondern oft auch gleichzeitig noch für den Betrieb des Servers zuständig war und Support leisten musste, wenn der Server nicht mehr lief. Er war also quasi Architekt, Provider und Incident Manager in einer Person. Das sind drei Rollen, die eigentlich nicht zusammenpassen. Bei VSHN helfen wir den Kunden, sich auf die Entwicklung zu konzentrieren, und automatisieren alles andere. Wir bieten ihnen Flexibilität, Skalierbarkeit und Einfachheit, wie sie sie von Cloud-Providern kennen, wenn es darum geht, Rechenleistung und Storage zu beziehen. Bei uns beziehen sie stattdessen das Software-Hosting, ohne dass wir ein eigenes Rechenzentrum haben. Und damit sind wir meines Wissens momentan die Einzigen in der Schweiz.
Was für Kunden möchten mit Ihnen zusammenarbeiten?
Das ist vom Kundenprofil abhängig. Einige Kunden haben etwa eine öffentliche Website und sind auf Skalierbarkeit, Zuverlässigkeit und Sicherheit angewiesen. Wir sind ISO-27001-zertifiziert und haben damit bewiesen, dass wir mit Daten sicher umgehen. Wir haben deshalb auch Kunden aus dem Gesundheitswesen und aus dem Finanzumfeld. Was alle unsere Kunden vereint: Sie wollen die Zeit minimieren von der Idee für ein Softwareprojekt bis dieses in Produktion geht beziehungsweise veröffentlicht wird. Diesen Zeitraum kann man nur minimieren, wenn man den ganzen Prozess durchautomatisiert. Und den Prozess kann man nur durchautomatisieren, wenn man ein Interesse daran hat, dass der Prozess stabil, robust und schnell ist. Und genau das ist unser Kerngeschäft. Wir machen für unsere Kunden das “Ops” von DevOps.
Aber machen denn die IT-Abteilungen heutzutage nicht eh schon alle selbst DevOps?
Nein, das ist noch lange nicht so weit – und noch lange sind nicht alle so weit. In der Realität kämpfen viele IT-Abteilungen noch mit traditionellen IT-Modellen. Wer die Ops an uns auslagert, kann viel schneller als innerhalb eines traditionellen IT-Modells in Produktion gehen.
Wer sind Ihre Kunden?
Wir haben Kunden quer durch alle Branchen, von Retail über Banken und Versicherungen bis hin zur Gesundheitsbranche. Die Kunden vereint, dass es für sie geschäftskritisch ist, immer online zu sein. Ein grosser Schweizer Retailer etwa ist ein Kunde von uns. Er nutzt unsere Dienstleistungen, um die Performance seiner Website hochzufahren, wenn er seinen Aktions-Newsletter verschickt und schnell mal 2,5 Millionen User innert einer halben Stunde auf den Onlineshop zugreifen möchten. Dann muss die Website laufen. Und wir helfen ihnen dabei und zwar vollautomatisiert.
Vor Kurzem haben Sie das australische Finanzministerium als Kunde gewonnen. Wie kam es dazu, und welche Rolle spielt dabei Amazee.io?
Die australische Regierung machte eine Ausschreibung, weil sie für den Betrieb ihrer 180 Websites einen neuen Hoster suchten. Dazu muss man wissen, dass diese Websites mit GovCMS auf Drupal-Basis entwickelt wurden und es weltweit nur drei oder vier Hosting-Partner gibt, die alle nötigen Zertifizierungen und den entsprechenden Trackrecord haben, um solche Regierungswebsites zu betreiben. Einer dieser Hosting-Partner ist Amazee.io in Zürich. Sie erhielten zusammen mit der australischen Webagentur Salsa Digital im Februar den Zuschlag, die nächste Evolution des CMS aufzubauen, und VSHN wird die zugrunde liegende Openshift-Plattform betreiben, um einen reibungslosen und hochverfügbaren 24/7-Betrieb der Hosting-Plattform sicherzustellen. Und das Ganze läuft auf AWS.
Ein weiterer grosser Deal, den VSHN gewonnen hat, ist Opendata.swiss. Was bedeutet das für Sie?
Opendata.swiss ist das Portal der Schweizer Behörden für offene, das heisst frei verfügbare Daten. Das Portal ist ein integraler Teil der Open-Government-Data-Strategie Schweiz 2014-2018 des Schweizer Bundesrats und wir freuen uns natürlich sehr, dass wir mit unserem Angebot überzeugen konnten und die Ausschreibung gewonnen haben. Wir werden künftig sowohl den Servicebetrieb als auch den Support über den gesamten Leistungszeitraum der Linked Data Platform für Opendata.swiss sicherstellen und allfällige Beratungs- und Integrationsleistungen erbringen. Bund, Kantone, Gemeinden und weitere Organisationen mit einem staatlichen Auftrag, wie etwa SBB, veröffentlichen ihre offenen Daten auf Opendata.swiss. Das Portal vereint unterschiedlichste Datensätze wie beispielsweise die Gemeindegrenzen der Schweiz, Bevölkerungsstatistiken, aktuelle Wetterdaten, historische Dokumente oder ein Verzeichnis der Schweizer Literatur. Gemeinsam ist den Datensätzen, dass sie alle kostenlos heruntergeladen und weiterverwendet werden können. Softwareseitig wird Stardog eingesetzt werden, eine Enterprise-Knowledge-Graph-Software. Betrieben wird Opendata.swiss bei Exoscale in Crissier.
Das sind beeindruckende Erfolge für ein Jungunternehmen. Was treibt Sie an? Sie haben ja schon einige Start-ups gegründet.
Ja, das stimmt. Das ist nicht meine erste Firma. Ich musste auch Lehrgeld zahlen, konnte aber schon viel Erfahrung sammeln. Mein erstes Informatikprojekt war in der 5. Klasse in der Primarschule, ein Netzwerk zusammenzulöten. Und später hatte ich parallel zum Gymnasium ein eigenes Unternehmen für Veranstaltungstechnik. Da lernte ich, mit Kunden umzugehen und auch mit Zeitdruck. Denn wenn am Freitagabend ein Konzert ist, öffnet der Konzertsaal um 21.00 Uhr, und die Gäste kommen herein, egal, ob wir mit allem fertig sind oder nicht. Nach dem Studium an der ETH musste ich mich dann auf etwas konzentrieren und entschied mich für die Informatik. Wir gründeten eine Firma, die sich auf RZ-Dienstleistungen spezialisierte, und merkten nach einigen Jahren, dass dieser Bereich ein Klotz am Bein ist. Und so konzentrierten wir uns auf den Bereich, in dem wir heute unterwegs sind.
Warum reizt es Sie so, Start-ups zu gründen?
Ich finde es einfach extrem vielseitig, in einem Start-up zu arbeiten. Ich habe grossen Spass daran, etwas Neues aufzubauen und schätze auch die Freiheit enorm, die das Unternehmertum mit sich bringt. Das kombiniert damit, dass ich all die coolen Menschen auswählen kann, mit denen ich zusammenarbeiten möchte, ist einfach toll. Ich kann mir auch die Kunden aussuchen. Es gibt in der Schweiz so tolle Unternehmen, die einfach einen enormen Drive haben und mit Passion und Energie bei der Sache sind, dass es für mich eine Riesenmotivation ist, mit ihnen etwas Tolles auf die Beine zu stellen. Und auch die konstante Veränderung meiner Firma und meiner eigenen Aufgaben und Verantwortung finde ich sehr spannend. Es wird mir nie langweilig. In den vier Jahren mit VSHN hat sich mein Job schon mehrfach geändert. Ich bin ja Engineer. Meine Passion ist es, neue Probleme zu lösen. Und das kann ich hier jeden Tag. Auch wenn es immer mehr unternehmerische Probleme statt technische sind.
Wie finden Sie denn in Zeiten des oft zitierten Fachkräftemangels die gut ausgebildeten, coolen Leute, mit denen Sie zusammenarbeiten möchten?
Wir haben den grossen Vorteil, dass wir eine Open-Source-Company sind. Es ist uns wichtig, transparent zu zeigen, was wir tun und wie wir das tun. Diese Open-Source-Philosophie hilft uns nicht nur im Kontakt mit möglichen Kunden, sondern auch beim Rekrutieren. Man kann in unsere Projekte reinschauen und die Leute sehen, dass wir cooles, spannendes Zeug machen. Das verursacht einen Sog, der die guten Leute und die guten Kunden anzieht.
Ist es schwierig für Sie, als Start-up in der Schweiz das Kapital zu finden, um schnell genug zu wachsen?
Nicht für uns. Wir haben uns entschieden, dass wir keinen Investor suchen, sondern den Aufbau von VSHN zur Produktfirma aus dem Projektgeschäft finanzieren. Als wir vor vier Jahren anfingen, haben wir 100 Prozent Betriebsprozessentwicklung, Customizing etc. für Kunden gemacht und 0 Prozent monatlich wiederkehrende Einnahmen aus Serviceprodukten generiert. Heute sind wir bei über 64 Prozent monatlich wiederkehrenden Serviceprodukteinnahmen angekommen und generieren nur noch 36 Prozent aus dem Projektgeschäft. Und das ist eine Entwicklung, die weitergeht. Wir sind für einen Investor vielleicht auch nicht so attraktiv, weil wir nicht die nächste Billion-Dollar-Company sind. Deshalb sind wir bis auf ein kleines Darlehen selbstfinanziert, das wir für die Sicherstellung der Löhne in den ersten 12 Monaten zur Verfügung hatten. Aber wir mussten dieses nicht einmal ausschöpfen, da wir schon nach 6 Monaten einen positiven Cashflow hatten.
Also gibt es keine Exit-Strategie?
Nein. Wir verfolgen eine langfristige Strategie. Die ganzen Services muss man einmal entwickeln und dann generieren sie monatlich wiederkehrende Erträge. Dieses Geschäftsmodell lohnt sich erst nach einigen Jahren. Wir sind nun seit 4 Jahren unterwegs und machen das mindestens noch 10 weitere Jahre und noch länger. Unser Ziel ist es, nachhaltiges Wachstum für unser Unternehmen zu generieren.
This year’s Red Hat Forum was again a great success. We would like to thank the organizers and our partners, for many great discussions and look forward to the next year!
Here are a few impressions of the Red Hat Forum 2018 in the Arena Sihlcity in Zurich:
Keynotes Red Hat, SBB and Vorwerk
Breakout Session with APPUiO, AdCubum and Helsana
In breakout session 2, our partners Matthias Summer (Adcubum) and Thomas Philipona (Puzzle ITC) described how Adcubum will revolutionize the insurance industry with the Swiss container platform APPUiO.
VSHN and Puzzle ITC at the APPUiO booth
See you next year!
About APPUiO
With APPUiO.ch, we created the Swiss container platform based on Red Hat OpenShift, where we provide managed services on a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) on any infrastructure: public, dedicated, private and on-premises. Reliable open source concepts such as Docker and Kubernetes allow you to develop, operate and scale your application according to your needs. With APPUiO, your applications can be operated both on public clouds as well as on in-house data centers. The platform was originally built by the two IT specialists Puzzle ITC and VSHN AG to professionalize internal IT. Today, APPUiO is already used in production by several customers and supported by a strong community.
Markus Speth
Marketing, Communications, People
Latest news
General
Open Source
Sovereignty
Open Source as State Policy: What the EU Strategy and the Swiss Ständerat Vote Mean for IT Decision-Makers
VSHN in the top 10 of the fastest growing Swiss ICT companies
3. Sep 2018
VSHN has made it into the top 10 of Switzerland’s fastest-growing ICT companies in the Computerworld Top 500 2018 edition.
With a revenue growth of 55% compared to the previous year, we came in 6th, which makes us very happy but also strengthens our strategy as a Swiss DevOps startup, to help companies and software developers with our innovative approach and our technology set such as Docker, Kubernetes and OpenShift to run their applications agile and 24/7 on any infrastructure. The rapid growth is likely to repeat itself this year – today only we are welcoming 3 new VSHNeers. 🙂
VSHN: booming DevOps startup
Computerworld Top 500 ICT Companies in Switzerland 2018
This year’s edition of the Computerworld Top 500 bears the title ‘Swiss ICT with record growth’ with record sales made by Swiss ICT companies. Important topics this year include skills shortages, blockchain and crypto fever, how young women can be inspired for ICT professions and how the digital transformation also drives the IT providers themselves. The Computerworld Top 500 2018 can be ordered here.
About VSHN – The DevOps Company
VSHN AG is the leading Swiss partner for DevOps, Docker, Kubernetes, OpenShift and 24/7 Cloud Operations. VSHN helps software developers run their applications agile and 24/7 on any infrastructure while relieving the burden on IT operations. Since 2014, we are serving more than 900 servers in 20 different clouds as well as on-premises at customer locations with a total of more than 62’000 services for 300 different customers and partners. We are ISO 27001 certified and work to the strict FINMA guidelines to ensure the security and confidentiality of customer information at all times. With APPUiO.ch, we have created a Red Hat OpenShift based Swiss container platform, where we can offer Managed Services as a PaaS solution (Platform-as-a-Service) on any infrastructure: public, dedicated, private and on-premises. At VSHN, we believe in openness and transparency, so we let you decide where to store your data (we call this multi-cloud strategy). Either locally in your own data center (on-premise) or at a cloud provider location of your choice. Take a look at our services and learn more about our services and how we can possibly support you. Follow us on Twitter and don’t miss any news.
Markus Speth
Marketing, Communications, People
Latest news
General
Open Source
Sovereignty
Open Source as State Policy: What the EU Strategy and the Swiss Ständerat Vote Mean for IT Decision-Makers
