Nextcloud by VSHN
Nextcloud, managed by VSHN and Open Circle, for you.
Nextcloud Hub
A new generation of online collaboration that puts you in control.
Our service offers a compelling solution for businesses seeking a new generation of online collaboration. Based in Switzerland, our service provides several key advantages:
- Switzerland Based
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Hosting your Nextcloud service by a company based in Switzerland ensures data privacy, security, and compliance with strict Swiss regulations.
- Unrestricted Access to Nextcloud Features
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With our service, you have access to the full range of Nextcloud’s features, ensuring you can tailor the configuration to your specific needs.
- Supported by Nextcloud Professionals
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Together with Open Circle, our team consists of experienced Nextcloud professionals who can provide expert guidance and support, ensuring that you can make the most of your Nextcloud implementation.
- Simple Price Model
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We offer a straightforward pricing model, making it easy for you to budget and plan for your collaboration needs without hidden costs or surprises.
- SLA Available
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For added peace of mind, we offer Service Level Agreements (SLAs) that guarantee the reliability and availability of your Nextcloud service.
- Run by Experts Running Software
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Our service is managed by a team of experts with a proven track record of running complex software systems, ensuring that your Nextcloud service is in capable hands.
In summary, our service provides a secure, feature-rich, and hassle-free solution for online collaboration, all while benefiting from Switzerland’s robust data protection laws and the expertise of Nextcloud professionals.
| The user documentation is available under docs.appcat.ch. |
- Availability of the service
Features
Available sizing |
1 or 2 instances |
|---|---|
No downtime during regular maintenance |
[1] |
High availability |
[2] |
Infinite [3] Users |
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Admin user access (via admin web console) |
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Database: PostgreSQL by VSHN |
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TLS encrypted database connection |
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Custom subdomain |
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Guaranteed performance |
[4] |
Nextcloud specific metrics and dashboards |
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The following common features are available as well:
Self-Service Instance Provisioning and Configuration |
Service instances can be self-service ordered and are provisioned fully automated in the background. Access to self-service provisioning is provided via custom Kubernetes configuration objects in the Kubernetes cluster or via Open Service Broker API (on request). |
|---|---|
Best-Practice Configuration Management |
Services are configured with best practices and the configuration is updated continuously as we learn improvements during day-2 operations and from the community. Industry standards are used for security configuration and wherever possible TLS encrypted connections are offered by default. |
Maintenance and Security Operations |
Patch updates are applied as they get available. We monitor security information for services and apply zero-day patches or workaround configuration as they become available. |
Data Protection and Recovery |
All services offer a regular backup option. See the service descriptions for more details. |
Service Metrics |
Performance metrics are collected regularly and are available as graphs to the user. The metrics are automatically monitored and acted upon irregularities, see Monitoring and Alerting below. |
Monitoring and Alerting |
Service Level Indicators are monitored and alerted upon. Depending on the service level alerts are automatically handled by a VSHNeer. |
Service Logging |
All logs are collected and are available to debug service errors. |
Support by VSHN or Vendor |
Support for all services are available from VSHN support engineers. Depending on the service, additional support by the software vendor or a third-party might be available. |
Consulting / Onboarding Package
This product is fully supported by Open Circle.
Nextcloud Support
Support for Nextcloud is organized in three levels:
- Level 1: End-User Support
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Helping users with the daily use of Nextcloud is the customer’s concern. End-user support isn’t included in this service.
- Level 2: Operations Support
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VSHN provides support concerning the operations of Nextcloud and the database. Our Support Plans describes in detail what VSHN offers in terms of support.
- Level 3: Application Support
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Open Circle offers third-level support for Nextcloud to VSHN, so that there are experts available to help with complex issues. Direct support from Open Circle to the end-user is available with a separate support contract.
Supported versions
We only support the latest Nextcloud version.
See Maintenance and release schedule of the Nextcloud project to read about more detailed versions support. Once a version isn’t supported anymore by the upstream project, we’ll stop supporting the version as well.
Service Level Indicator (SLI)
According to the service levels the SLI "Up" is defined as follows:
Nextcloud responds to HTTP requests to the authentication page. The service is considered up, if the request succeeds in under 5 seconds.
| An unmanaged service is a service that is not monitored and SLA doesn’t apply anymore. |
Data Protection
All persistent data of Nextcloud is stored in a PostgreSQL database. See Data Protection in the PostgreSQL product description for more details.
Recurring Maintenance
We conduct recurring maintenance tasks on the service to keep it stable and up-to-date.
- Planned Maintenance Activities
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Updating of the base container image with the latest patched version, this causes a service restart.
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If there’s a newer minor version available that does not contain breaking changes, then the service will automatically be updated to that minor version.
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Major upgrades are not automatic.
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Configuration improvements as we learn new best-practices or some configuration proved to be non-optimal.
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- Mandatory Maintenance Activities
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Security issue (CVE) mitigation by updating to a patched version or configuration adjustments, usually causes service restart.
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Regular maintenance on the underlying platform, usually causing up to 2 restarts per replica.
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- Maintenance Windows
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This is an automated recurrence once a week. The day and time can be configured per service instance, whereas by default it is a random time in the night from Tuesday to Wednesday.
Users responsibilities
As a DevOps company, we believe in its collaborative approach. Flawless service is only possible through a sense of responsibility on both sides. Accordingly, we rely on the user to consider the following points:
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Choose reasonably sized resources for the software consuming the service
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Act early when an increase in service usage is foreseen (for example increase resources)
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Rely on best-practices for using the service
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Choose a matching service level for your use-case
Addons
There is one addon available for Nextcloud, which is Office. The Office addon is a collaborative online office suite that allows you to create and edit documents, spreadsheets, and presentations in real-time with your team. It’s a single, preconfigured instance of the Collabora app, which is a powerful LibreOffice-based online office suite with collaborative editing capabilities.
Pricing
| Service Level | per 30 days (720h) |
|---|---|
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CHF 40.00 |
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CHF 120.00 |
| Addon | per 30 days (720h) |
|---|---|
Office (Preconfigured Collabora Server) |
CHF 100.00 (to be discussed) |
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The computing resources required for the service are not included in the price and charged additionally.
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Inclusive PostgreSQL by VSHN as database backend.
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Support is available at additional cost via Support Plans.
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These prices are valid starting 2024-06-01 until further notice.
See Pricing for more details.
Nextcloud apps
Nextcloud comes with some apps already installed and enabled by default. You can check out which apps are enabled by going to the "Apps" page in your nextcloud installation (The list of enabled apps depends on the version and is subject to change)
Apps can be installed, enabled and disabled directly from the Nextcloud Apps page.
| When using custom apps, we cannot guarantee compatibility with the Nextcloud version and can also not guarantee that the App or Nextcloud itself won’t break during an upgrade. |
Service Maturity
This section describes the maturity of this service. We are constantly improving it and adding more features to the service.
✅ |
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✅ |
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❌ |
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✅ |
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❌ |
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❌ |
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✅ |
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❌ |
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❌ |
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❌ |
FAQ
- What do I need to get the service?
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Currently the service is available on APPUiO and Managed OpenShift. Once you have access to such a cluster, it’s a matter of creating a Kubernetes object to order a service instance. In the getting started guide you’ll find all the information you need to get started.
- Where do I get it?
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As mentioned in the previous answer, the service is available on APPUiO and Managed OpenShift.
- Are there any extra costs?
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Yes, there are usage costs associated with the service. Please refer to VSHN AppCat Services Pricing for further information.
- Who will set it up?
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All services are available in full self-service. There is no need to open a ticket and wait until the service is provisioned, it’s available immediately.
- What do I need to do?
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The user documentation explains everything you need to know.
- Can I get it myself or do I need to contact anyone?
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There is no need to contact anyone, just follow the instructions on docs.appcat.ch and you’ll be up and running in no time.
- How can it be integrated in my environment?
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Services are available right now on APPUiO and Managed OpenShift. If you want these services on your environment, please contact us and we’ll help you get started.
- How can I get support?
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You can either open a ticket on our customer portal or send an email to support@vshn.ch. Please note that support is only available with our support plans.