VSHN Acquires APPUiO from Puzzle and Develops It Further as an Expert Hosting Solution
10. Jul 2024
Zurich/Bern, July 10, 2024
The History of APPUiO
In 2016, VSHN and Puzzle ITC jointly founded APPUiO. Marketed as APPUiO – Swiss Container Platform, the project appuio.ch has grown steadily over the years.
Puzzle and VSHN invested heavily in the brand, products, services, and joint marketing presence. Many success stories were written, and numerous satisfied clients, such as Adcubum, Die Post, and Mobiliar, were gained. We are very grateful for this success and thank everyone who shares our vision of the power of collaboration.
Change and Clarity for Customers
The APPUiO offering has significantly evolved over the years, sometimes leading to confusion.
Previously, APPUiO was divided into APPUiO Cloud and APPUiO Managed (both offered by VSHN) and APPUiO Self-Managed (offered by Puzzle). Both VSHN with their managed services business and Puzzle with their service business aim to further strengthen their areas of expertise and optimize their offerings in the future.
To provide clarity, VSHN has acquired the brand rights for APPUiO from Puzzle. In the future, the APPUiO brand will only encompass the existing APPUiO Cloud product.
What Does This Mean for You?
For you, nothing essential changes. All products and services remain unchanged, and your customer relationships with Puzzle or VSHN will stay the same.
Focusing on One Solution
In the future, APPUiO will exclusively be the APPUiO Cloud product, which will be renamed to APPUiO.
APPUiO (formerly APPUiO Cloud) is our Kubernetes Namespace-as-a-Service offering, based on Red Hat OpenShift, designed to be expert hosting for experienced software engineers. APPUiO provides instant access to a fully managed, ready-to-use Red Hat OpenShift cluster within minutes. Focus on your application instead of setting up or managing your cluster, and bring your ideas to production effortlessly. APPUiO offers the following features:
Ready to Use: Get your own OpenShift namespace within minutes.
Pay per Use: Only pay for the resources you use. See our price model.
Multi-Cloud: Available in various availability zones, such as Cloudscale and Exoscale.
Swissness: Available in Swiss data centers, also ISO27001 certified and operated according to FINMA regulations.
Security: Benefit from SELinux, Isovalent Enterprise for Cilium, two-factor authentication, Let’s Encrypt, and regular security updates.
APPUiO Managed will be renamed to VSHN Managed OpenShift. VSHN Managed OpenShift offers private, dedicated Kubernetes clusters on various clouds and on-premises. VSHN provides and maintains the OpenShift cluster throughout its lifecycle and ensures that VSHN-provided tools are available to platform users. VSHN Managed OpenShift clusters offer a production-ready Kubernetes environment for users’ applications.
APPUiO Self-Managed: Puzzle will continue to offer all previous self-managed services under the Puzzle brand. If you want to build your own container platform but lack the necessary know-how or capacity, Puzzle can help. Puzzle supports you in planning, building, and operating your container platform. Additionally, they train your developers on how to best use it.
Stronger Partnership and Future Plans
Puzzle and VSHN have agreed to use this initiative to optimize both companies’ product and service portfolios and to intensify their partnership. Puzzle will continue to offer APPUiO to its customers when software development experts need expert hosting.
This change allows both companies to better utilize their strengths and continue to be successful together in the future.
We will continue to drive initiatives together to show the world what is possible with Kubernetes and Cloud Native! One of our upcoming joint efforts will be the Cloud Native Computing Meetup on 22 August 2024, at the Puzzle & Isovalent offices in Zurich. We would be very happy to welcome you there. Come by!
If you have any questions or need more information, we look forward to hearing from you.
VSHN is in the Top 10 Managed Cloud Platforms in the Swiss Digital Ranking
26. Jun 2024
Source: Netzmedien AG
The new Swiss Digital Ranking by Netzmedien
Innovation and ICT are essential for the Swiss economy. The digital sector is therefore very lively, as the comprehensive new Swiss Digital Ranking market study by Netzmedien shows.
In addition to large international companies, the Swiss IT sector consists mainly of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). According to Netzmedien, typical IT companies have around 50 employees and an annual turnover of CHF 13 million.
The rise of online services and IT-as-a-service has given rise to many local cloud providers and service providers that help companies move to and from cloud environments. Artificial intelligence and new data analysis techniques are expanding the role of IT in companies and giving rise to specialized providers. Successful business models are often the result of a regional or industry-specific focus. As IT is becoming increasingly important for Swiss companies, they can count on a diverse and innovative local IT sector.
VSHN places directly in the Top 10 Managed Cloud Platform
In the Managed Cloud Platform segment ranking, VSHN was able to establish itself directly in the Top 10 with 8th place, which of course makes us very happy:
VSHN in den Top 25 der Outsourcing & Managed Services
VSHN was also able to establish itself in the Top 25 in the Outsourcing & Managed Services sector ranking with 24th place:
Swiss Digital Ranking 2024 by Netzmedien
The new “Swiss Digital Ranking” from Netzmedien provides an overview of the most important IT companies in the country. Once in the large overall ranking and in 13 sector rankings. The ICT landscape in the Principality of Liechtenstein is also depicted in the special. Also in the magazine: interviews with those responsible for digitalization in both countries, Federal Councillor Karin Keller-Sutter and Liechtenstein’s Prime Minister Daniel Risch. The designated Swico CEO Jon Fanzun talks about his plans for the association. A survey of the web media also shows which trends and challenges are shaping the Swiss digital industry.
Source: Netzmedien AG
Markus Speth
Marketing, People, Strategy
Latest news
Tech
Announcing General Availability of PostgreSQL by VSHN – On OpenShift
A New Era at VSHN: Redefining Leadership in Self-Organization Without a Management Team
24. Jun 2024
Zurich, June 24, 2024
At VSHN, we are ushering in an exciting new chapter by moving beyond traditional top-level management. We are convinced that without a centralized management team, we can better serve our customers and improve our employees’ work environment. Instead of a traditional hierarchy, management responsibilities are seamlessly distributed among the roles and teams directly involved in daily operations and customer interactions. By dissolving the already largely unused “management team” structure, we are not just eliminating C-level titles or renaming roles; we are fundamentally fostering our self-organization. To fully understand this natural next step, it’s essential to understand VSHN’s roots, values and culture.
What Is Self-Organization – and Why Would You Want It?
Self-organization is an umbrella term for various practices, structures, and how individuals act and collaborate. It creates an environment within an organization where people and teams work semi-autonomously and make decisions in the organization’s interest without central or top-down authority. This makes the organization more flexible and adaptable, as things happen right where they should – at the front. In today’s volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous world, this is a key quality for a company.
Self-organization primarily builds on people acting out of self-responsibility, supported by the practices and structures in place. Decision-making (both operational and governance) is distributed at the points where specific knowledge, direct experience, and often the “pain” of issues are, which usually results in more efficient and targeted problem-solving and execution and brings the “buy-in” of those who are affected by decisions. A highly valued practice is that decisions are not made by individuals in positions of power but through a process that seeks objections (arguments) rather than consensus, aiming to integrate what we learn from these objections to improve a proposal for solving a commonly understood problem. A common misconception is the attempt to please everyone and that everyone must have a say; however, this is usually neither in the organization’s interest nor efficient enough.
Roles and responsibilities within the organization are usually clearly defined, yet there are few to no fixed hierarchies, as seen in traditional organizational structures. The organization often resembles a network of teams and roles through which responsibilities and functions are clarified.
All this promotes the participation of all members and enhances engagement and a sense of co-responsibility. Continuous improvement based on regular feedback from stakeholders and peers is also a vital aspect of self-organization, with participants encouraged to question and adjust structures and processes as necessary. In addition to the resulting distributed, non-hierarchical responsibilities, distributed leadership is another key feature, where leadership is exercised situationally and based on specific expertise rather than through formal authority in “leadership positions” – those with the interest (the tension) to make something happen drive it forward. This is often described as “leadership in every chair.”
The number of companies that rely on self-organization is growing rapidly. We are in contact with many other organizations to share knowledge and learn from each other. Some of the following examples are heavily based on self-organized teams and roles and supporting practices:
VSHN has always functioned differently from traditional hierarchical organizations. Initially, with fewer than 20 people, decisions were made collaboratively at one physical, on-site table. As the company grew, complex challenges impacted structure, strategic direction, and bigger product decisions. Initially, as we didn’t know better, we handled them in the management team, a handful of people deciding – a traditional approach that soon showed its limits as VSHNeers felt disconnected from decision-making and, on some decisions, didn’t try to follow through.
We needed something that was flexible, not a rigid framework, and that also aligned with our identity, culture and values. VSHN’s company values emphasize positivity, effectiveness, integrity, curiosity, transparency, and accountability. They foster a high-trust environment where team members are encouraged to be optimistic, goal-oriented, honest, open to learning, and are driving things and acting out of self-responsibility. Our values aim to create a collaborative culture that supports personal growth and organizational success.
To address this, we began experimenting with patterns from Sociocracy 3.0 (S3) for decision-making and clarifying team responsibilities through explicit domain descriptions. This shift wasn’t a transition from hierarchy to self-organization; it was and still is more about cultivating our ways of working at a bigger scale and becoming more mature as a business organization.
Today, VSHN operates through self-organizing and self-governing value stream teams focused on creating and delivering the actual customer value, supported by teams and roles like People, Finance, Sales, Marketing, Customer Account Management, Customer Support, and Internal IT & Information Security. Until recently, we maintained a “General Manager” role, viewed as a safety net for overarching issues. However, this often led to a disconnect, as Markus and Marco, in that role, were too far from day-to-day operations, leading to unmet expectations and VSHNeers who felt unheard.
We realized that acting out of our “management hat” was more of a hindrance than a help. So we started to collaborate and not act out of management anymore. An extreme example came at the end of 2023, during a tight financial situation, while framed as a management effort, it was actually a collaborative effort involving many VSHNeers and the owners of VSHN to propose measures and make the tough, necessary decisions. This experience showed that the “management hat” was likely unnecessary and counterproductive. Still, for the management members themselves, the situation wasn’t easy, still being an escalation point for all sorts of challenges and being squeezed within “management decides too much” vs. “management decides too little” – even though we didn’t decide at all (arguments decided, we involved affected people). What contributed to that is the idea behind VSHN´s organization, that responsibility is distributed and no one should take the responsibility for others – this is also reflected in our current salary system and the new one we’re creating at the moment, no one gets more to “bear more responsibility”. We don’t believe in getting more money to “bear a burden” or “catch the blame.”
What is changing?
Although it may seem significant that we will no longer have General Managers or a “Management Team”, the impact on our day-to-day operations is likely minimal. There wasn’t even much surprise when we announced this change company-wide; VSHNeers understand that their daily responsibilities remain largely unchanged. For most, it feels like “just making explicit what is already reality.”
However, two major aspects are evolving. Firstly, the traditional safety net provided by management roles will be removed. The people in Finance, Strategy Execution, Organizational Development, Product/Marketing, and Customer Relations, who already share responsibilities, will need to navigate and drive complex situations and strategic decisions themselves. Since these teams are accustomed to collaborating and self-organizing, we are confident in their ability to manage these challenges – and it’s mostly the same people. Markus and Marco will be in many of these roles and keep acting out of our self-responsibility.
Legally, the responsibility shifts as well, but with likely minimal to no impact on the organization. The board of the privately owned company currently delegated management to “General Managers” within VSHN, this delegation will cease, placing overall legal responsibility back to the board. However, within the VSHN organization, the board has no direct relevance; the board’s role will be to observe and intervene, if necessary, if the organization fails in some aspects. Signing authorities within VSHN will remain unchanged, with several VSHNeers holding joint signing rights.
The real change lies in our personal mindset and behavior, starting with the former members of management and the owners. We must focus on supporting the VSHNeers and our collaboration while ensuring responsibility remains with those best positioned to handle them – if we own and solve issues for them, how can they own and learn how to drive things? By doing so, we further foster our culture of distributed responsibility and enable former management members to contribute effectively without the mantle of management.
Why should I care about this evolution?
The majority of the business world still works differently; that’s fine. How can you benefit from how VSHN works?
As a customer or partner of VSHN, you willbenefit directly from our operational structure. Our engineers, sales, and account management teams can swiftly make significant decisions because the decision-making resides with those directly handling your projects, requests, or incidents. This means faster responses and solutions without the need for traditional hierarchical escalations. Even though our organizational structure intentionally lacks C-level titles, our processes ensure quick and effective decision-making.
As a (Potential) Employee: At VSHN, you are more than just part of the team; you are the organization. Everyone is treated as an equivalent contributor, focusing on collaborative problem-solving that benefits the organization and aligns with our goals. Our culture is purpose-driven and inclusive, placing decision-making power where the “pain” and most direct experience and understanding of the issues lie. Whether it’s about how much you work from home or in the office or project directions, you don’t need to seek approval from a higher authority; it’s about what makes sense for VSHN, figuring it out collectively.
Reflecting Our DevOps Philosophy: At VSHN, our approach mirrors the core principles of DevOps: “You build it, you run it.” This ethos extends beyond our technical operations to encompass our organizational structure. By shifting the power to influence decisions to those at the forefront – whether in development or operations – we eliminate the need for centralized authority. This structure ensures that those directly involved in the work have the autonomy to make decisions, fostering a proactive, responsive environment that mirrors the dynamic field of DevOps itself.
Final thoughts
At VSHN, we’ve embraced a path that deviates from traditional hierarchical models, a journey nearly a decade in the making. This approach isn’t just about keeping up with trends – it’s about creating an environment where flexibility and direct accountability enhance customer service and empower our team.
While we’re not alone in adopting self-organized practices – many large companies integrate similar strategies in some capacity – we believe our method suits our unique needs and culture. Challenges arise, as in any dynamic setting, but our practices allow us to address them agilely.
What about your organization? How are you adapting to the evolving demands of today’s business world? We’re eager to learn from others and share our experiences. Join us at upcoming meetups, or reach out for a chat. Let’s explore how we can all grow through innovative organizational approaches.
About VSHN
VSHN – The DevOps Company is Switzerland’s leading partner for DevOps, Container, and Kubernetes. VSHN (pronounced like “vision”) was founded to shake up the hosting market fundamentally. As a lean startup, we have focused on operating IT platforms through automation, agility, and a continuous improvement process. Completely location-independent and without our own hardware, we operate extensive applications according to the DevOps principle of agile and 24/7 on every infrastructure so that software developers can concentrate on their business and IT operations are relieved. Find out more on vshn.ch.
AppCat Now Standard on All APPUiO Managed OpenShift Clusters on Exoscale
27. Feb 2024
We’re excited to bring you a feature that has long been requested by our users. AppCat, the powerful application catalog and service marketplace, will now be included by default on all APPUiO Managed OpenShift clusters hosted on Exoscale.
This means that you can seamlessly access and utilize AppCat services without the need for any additional installations or configurations. With AppCat readily available on your APPUiO Managed OpenShift clusters, you can accelerate your application deployment, scale your services, and streamline your workflow without any friction.
Elevating Accessibility
Our aim has always been to make AppCat more accessible to our customers. While the services offered by AppCat have been available through the CLI and the OpenShift console, we recognized the need to simplify the process. Now, with AppCat pre-installed, you can access it with ease, reducing the time and effort required to get started.
Whether you are a seasoned developer or just starting your journey with OpenShift, this enhancement will help you out. It eliminates the barriers and complexities, ensuring that you can fully harness the power of AppCat right from the moment you start using APPUiO.
How to Get Started
Getting started with AppCat on APPUiO is easy. For existing users, you’ll find the catalog readily available on your OpenShift clusters hosted on Exoscale. If you’re new to APPUiO or AppCat, our Getting Started Guide provides a comprehensive walkthrough to help you explore the world of AppCat and get the most out of its services.
We’re excited about the possibilities this feature unlocks for you and look forward to your feedback as you explore its benefits.
Try it Today!
Experience the enhanced accessibility and convenience of AppCat on APPUiO Managed OpenShift clusters on Exoscale. If you have any questions or need assistance, our team is here to help.
Annie Talvasto
Annie Talvasto is Marketing and Public Relations Lead at VSHN.
Latest news
Tech
Announcing General Availability of PostgreSQL by VSHN – On OpenShift
Exciting news for our team and the Crossplane community! We’re thrilled to announce that VSHN is now one of the two official partners of Crossplane, as recognized on their community page, and the only one in EMEA.
Crossplane is an open-source project that has been transforming the way we think about cloud-native computing. It’s not just a tool; it’s a whole new approach to managing cloud resources, with a focus on infrastructure as code and Kubernetes.
Here at VSHN, we’ve been early adopters and advocates of Crossplane. Our journey with Crossplane has been incredible, filled with challenges, learning, and a lot of successes. Our team’s expertise in handling Crossplane in live environments has been acknowledged, and we’re proud to be a part of this vibrant community.
In particular, we are fond Crossplane users for our AppCat product, with which our customers can self-service themselves with databases, message brokers, and storage buckets. For one of our private customers in the telecommunications sector, we run and manage 1500 database clusters with Crossplane.
This partnership is not just a milestone for us but a testament to our commitment to the Crossplane project and the broader cloud-native ecosystem. We’re excited to continue contributing our knowledge and experience to help the Crossplane community grow.
As we embrace this new chapter, we’re looking forward to more collaborations, innovations, and of course, to help you take advantage of Crossplane for your own deployments and applications.
Tobias Brunner
Tobias Brunner is working since over 20 years in IT and more than 15 years with Internet technology. New technology has to be tried and written about.
Latest news
Tech
Announcing General Availability of PostgreSQL by VSHN – On OpenShift
Celebrating Collaboration and Innovation: VSHN at Red Hat Summit Connect Zurich 2024
29. Jan 2024
January 17th, 2024, was a remarkable day in the bustling city of Zurich, as it hosted the Red Hat Summit Connect Zürich 2024. VSHN AG, staying true to its commitment to fostering partnerships in the Cloud Native world, proudly participated as one of the Silver sponsors of this prestigious event.
The Red Hat Summit Connect in Zurich brought together enthusiasts, experts, and pioneers in the field of cloud computing and open-source technology. At VSHN, we understand the importance of such collaborations, and our participation in this event underscores our dedication to staying at the forefront of technological advancements. Partnering with Red Hat, a trailblazer in the industry, aligns perfectly with our ethos of embracing cutting-edge solutions for our clients.
The event was a melting pot of ideas and innovations, showcasing the latest trends and advancements in cloud technology. As a company passionate about Cloud Native, we at VSHN were excited to be part of an event that not only celebrates technological achievements but also looks forward to the future of the industry.
To share the essence of this event with our community, we have published a short video on our YouTube channel. This video captures the energy, the atmosphere, and the key announcements of the Summit. We invite you to experience the event through our lens, to feel the vibe, and to understand the impact of such gatherings in shaping the future of cloud computing.
We believe in the power of community and the strength of partnerships. Participating in the Red Hat Summit Connect was not just an opportunity for us to showcase our solutions but also a chance to learn, to connect, and to grow. As we continue our journey in the dynamic world of Cloud Native computing, we carry with us the insights and inspirations from this event, ready to implement and share them with our clients and partners.
And we’re also happy to be part of the Red Hat One event starting today in Vienna!
Markus Speth
Marketing, People, Strategy
Latest news
Tech
Announcing General Availability of PostgreSQL by VSHN – On OpenShift
VSHN has a long commitment to the values and mission of the Cloud Native Computing Foundation. This relationship stretches almost a decade back, and has had a few major milestones.
Our CMO, Annie Talvasto, is a world renowned CNCF Ambassador and speaker. She has just returned from Chicago, where she was one of the speakers at the last KubeCon + CloudNativeCon North America 2023.
Finally, we have attended and even sponsored KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe in the past: 2017, 2019, and 2023.
Today, we are pleased (and thrilled!) to report that our co-founder and CTO, Tobias Brunner, has been selected by the conference co-chairs as a Program Committee Member for KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe 2024 in the “Platform Engineering” track! As part of this new role, Tobias will be responsible for selecting the talks of the track, and coordinating with the event organizers.
We look forward to meeting you in Paris in March for a new edition of KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe, and in particular, at the Platform Engineering track. See you there!
Adrian Kosmaczewski
Adrian Kosmaczewski is in charge of Developer Relations at VSHN. He is a software developer since 1996, a trainer, and a published author. Adrian holds a Master in Information Technology from the University of Liverpool.
Latest news
Tech
Announcing General Availability of PostgreSQL by VSHN – On OpenShift
Introducing gepardec-run: Your 24/7 Hassle-Free Application Management Solution, powered by VSHN
6. Oct 2023
Collaboration between Gepardec, VSHN, and Exoscale
We are excited to announce a collaboration that brings together the best of three worlds—Gepardec, VSHN, and Exoscale—to offer you a solution for hassle-free application management and operations: gepardec-run, powered by VSHN. This service is designed to change the way you manage and operate your containerized applications, giving you the peace of mind you deserve.
The Challenge: Your Applications, Our Expertise
You’ve invested in developing containerized individual software, and the concept of DevOps sounds promising. However, the operational aspect of DevOps can be a daunting task, one that developers often prefer to avoid. The round-the-clock responsibility can be taxing.
gepardec-run, powered by VSHN, transforms this scenario by providing professional 24/7 technical support for your applications and container platform, all bundled into one package. The best part? You don’t need to be an expert in OpenShift or Kubernetes.
The Hurdles We Help You Overcome
24/7 Application Availability: You must ensure your applications are available 24/7 to keep your operations running smoothly.
Lack of Internal Readiness: Your team might not be prepared for the 24/7 cloud operation, and acquiring the necessary expertise can be challenging.
Outdated CI/CID Environments: you may have outdated build and deployment environments which make cloud-native development difficult for you.
Lack of Knowledge: Navigating the complexities of container platforms can be overwhelming, making it difficult to make the right technology choices.
Cloud-Native Technology Landscape: The cloud-native technology landscape is vast and intricate, making it challenging to select the right tools.
Resource and Time Demands: Implementing and maintaining CI/CD, platform, and observability can be resource-intensive and time-consuming.
Our Services and Your Benefit: Hassle-Free Application Operation
gepardec-run, powered by VSHN, offers an array of services to tackle these challenges head-on:
24/7 Technical Operation: We take the responsibility of keeping your applications up and running on our Red Hat OpenShift platform, provided by VSHN.
Test Environments at your Fingertips: Access pre-configured environments quickly with a few clicks or automatically based on feature branches.
DevOps Environment Out-Of-The-Box: we provide a selection of state-of-the-art tools that work together seamlessly.
Collaborative DevOps: We join forces with your DEV team to enhance your application operations continually.
Predictable Costs: Say goodbye to budget surprises.
Compliance: The cooperation between Gepardec, VSHN, and Exoscale provides a reliable and secure data processing platform in the DACH region,
For more information on how gepardec-run can transform your application operations, visit gepardec-run.
We’re excited to embark on this journey with you, making application management simpler, more efficient, and hassle-free. Stay tuned for more updates and insights from Gepardec, VSHN, and Exoscale as we continue to innovate together.
Together, we run your applications, so you don’t have to.
VSHN provides professional 24/7 technical support for your applications and container platform, all bundled into one package. The best part? You don’t need to be an expert in OpenShift or Kubernetes. Trust VSHN to provide the expertise, guidance, and hands-on engineering needed to propel your online business forward. VSHN is committed to building customized full solutions to ensure your business runs reliably around the clock.
Exoscale provides a secure and scalable cloud infrastructure (data center, CPU, RAM, networking, storage) with robust data protection features, ensuring your data and applications are always safe and accessible. Exoscale’s data centers in multiple regions offer low-latency access to your applications and data, no matter where your users are located, ensuring a seamless experience.
Gepardec’s focus is on the development of enterprise-specific software solutions as well as consulting in the areas of cloud, integration, and automation. So that people use better software.
Annie Talvasto
Annie Talvasto is Marketing and Public Relations Lead at VSHN.
Latest news
Tech
Announcing General Availability of PostgreSQL by VSHN – On OpenShift
VSHN climbs 14 positions in the Computerworld 500 ranking in 2023!
20. Sep 2023
We’re delighted to discover that VSHN has once again improved its position on the Computerworld 500 Ranking. This list showcases the biggest IT companies in Switzerland since 1997.
This year, we’ve climbed from the 378th to the 364th position.
Get your copy of the 2023 Computerworld 500 ranking now!
Adrian Kosmaczewski
Adrian Kosmaczewski is in charge of Developer Relations at VSHN. He is a software developer since 1996, a trainer, and a published author. Adrian holds a Master in Information Technology from the University of Liverpool.
Latest news
Tech
Announcing General Availability of PostgreSQL by VSHN – On OpenShift
VSHN is Red Hat Premier CCSP Partner in Switzerland
23. Nov 2022
Zurich, 22.11.22 VSHN is Red Hat Premier CCSP Partner in Switzerland.
VSHN is very pleased to announce that we have been named the first Red Hat Premier CCSP Business Partner in Switzerland as part of the Red Hat Certified Cloud and Service Provider (CCSP) program. This provides customers and independent software vendors (ISVs) with greater confidence in building their next-generation IT projects with Red Hat solutions. As a Red Hat Premier Business Partner, VSHN has demonstrated that we are a competent business partner with a significant focus on Red Hat-related projects. Red Hat Premier Business Partners are well trained and committed to working closely with Red Hat on business opportunities.
This recognition of VSHN as a Red Hat Premier Business Partner within the Red Hat Certified Cloud and Service Provider Program underscores its close collaboration with Red Hat and its partner ecosystem to provide impactful solutions and cloud services to organizations in the region.
Red Hat OpenShift helps support VSHN’s Kubernetes First Strategy and product portfolio. With VSHN AppOps, VSHN offers a best-matching hosting environment for applications by combining VSHN expertise and best practices with products like VSHN AppFlow, APPUiO Managed, APPUiO Cloud and services from the VSHN Application Catalog. With APPUiO Cloud, VSHN offers a first instant on, pay per use, self service and multi cloud product that follows the approach of Namespace-as-a-Service based on Red Hat OpenShift. APPUiO Cloud provides instant access to a shared, fully-managed, ready to use Red Hat OpenShift clusters in just a few minutes, so customers can more easily bring ideas into production by focusing on applications rather than setting up or managing clusters. APPUiO Cloud is designed for Cloud Native App Development, MVP, DevOps & CI/CD Pipelines, Machine Learning, Production App Hosting, Mobile App Backends and much more. Customers can try APPUiO Cloud for free and find more details are available here.
Cloud provider models have expanded beyond multi-tenant public clouds to include private cloud build-outs, Linux container-based infrastructure and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) solutions, and the Red Hat Certified Cloud and Service Provider program was created to offer additional flexibility to help solution providers better meet customer needs for cloud-based Red Hat technologies. By using a Red Hat Certified Cloud and Service Provider, customers and partners using custom-developed or third-party ISV applications certified to Red Hat Enterprise Linux and other Red Hat solutions can have greater confidence that these applications will function as expected when using them on a public cloud or managed service provider.
Red Hat’s Certified Cloud and Service Provider designation is awarded to Red Hat partners following validation by Red Hat. Each provider must meet testing and certification requirements to demonstrate that they can deliver a scalable, supported and consistent environment with strong security features designed for enterprise cloud deployments. The globally-unified program provides customers, ISVs, and partners with the confidence that Red Hat product experts have validated a given solution so that implementations can begin with a solid foundation.
Supporting Quotes
Sandhya Prabhu, senior manager, Partner Ecosystem, Switzerland, Red Hat
“Red Hat’s partner ecosystem is a vital component in delivering powerful, flexible and open solutions to global enterprises. We’re pleased to work with VSHN as a Red Hat Premier Business Partner to offer customers and developers broad choice in the cloud and better enable users to build and deploy cloud-native applications.”
Markus Speth, CEO, VSHN – The DevOps Company
“We are very excited to announce that VSHN is one of the first Red Hat Premier Business Partners within the Red Hat Certified Cloud and Service Provider Program in Switzerland. On a worldwide scale, this puts us among a select group of Red Hat Premier Business Partners. With this recognition, VSHN demonstrates our strong collaboration with Red Hat and the Red Hat ecosystem to provide cloud solutions and services to our customers to make their lives easier.
Of course, we also would like to thank all our VSHNeers who helped us to achieve this new recognition through various certifications, accreditations and continued belief in Red Hat. We are looking forward to continuing our successful collaboration with Red Hat.”
VSHN is Switzerland’s leading partner for DevOps, Container & Kubernetes. VSHN (pronounced like “vision”) was founded with the intention to fundamentally shake up the hosting market. As a lean startup, we have focused on operating IT platforms through automation, agility and a continuous improvement process. Completely location-independent and without own hardware, we operate extensive applications according to the DevOps principle agile and 24/7 on every infrastructure, so that software developers can concentrate on their business and IT operations are relieved.
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Markus Speth
Marketing, People, Strategy
Latest news
Tech
Announcing General Availability of PostgreSQL by VSHN – On OpenShift
In this year’s Top 500 of the strongest ICT companies in Switzerland, Computerworld again examines the Swiss IT industry, analyzes sales and developments, and provides a great deal of background information.
VSHN climbs on place 378
Once again, we made up places in this year’s edition of the Top 500. VSHN occupies the 378th place in the ranking this year. We are of course very happy about the renewed rise.
The Computerworld Top 500 has long since become the industry’s standard reference work, publishing the list of the 500 ICT companies with the highest revenues in Switzerland since 1997.
We have been awarded the kununu Top Company 2022 seal, placing us among the top 5% of the most popular companies on kununu.
This puts us among very few companies that meet all applicable requirements to receive this great award. A big thank you to all our VSHNeers for their honest comments and reviews.
What makes this award special is the fact that it is awarded on the basis of employee reviews and ratings on the company profile. The data-based and independent awarding of the seal ensures an authentic assessment of the company.
Our company embraces openness and transparency, has a flat hierarchy and is organized in Domains for which self-organized Teams are accountable for. This concept comes from Sociocracy 3.0 (S3) which isn’t an organization form nor a model, it’s a collection of principles and patterns we adapt to our needs where useful.
VSHN’s transparent and appreciative corporate culture, an agile organization and the opportunity to shape one’s work in a self-determined manner are, in our view, the basic prerequisites for this. If you want to learn more, have a look at our completely open and publicly available employee handbook. and our employee benefits.
kununu is Europe’s leading platform for employer reviews. The criteria for awarding the “Top Company” seal have been redefined and the criteria tightened in 2021 so that companies have to meet even higher and additional requirements than with the old seals. According to a survey by the consulting firm Employer Telling, kununu’s “Top Company” seal is the best-known employer seal among job seekers in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Since 2015, kununu has been awarding a seal of approval to companies that are rated particularly well by employees.
We are very proud and happy that VSHN is Top Company 2022! If you would like to join our team and also become a VSHNeer, go to our careers page.
Markus Speth
Marketing, People, Strategy
Latest news
Tech
Announcing General Availability of PostgreSQL by VSHN – On OpenShift
Last year we announced our Kubernetes First Strategy, whereby we committed ourselves fully to developing solutions built around and upon Kubernetes and the whole spectrum of Cloud Native technologies. Since then, we have increased our investment in the Cloud Native ecosystem to an unprecedented level, surpassing the expectations of our customers and partners, positioning ourselves as the undisputable leader in the Swiss and DACH Kubernetes market.
APPUiO Cloud
Last year we announced APPUiO Cloud, a new platform built upon the strength and stability of the most comprehensive, secure, and complete Kubernetes-based application platform available today: Red Hat OpenShift 4. We released our first APPUiO Cloud region on cloudscale.ch in Kanton Aargau. Following customer demand, we quickly opened up a second APPUiO Cloud region on Exoscale, located in the Canton de Genève.
APPUiO Cloud is our entry-level product, a perfect fit for small agencies, ISVs, consultants, and agile teams looking for a ready-to-use OpenShift cluster, available within minutes, offering security, performance, and a pay-per-use model. Thanks to our strategic partnership with Isovalent and our choice of Cilium as the Cloud Native networking technology of choice for APPUiO Cloud, our roadmap looks brighter than ever, enabling future advanced networking features like APPUiO Cloud Multi-Zone Networking.
Visible Results
Our strategy has already brought tangible results. For example, we were thrilled to learn that the CNCF had selected our K8up backup operator as a sandbox project, placing a tremendous responsibility on our shoulders and validating our strategy in the Cloud Native market. We look forward to further developing K8up into the standard choice for Kubernetes backups in the future.
Continuing our work with Project Syn, our popular GitOps-based Kubernetes management toolkit, we released the Commodore Components Hub. It consists of a growing catalog of 72 components (at the time of this writing) also featuring third-party contributions and showing the strength of the Project Syn ecosystem.
We see that Kubernetes is getting a broader adoption every single day and we want our customers to benefit from it through our Kubernetes-First strategy.
Markus Speth, Co-CEO VSHN and CMO
One example where our Kubernetes-First strategy shines was how quick we were able to implement the APPUiO Cloud API, which is fully based on the Kubernetes API. I see the Kubernetes API being used for more and more automation tasks, and so will we use the Kubernetes API more and more.
Tobias Brunner, Co-CEO VSHN and Product Owner.
Our commitment to Kubernetes remains strong and decisive for our future. We look forward to working with our partners to empower Switzerland’s Open Source and Cloud-Native ecosystems and strengthen Switzerland’s position as a world-class innovation hub.
About VSHN – The DevOps Company
VSHN is Switzerland’s leading partner for DevOps, Container & Kubernetes. VSHN (pronounced like “vision”) was founded to fundamentally shake up the hosting market. As a lean startup, we have focused on operating applications through automation, agility, and a continuous improvement process. Completely location-independent and without its own hardware, we operate extensive applications according to the DevOps principle, agile and 24/7 on every infrastructure, so that software developers can concentrate on their business and IT operations are relieved.
VSHN Quick Facts
49 employees
350 partners
Operating in 16 clouds
Founded 2014
100% self-owned
Winner Digital Economy Award 2019
VSHN is the link between business, software development, and IT operations. VSHN supports software developers in making applications automatically testable, deployable and scalable and operating them on any infrastructure. In addition to close and agile cooperation and consulting, we also take over responsibility for the stability of our services, including 24/7 support.
Markus Speth
Marketing, People, Strategy
Latest news
Tech
Announcing General Availability of PostgreSQL by VSHN – On OpenShift
We’re thrilled to announce the general availability of the second zone of APPUiO Cloud: Exoscale – CH-GVA-2 0, located in the Canton de Genève and running on Exoscale! See the official announcement.
This zone joins the LPG 2 zone, located in Kanton Aargau and running on cloudscale.ch, already available in production since December 1st, 2021.
APPUiO Cloud is the heir to and a complete overhaul of our successful APPUiO Public PaaS (Platform as a Service) product in service since 2016.
APPUiO Cloud offers a complete yet simple “Namespace as a Service (NSaaS)” product, in a shared infrastructure.
Join the Community Discussions on GitHub and be notified of the latest APPUiO Cloud news!
Adrian Kosmaczewski
Adrian Kosmaczewski is in charge of Developer Relations at VSHN. He is a software developer since 1996, a trainer, and a published author. Adrian holds a Master in Information Technology from the University of Liverpool.
Latest news
Tech
Announcing General Availability of PostgreSQL by VSHN – On OpenShift
We are thrilled to announce that we agreed on a partnership with Isovalent. Isovalent created Cilium, the Enterprise-class eBPF-powered Networking, Observability, and Security software, which was contributed to the CNCF as an incubation-level project in 2021.
Who is Isovalent?
Isovalent builds open-source cloud-native networking software that solves networking, security, and observability for modern infrastructure. Isovalent Cilium Enterprise is the Enterprise Distribution maintained by the creators of Cilium & eBPF. We’re especially proud that one of the founders of Isovalent and lead developer of Cilium and eBPF has his home in Switzerland. Besides the US, the second headquarter of Isovalent is in Switzerland.
What is Cilium and eBPF?
Cilium is an Open Source software for enabling, securing, and observing network connectivity between container workloads in cloud native apps. It is fueled by eBPF, the revolutionary Linux Kernel technology. eBPF allows sandboxed programs to run in Kernel space. It is used to safely and efficiently extend the capabilities of the Kernel without requiring to change kernel source code or load kernel modules. This allows for fast and secure innovation.
Why VSHN and Isovalent?
Isovalent provides VSHN and its Container Platform APPUiO with expert support for stable operations, supported by the use of the hardened and Red Hat OpenShift-certified distribution of Cilium. This support is provided by the same developers who wrote Cilium, with a 30-minute response time; hotfixes for high priority incidents; and a regular, proactive review of customer metrics to identify potential concerns as soon as possible. All of these features makes Isovalent a premium partner for VSHN and APPUiO in this new phase.
Why VSHN and Cilium?
Cilium is a critical piece of the new APPUiO Cloud. It allows us to:
Provide advanced networking configurations, to help secure the multi-tenant environment.
Bring observability into the network layer, which would be otherwise hard (or downright impossible) because of the restricted nature of APPUiO Cloud.
Enhance network policies, with way more possibilities than those offered by Kubernetes or even OpenShift.
Implement Kubernetes LoadBalancer services with BGP, which makes it possible to offer this service on cloudscale.ch.
Future proofing our network technology, and to prepare for scalable cluster networking.
Prepare for more advanced security features, like syscall blocking, Service Mesh , and more.
Prepare for future advanced networking features, like APPUiO Cloud Multi-Zone Networking.
Markus Speth
Marketing, People, Strategy
Latest news
Tech
Announcing General Availability of PostgreSQL by VSHN – On OpenShift
We are thrilled and honored to announce that K8up, the Kubernetes backup operator created by VSHN, has entered the CNCF Project Onboarding process!
We will now work together with the CNCF to complete the onboarding process, providing all the required information geared towards the transfer of the project stewardship to the CNCF.
During this phase, we at VSHN will continue our work, improving K8up with new features and possibilities. The GitHub project is the primary support for this work, and you’re very welcome to check our getting started guide and learn more about K8up.
Thanks to the CNCF for their vote of confidence in K8up! We know this project will be a great addition to the ever-growing world of Cloud Native projects, and we look forward to its future!
Tobias Brunner
Tobias Brunner is working since over 20 years in IT and more than 15 years with Internet technology. New technology has to be tried and written about.
Latest news
Tech
Announcing General Availability of PostgreSQL by VSHN – On OpenShift
The Computerworld Top 500 of the strongest ICT companies in Switzerland celebrates its anniversary in 2021 with the 25th edition. In this year’s Top 500 you will again find the complete ranking of the 500 largest ICT companies in Switzerland, the analysis of revenue and developments as well as a lot of background information.
VSHN climbs on place 384
Once again, we made up places in this year’s edition of the Top 500. VSHN ranks now in the 384th place this year. We are of course very happy about the rise, despite the pandemic.
The 2021 anniversary edition of the Computerworld Top 500 of the strongest ICT companies in Switzerland can be obtained directly from Computerworld.ch.
Markus Speth
Marketing, People, Strategy
Latest news
Tech
Announcing General Availability of PostgreSQL by VSHN – On OpenShift
We are thrilled to announce APPUiO Cloud, the newest member of the APPUiO family.
What’s APPUiO Cloud?
APPUiO Cloud is the successor of our hugely successful APPUiO Public product, which we have been offering already since 2016. APPUiO Cloud is a complete and simple OpenShift-as-a-Service product, available on different infrastructure (IaaS) providers.
