Stop maintaining GitLab. Start shipping features.

A managed GitLab service means VSHN takes full operational responsibility for your GitLab instance - provisioning, configuration, security updates, monitoring, incident response, and backups - while you retain complete control of your data, users, and projects. Your instance is dedicated (not shared with other organizations), runs on infrastructure you choose, and VSHN guarantees availability according to your selected SLA. Your team uses GitLab normally; VSHN keeps it running.

You provide an Ubuntu 22.04 LTS virtual machine with root SSH access and outbound internet connectivity. VSHN's Puppet Management Framework provisions and manages the Managed GitLab service on it. Most major cloud providers are supported, including AWS, Google Cloud Platform, Microsoft Azure, Exoscale, and cloudscale.ch. On-premises VMware and bare-metal servers are also supported. For Swiss data sovereignty, VSHN recommends cloudscale.ch or Exoscale, both of which operate data centers in Switzerland. VSHN advises on the required VM size during the free requirements analysis.

Yes. VSHN provisions the virtual machine, network, and object storage in your own cloud subscription using OpenTofu or Terraform modules, then installs and operates the managed GitLab service on top. You keep ownership of the tenant, the identity provider, and the security and network policies your compliance team mandates, while VSHN owns the infrastructure code and the GitLab operation. This fits organizations that have standardized on a hyperscaler for strategic reasons but do not want a ticket queue sitting between their developers and their tooling. The responsibility split is documented before the build starts.

Yes. The instance can sit behind an IP allowlist with no public ingress, reachable only from your corporate network or VPN. CI runners can be confined to an egress allowlist or pointed at an internal package and container mirror, so builds never pull directly from public registries. Regulated customers in banking and healthcare commonly require both. VSHN defines the allowlist and the mirror strategy during the free requirements analysis, because adding network restrictions to pipelines that already work means rebuilding them.

Two SLA tiers are available. The Best Effort plan (CHF 360 per month) includes 24/7 monitoring and incident response without a formal uptime commitment - suited for development or staging environments. The Guaranteed Availability plan (CHF 1,500 per month) commits to 99.99% uptime with 24/7 active monitoring and incident handling, suited for production workloads. Both plans include free setup and weekly maintenance. Managed CI runner instances are available separately at CHF 200 per month.

VSHN handles all recurring maintenance: GitLab minor and security updates, server OS patches, and zero-day security fixes (applied immediately, outside the regular maintenance window when necessary). You choose a weekly maintenance window - for example, Tuesday nights - to minimise disruption to your team. The service is briefly unavailable only during scheduled maintenance. VSHN monitors your instance 24/7 and responds to incidents according to your chosen SLA.

VSHN performs automated encrypted off-site backups of both server configuration and all GitLab data, including repositories, issues, merge requests, CI/CD pipelines, wikis, and attachments. On-demand restore is available at any time - you can request a full point-in-time restore of your instance or recovery of specific data. Backup retention and frequency are agreed during setup.

VSHN holds GitLab MSP (Managed Service Provider) Partner status, the highest designation in GitLab's channel program. GitLab's partner tiers are Open and Select (invitation-only); MSP is an additional designation on top of Select, requiring demonstrated managed service delivery capability. VSHN achieved this through certified GitLab engineers, a track record of customer deployments, and active contribution to the GitLab community. VSHN also organizes the GitLab Switzerland Meetup, bringing together GitLab users and contributors across the country.

VSHN resells GitLab subscriptions including the Premium and Ultimate tiers, and can equally operate your instance on a license you already hold. Free covers source control and basic CI/CD. Premium adds code owners, merge request approvals, and priority support. Ultimate is where security scanning, compliance frameworks, and audit reporting live, which is why regulated organizations in banking, insurance, and healthcare usually need that tier. The license is quoted as a line item separate from the VSHN service fee, so you can see what goes to GitLab and what goes to VSHN.

Yes. VSHN supports four CI runner models: you bring your own runner infrastructure and connect it to your managed GitLab instance; VSHN manages dedicated runner VMs on your behalf (CHF 200 per month); runners autoscale ephemeral VMs in your cloud tenant, so build capacity follows pipeline demand instead of sitting idle between jobs; or CI jobs auto-scale as ephemeral Kubernetes pods via VSHN's AppCat platform. The models can be combined, which is common when most builds run on Linux but a few need dedicated hardware. VSHN advises on the right setup based on your pipeline volume and latency requirements.

GitLab recommends the Omnibus package installation on virtual machines, which supports all GitLab features without limitations. VSHN has operated this architecture since 2015 with a mature Puppet-based framework for provisioning, configuration management, and seamless version upgrades. The VM-based approach offers the best combination of feature completeness, upgrade reliability, and operational simplicity for most organizations. A Kubernetes-based option via VSHN's AppCat Framework is in development for future availability.

Contact VSHN for a free requirements analysis - no commitment required. VSHN scopes your infrastructure, team size, GitLab license tier (Free, Premium, or Ultimate), and SLA requirements, then provides a formal offer. Setup is free for all plans. Once the contract is signed, VSHN typically has a running GitLab instance ready within one to two business days. Existing GitLab instances can be migrated with VSHN's assistance.

GitLab SaaS (gitlab.com) is a multi-tenant platform where GitLab Inc. manages the infrastructure and your data is stored outside Switzerland, subject to US jurisdiction including the CLOUD Act. A self-hosted GitLab instance, managed by VSHN, gives you full control over where your data resides - on a Swiss cloud provider like cloudscale.ch or Exoscale, or on your own on-premises infrastructure. VSHN is a Swiss-owned company and all contracts are governed by Swiss law. The EU Cloud Sovereignty Framework evaluates providers across eight sovereignty dimensions - managed GitLab from VSHN addresses all of them: data residency, legal jurisdiction, operational independence, and open-source technology. See our sovereignty assessment for details on how VSHN scores against the EU Cloud Sovereignty Framework.

GitHub is a strong platform, but Swiss organizations with data sovereignty requirements often prefer GitLab because it can be self-hosted on infrastructure they control. With VSHN's managed GitLab service, your source code, CI/CD pipelines, issues, and all project data stay in Switzerland - on AWS, Exoscale, cloudscale.ch, Azure, or your own servers. GitLab also provides a single integrated DevSecOps platform covering source control, CI/CD, security scanning, and project management in one tool, reducing the need for third-party integrations. As a GitLab MSP Partner in Switzerland, VSHN provides expert-level support and operations with 99.99% availability SLA. See our sovereignty assessment for details on how VSHN scores against the EU Cloud Sovereignty Framework.

Yes. GitLab includes a built-in container registry for hosting Docker images and CI/CD with native Docker support for building, testing, and pushing containers. For hosting your containerised applications, VSHN offers APPUiO - our Swiss Kubernetes platform that integrates natively with GitLab CI/CD pipelines. Deploy directly from your GitLab repository to APPUiO with automated builds and zero-downtime rollouts. Both platforms run on Swiss cloud providers like cloudscale.ch and Exoscale, ensuring full data residency in Switzerland for your source code, container images, and running applications. Learn more at https://appuio.ch

Yes. Agencies and software development firms use VSHN-managed GitLab to host client repositories on dedicated Swiss infrastructure. Each client can get their own GitLab instance with full isolation, or you can manage multiple projects on a single instance with GitLab's built-in access controls. VSHN handles operations, backups, and security patches so your team focuses on delivery rather than infrastructure. Invoice billing and written service agreements make cost allocation to client projects straightforward.