OpenShift Deployment Options Compared
Swiss organisations running Red Hat OpenShift have four realistic paths: ROSA on AWS, ARO on Azure, self-managed on any infrastructure, or a managed service from VSHN. Each option makes different trade-offs on sovereignty, operational burden, and cost.
This page lays out the differences so you can evaluate which model fits your requirements.
Quick comparison
| ROSA (AWS) | ARO (Azure) | Self-Managed | VSHN Managed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operator | AWS + Red Hat | Microsoft + Red Hat | Your team | VSHN |
| Data location | AWS regions (nearest: Frankfurt) | Azure regions (nearest: Zurich) | Your choice | Your choice (Swiss cloud, on-premises, hyperscaler) |
| Governing law | US law (CLOUD Act applies) | US law (CLOUD Act applies) | Depends on hosting | Swiss law |
| Swiss data centre | No (Frankfurt nearest) | Yes (Zurich region) | Yes (if hosted in CH) | Yes (cloudscale.ch, Exoscale, on-premises) |
| Ops responsibility | AWS/Red Hat manage control plane; you manage workloads | Microsoft/Red Hat manage control plane; you manage workloads | Everything is yours | VSHN manages cluster + operations |
| SLA | 99.95% (control plane) | 99.95% (control plane) | None (your own) | Up to 99.99% |
| Upgrades & patches | Shared responsibility | Shared responsibility | Your responsibility | VSHN handles weekly |
| Monitoring & incident response | AWS CloudWatch + your tooling | Azure Monitor + your tooling | Your responsibility | 24/7 monitoring, VSHN incident response |
| Vendor lock-in | AWS networking, IAM, storage | Azure networking, AD, storage | None (standard OpenShift) | None (standard OpenShift, portable) |
| Open source | OpenShift is open; AWS infra is proprietary | OpenShift is open; Azure infra is proprietary | Fully open source stack possible | OpenShift on open-source-friendly Swiss clouds |
| Best for | AWS-native teams, no CH residency requirement | Azure-native teams, Zurich region available | Full control, large platform team | Swiss compliance, small-to-mid ops team |
ROSA — Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS
ROSA is a jointly managed OpenShift service operated by AWS and Red Hat. AWS provides the infrastructure, Red Hat provides the OpenShift layer.
What you get:
- AWS manages the underlying EC2, networking, and storage
- Red Hat manages the OpenShift control plane and core components
- You manage your workloads, namespaces, and application configuration
- Pay-as-you-go pricing through your AWS bill
Limitations:
- Nearest AWS region to Switzerland is Frankfurt (eu-central-1) — data leaves Switzerland
- US-incorporated operator — subject to the CLOUD Act
- Tied to AWS infrastructure: VPC, IAM, EBS, ELB. Migrating away means re-engineering networking and storage
- You still need a team for workload operations, CI/CD, and application-level monitoring
- Pricing varies by instance type and region; no fixed monthly fee
Consider ROSA when: Your workloads already run on AWS, you don't need Swiss data residency, and you want to reduce cluster management overhead while staying in the AWS ecosystem.
ARO — Azure Red Hat OpenShift
ARO is the Azure equivalent: Microsoft and Red Hat jointly operate OpenShift on Azure infrastructure.
What you get:
- Microsoft manages Azure networking, storage, and compute
- Red Hat manages the OpenShift control plane
- Available in the Switzerland North (Zurich) Azure region
- Integrated billing through your Azure Enterprise Agreement
Limitations:
- Microsoft Corporation (USA) operates the infrastructure — US law and CLOUD Act apply regardless of data centre location
- Tied to Azure: VNET, Azure AD, Managed Disks. Migration requires re-engineering
- Workload operations, monitoring, and application management remain your responsibility
- Pricing is per-worker-node-hour plus OpenShift licensing; no fixed monthly fee
Consider ARO when: You're already invested in the Azure ecosystem, Switzerland North meets your data location needs, and you have a team to handle workload operations.
Self-Managed OpenShift
Self-managed means your team installs, operates, and maintains OpenShift end-to-end. You choose the infrastructure — on-premises, Swiss cloud, or hyperscaler.
What you get:
- Full control over every layer: infrastructure, OpenShift version, upgrade timing, networking
- No dependency on a third-party operator
- Run on any certified infrastructure (bare metal, VMware vSphere, cloudscale.ch, Exoscale, AWS, Azure, GCP)
- Community Edition (OKD) available at no license cost
Limitations:
- Operational burden is the main cost. Running OpenShift in production requires:
- 24/7 on-call rotation (minimum 5 engineers for true 24/7 coverage)
- Cluster upgrades every 3-4 months (Red Hat support lifecycle)
- Security patch management, including emergency zero-day response
- Backup, disaster recovery, and restore testing
- Monitoring, alerting, and incident response infrastructure
- At Swiss engineering salaries, a 24/7 OpenShift operations team costs over CHF 1M/year in personnel alone
- Even business-hours-only support (2-3 engineers) runs CHF 300,000-450,000/year
- Smaller teams consistently fall behind on upgrades and security patches
Consider self-managed when: Your organisation has a mature platform engineering team (5+ people), you need full control over every layer, and you treat platform operations as a core competency.
VSHN Managed OpenShift
VSHN operates your dedicated OpenShift cluster on the infrastructure of your choice. VSHN is a Red Hat Premier Certified Cloud & Service Provider (CCSP) and has been operating OpenShift clusters since 2016.
What you get:
- Dedicated cluster — not shared with other customers
- Choice of infrastructure: cloudscale.ch, Exoscale, Google Cloud, VMware vSphere, or on-premises
- Weekly maintenance: OS updates, OpenShift upgrades, zero-day patches
- 24/7 monitoring with proactive incident response
- Up to 99.99% SLA with service credits
- ISO 27001 certified operations
- Swiss company, Swiss law, no CLOUD Act exposure
- Fixed per-vCPU pricing depending on edition (OCP+, OCP, OKE), service level (Best Effort or Guaranteed Availability), and cloud provider tier — see current pricing
Limitations:
- You delegate cluster-level control to VSHN (by design — this is the point)
- Infrastructure costs (compute, storage, network) billed separately by the cloud provider
- Custom cluster configurations may require engineering hours billed at the standard hourly rate
Consider VSHN when: You need Swiss data residency, your team is too small for 24/7 OpenShift operations, compliance requires ISO 27001 certified processes, or you want to free your engineers from cluster maintenance.
Total cost of ownership
Direct license and service fees are only part of the picture. The largest cost driver for OpenShift is people.
| Cost factor | ROSA / ARO | Self-Managed | VSHN Managed |
|---|---|---|---|
| OpenShift licensing | Included in service fee | Red Hat subscription required | Included |
| Infrastructure | Hyperscaler compute pricing | Your cloud or on-prem costs | Swiss cloud provider costs |
| Control plane ops | Managed by vendor | Your team | VSHN |
| Workload ops | Your team | Your team | Your team (or VSHN add-on) |
| 24/7 on-call | Your team (for workloads) | Your team (for everything) | VSHN (cluster level) |
| FTE overhead | 1-2 for workload ops | 2-3 (BH) or 5-6 (24/7) for full stack | 0 for cluster ops |
| Compliance documentation | Limited (shared responsibility model) | You produce everything | VSHN provides ISO 27001 audit artifacts |
Example: 8-worker-node cluster (32 vCPUs, OCP edition)
| Model | Estimated monthly cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| ROSA / ARO | Variable (compute + per-node OCP fee) | Check AWS or Azure pricing calculators; add internal ops team cost |
| Self-Managed (BH ops) | CHF 25,000-37,500+ | 2-3 FTEs at CHF 150K/yr + infrastructure + Red Hat subscription |
| Self-Managed (24/7 ops) | CHF 85,000-100,000+ | 5-6 FTEs at CHF 150-200K/yr + infrastructure + Red Hat subscription |
| VSHN Managed | A fraction of self-managed cost | See current pricing — per-vCPU fee includes operations, monitoring, incident response, upgrades, and Red Hat licensing |
Infrastructure costs from the cloud provider are additional.
Sovereignty considerations
For a detailed sovereignty analysis covering CLOUD Act exposure, governing law, operational jurisdiction, and data residency, see our OpenShift sovereignty assessment.
Key points:
- ROSA and ARO are operated by US companies subject to US law — including data stored in European regions
- Self-managed sovereignty depends entirely on your infrastructure and hosting choices
- VSHN is a Swiss company under Swiss law with an optional Switzerland-only support model
Next steps
Evaluating your OpenShift deployment model? Book an architecture review with our OpenShift team. We'll assess your current setup and recommend the approach that fits your compliance, operational, and budget requirements.