Custom Application Operations Support

Custom applications should be owned and operated by those who build them — the business and its developers. You build it, you run it. That’s DevOps.

VSHN enables this by supporting containerized deployments via CI/CD or GitOps, aligned with production and compliance requirements.

We assist throughout the lifecycle — from development to operations — through hands-on support, regular check-ins, and 24x7 availability if needed. You stay in control; we advise and support.

Building Block Type

This support service building block bridges the gap between VSHN platform offerings like Managed OpenShift, APPUiO, Cloud Platform Operations - Kubernetes, and Application Catalog - Services, and where developers are in terms of DevOps maturity and 24x7 operations.

Type

🟨 Custom Software Support

Level

🛠 Service

Based on (one of)

Supported Service

Deployed instances of one specific custom application

Included Services

We collaboratively care for running your applications on Kubernetes platforms. You stay in control — we advise, engineer, and support hands-on. The service includes being ready, performing periodic reviews, maintaining documentation, and ensuring engineers with the needed expertise are available. Actual effort for improvements, changes, and problem management is billed by the hour.

Continuous Collaboration

Your application deployment is known at VSHN — including code, configuration, workflows, and run books. This shared context allows us to support you efficiently with changes, scaling, or incident response. Optionally, we’re available 24/7.

We assist with Kubernetes deployments, CI/CD, GitOps, and containerization. Just open a ticket — no need to explain everything from scratch every time.

Quarterly Sync / Workshop

We regularly meet with lead developers and application owners to prioritize problem-solving, review the current setup, discuss improvements, and propose changes.

Accessible VSHN Documentation

Alongside deployment definitions in CI/CD, GitOps, or other systems, we collaboratively maintain standardized VSHN documentation. This ensures a shared understanding and provides our DevOps engineers with a reliable starting point when you need support.

Problem Management

We track support-related incidents and problems in our ticketing system and classify them accordingly. This helps us identify root causes, recommend improvements, and leverage patterns and synergies across different deployments and customers.

Optional Services

On-Demand Engineering

We’re ready to engineer and implement changes to your deployment as needed. With access to your code and configuration repositories, and based on shared documentation, we can assist directly and keep the documentation up to date.

Backup and Restore Testing

We ensure that backup jobs run as designed and respond if they fail — the response process is defined in jointly created runbooks (usually with K8up and alerting rules). We also support restore tests or help define disaster recovery plans.

Variant: Dedicated Professional Service

In addition to best practices, shared documentation, and support by VSHN teams, a dedicated VSHN DevOps specialist becomes your go-to person — an expert in your environment and application. This engineer joins syncs, keeps documentation up to date, and is ready to answer questions and collaborate on planned work.

Pricing

We charge a monthly retainer to maintain documentation, review regularly with you, and be ready to support — optionally 24x7. Final pricing is defined in the scope of the full Solution; volume discounts or surcharges may apply for complex cases.

Standard Dedicated Professional Service

  • CHF 800.- / month for 1st application (up to 50 instances)

  • CHF 400.- / month for additional similar applications (in terms of automation & runtime platform)

  • CHF 2000.- / month for 1st application (up to 200 instances)

  • CHF 700.- / month for additional similar applications (in terms of automation & runtime platform)

Additional (temporary) test deployments of the application are covered (don’t count as additional).

Requirements

  • We must understand your application setup and deployment to support you effectively. A review and engineering alignment with VSHN ensures best practices and adequate documentation. We cannot support environments built without or outside collaboration with VSHN.

  • Collaboration, especially for changes, happens through the VSHN ticket system.

Access to Shared Documentation

  • Documentation and runbooks are maintained either in a VSHN system (usually our Wiki) or in your system — provided VSHN engineers can access it via federated authentication through our central IDP.

  • The customer is responsible for addressing recurring application-level issues based on our recommendations. If not resolved, VSHN may disable monitoring alerts to VSHN (forwarding only to customer contacts) until fixed.

Constraints and Limitations

Manual Effort by VSHN

  • Billed by the hour according to VSHN standard rates

  • Smaller changes (<1h effort) are usually implemented within one business day

  • Larger efforts are scheduled into upcoming sprints; urgency and importance are clarified with you

Scope

  • Applies to the application(s) defined in the Solution

  • Does not include other applications

  • Does not include application monitoring or alert handling — see Custom Application Monitoring Handling for that