Kubernetes Platforms Compared: Which One Fits Your Organisation?
Choosing a Kubernetes platform means deciding how much you manage yourself, where your data lives, and what trade-offs you accept on sovereignty and lock-in. This comparison groups the options into four categories relevant to Swiss organizations.
VSHN is a Kubernetes Competence Center. We consult on and operate any of these platforms and offer sovereign and on-premises alternatives.
Quick comparison
| Self-Managed | Hyperscaler Kubernetes | Sovereign Kubernetes | Managed Kubernetes On-Prem / Private Cloud | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Examples | Any distribution on your infra | Google GKE, AWS EKS, Azure AKS | Exoscale SKS, APPUiO, Managed OpenShift on cloud | Managed OpenShift on-prem |
| Data location | Your choice | Provider regions (incl. Switzerland) | Switzerland / sovereign region of your choice | Your data center |
| Company jurisdiction | Yours | US (CLOUD Act applies) | Swiss (Akenes SA, VSHN AG) | Yours |
| Control plane | You manage | Provider manages | Provider or VSHN manages | VSHN manages |
| Worker nodes | You manage | You manage | VSHN manages (APPUiO, OpenShift) or you manage (SKS) | VSHN manages |
| Upgrades | Your responsibility | Partial (control plane only) | VSHN manages (APPUiO, OpenShift) or your responsibility (SKS) | VSHN manages |
| Monitoring & alerting | Your responsibility | Partial (provider tools) | Included: Prometheus, Grafana (APPUiO, OpenShift) | Included: Prometheus, Grafana |
| Managed backups | Your responsibility | Not included (available with VSHN management) | Not included (available with VSHN management) | Included |
| SLA | None | 99.95% (control plane only) | Up to 99.99% (Managed OpenShift) | Up to 99.99% |
| Vendor lock-in | None | High (provider-specific APIs, networking, IAM) | Low (standard K8s / OpenShift APIs) | Low (standard K8s / OpenShift APIs) |
| Best for | Large platform teams (5+ engineers) | Teams invested in a hyperscaler with a platform team, or VSHN-managed | Swiss jurisdiction + managed operations | On-prem requirements or regulatory constraints |
Hyperscaler Kubernetes
Google GKE, AWS EKS, and Azure AKS manage the Kubernetes control plane on their global cloud infrastructure. You manage worker nodes, deployments, and day-2 operations.
Strengths:
- Managed control plane (etcd, API server, scheduler)
- Tight integration with each provider's ecosystem (monitoring, IAM, networking, storage)
- Switzerland regions available on all three providers
- Auto-upgrades for control plane versions (GKE, AKS)
- Large ecosystem, marketplace, and community
Limitations:
- You still need a platform team for worker node operations, upgrades, and patching
- US jurisdiction. All three are subject to the CLOUD Act. US authorities can compel data access regardless of data center location.
- Provider-specific features (GKE Config Connector, EKS IAM, Azure AD) create lock-in
- No backup solution included. Your platform team must build and maintain backups.
- Monitoring covers infrastructure metrics but not application-level observability
Best for: Organisations invested in a hyperscaler that have a platform team. VSHN can also manage hyperscaler Kubernetes for teams without strict data sovereignty requirements.
Sovereign Kubernetes
Sovereign Kubernetes platforms run on Swiss cloud infrastructure with no CLOUD Act exposure. VSHN operates on these platforms and can add managed backups, monitoring, and 24/7 operations.
Exoscale SKS (Simple Kubernetes Service)
Exoscale is a Swiss cloud provider (Akenes SA, Lausanne). SKS provides a managed Kubernetes control plane on Swiss and European infrastructure.
- Swiss company, Swiss jurisdiction. No CLOUD Act exposure.
- Managed control plane with automatic upgrades
- Standard Kubernetes APIs, no proprietary extensions, minimal lock-in
- Swiss data centers (Geneva, Zurich) and European regions
- Simple, predictable pricing
- VSHN operates production workloads on Exoscale SKS
- You bring your own monitoring, backup, and platform team for worker nodes and in-cluster operations. VSHN can also manage this for you.
- Sign up for Exoscale to try SKS, or start with APPUiO for fully managed Kubernetes. Want help choosing? Contact us.
APPUiO: Sovereign Kubernetes Namespace as a Service
APPUiO is a shared sovereign Kubernetes platform built on Red Hat OpenShift, hosted in Swiss data centers. You get a namespace and deploy. VSHN handles everything else.
- Instant provisioning. Namespace ready in seconds, self-service via portal.
- Pay-per-use. Billed per minute, per MiB of RAM. No minimum commitment.
- Swiss hosted. cloudscale.ch (Lupfig AG) and Exoscale (Geneva GE).
- Managed backups included. Automatic backups via K8up, no extra cost or configuration.
- Full observability included. Monitoring (Prometheus), logging (Loki), dashboards (Grafana).
- ISO 27001 certified operations, FINMA-compatible.
- No platform team needed. Application operations remain your responsibility. VSHN can manage them for you too.
- Best for teams that want to deploy containers without managing infrastructure.
Managed OpenShift on Cloud: Dedicated Sovereign Kubernetes
Managed OpenShift is a dedicated Red Hat OpenShift cluster operated by VSHN on Swiss cloud providers.
- Full-stack operations. Control plane, worker nodes, networking, storage, monitoring, backups.
- Managed backups included. Automated cluster and application backups, tested regularly.
- Swiss cloud providers. cloudscale.ch, Exoscale, or other Swiss/European providers.
- Up to 99.99% SLA with service credits.
- VSHN Application Catalog. Managed PostgreSQL, MariaDB, Redis, Keycloak on the same cluster.
- Red Hat Premier CCSP Partner. VSHN has operated OpenShift in production since 2016.
- 24/7 monitoring with incident response. ISO 27001 certified operations.
- No platform team needed. Application operations remain your responsibility. VSHN can manage them for you too.
- Best for enterprises that need a fully managed, sovereign Kubernetes platform with enterprise support.
Managed Kubernetes On-Prem / Private Cloud
For organizations that must run Kubernetes on their own infrastructure, whether for regulatory reasons, latency requirements, or existing data center investments, VSHN operates dedicated OpenShift or Kubernetes clusters on-premises or in private cloud environments.
- Your hardware, our operations. VSHN manages the full Kubernetes stack on your infrastructure.
- Managed backups included. Automated backups with off-site replication where required.
- Full observability included. Prometheus, Grafana, and alerting, same as our cloud platforms.
- Up to 99.99% SLA with service credits.
- VSHN Application Catalog. Managed databases and services, same as on cloud.
- Hybrid cloud ready. Combine on-prem clusters with cloud-based clusters, managed under a single SLA.
- Red Hat OpenShift or upstream Kubernetes distributions.
- Best for enterprises with on-prem mandates, air-gapped environments, or hybrid cloud strategies.
How VSHN helps on any platform
VSHN is a Kubernetes Competence Center, not just a managed service provider. We work with your team on whichever platform you choose:
- Architecture consulting. Evaluate hyperscaler, sovereign, or on-prem Kubernetes for your requirements. We help you choose, not sell you one option.
- Operations support. VSHN can operate or co-operate your clusters on any platform.
- Migration. Move workloads between platforms (e.g. from self-managed to sovereign, from EKS to OpenShift).
- Training. Kubernetes and container training for your team, delivered with training partners.
- Application Catalog. Managed databases and services that run on any Kubernetes platform.
- CNCF Kubernetes Certified Service Provider. Switzerland's first.
The control plane is the easy part
Hyperscaler Kubernetes manages the control plane. The operational burden is in worker nodes, upgrades, networking, storage, monitoring, backup, and incident response. These remain your responsibility. No hyperscaler includes backups. You must build and maintain your own backup strategy.
With VSHN management, you get managed backups, monitoring, and full-stack operations on any platform: sovereign cloud, on-prem, or hyperscaler.
When to work with VSHN
- You need help choosing the right Kubernetes platform
- Your data must stay under Swiss jurisdiction, not just in a Swiss data center operated by a US company
- Your platform team is too small for 24/7 Kubernetes operations
- You want a fully managed sovereign platform (APPUiO or Managed OpenShift)
- You need Kubernetes on-premises or in a private cloud, fully operated
- You run on a hyperscaler but need Swiss operations, security, or compliance support
- You are migrating between platforms and need an experienced partner
For a detailed sovereignty analysis, see our Kubernetes sovereignty assessment.
Next steps
Ready to discuss your Kubernetes setup? Book a free architecture review with our team. We assess your current environment and recommend the right approach, whether that is consulting on your existing platform, sovereign Kubernetes, or managed on-prem.