Nine runs servers and Kubernetes clusters in Zurich and keeps them patched. Pilae operates the open-source apps themselves, on your premises or dedicated machines, with every change approved and recorded.
- What they sell
- Managed servers, managed Kubernetes (NKE), the Deploio app engine, databases and colocation
- Where it runs
- Datacentres in and around Zurich
- Their certifications
- ISO 27001 and ISO 9001, as stated on their site
- Their support
- 24/7 on NKE; 24/7 with the optional SLA on managed servers
- What we sell
- Operated open-source or source-available apps, on your premises or in Pilae Cloud
- Migration included
- Yes, at a fixed price agreed before it starts
What each one actually covers
Thirteen things an open-source estate needs done. Their column is filled in from www.nine.ch.
| Capability | Nine | Pilae |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy | ||
| One-click deploy from a curated cataloguePick the app, name the users, and it is sized, provisioned and running. | Partly | Yes |
| Migration onto the platform, run for youYour data out of the system it is in today, rehearsed before it is cut over. | No | Yes |
| SSO and identity wired into each appKeycloak, Entra ID, Google Workspace or Okta, configured on the app itself. | Partly | Yes |
| Keep it current | ||
| Updates applied for you, not just announcedThe release is read, staged and applied. You are not the one doing it. | Partly | Yes |
| Per-app CVE and advisory trackingThe advisory, the affected version and the fix version, per app you run. | Partly | Yes |
| Changes land in a window you approvedYour timezone, your hours, agreed before anything is touched. | Partly | Yes |
| Staged and checked before productionThe upgrade runs somewhere safe first, and the checks have to pass. | No | Yes |
| Prove it | ||
| Restore drills, not just backupsThe backup is restored on a schedule, because an untested backup is a hope. | Partly | Yes |
| A record of every restoreWho restored what, from which file, into which service, and whether it worked. | No | Yes |
| A change log an auditor can readEvery action, the person who took it, the outcome, inside your perimeter. | No | Yes |
| See it | ||
| Monitoring and alerting on the appsNot just the host: the application, its checks, and someone who answers. | Yes | Yes |
| Logs and metrics exported to your stackOpenTelemetry, or straight into the SIEM your security team already runs. | Partly | Yes |
| Run it | ||
| An agent that operates the estate with youAsk for a change in words; it plans it, shows you, and waits for approval. | No | Yes |
Pilae vs Nine, in words
A tick says whether something is covered. These say how.
| What is being compared | Nine | Pilae |
|---|---|---|
| What you are buying | Managed infrastructure — servers, clusters and data services — for the software you deploy. | The applications themselves, operated by Pilae engineers, on a plan quoted on request. |
| Who operates the app | Nine operates the server, the cluster and its tooling. Your application on top is yours. | Pilae operates the app — deployment, updates, backups, monitoring and incident response. |
| When an update lands | Nine updates the servers and clusters it runs. Your application updates when you update it. | The Pilae Agent plans each change, waits for your approval, applies it in your window and records it. |
| Identity | Managed Shibboleth among their managed services. Wiring each of your apps is yours. | Each app wired to your directory, through Keycloak or Entra ID, as part of onboarding. |
| Proving a backup works | Backups and disaster recovery included on managed servers and NKE. | Daily encrypted offsite backups, and a restore test every month, recorded in the console. |
| Where it runs | Nine's datacentres in Zurich. | Your premises, or any of 12 Pilae Cloud regions, six of them in Switzerland and the EU, hybrid or air-gapped. |
| Making a change | A ticket to their service desk, or your own deployment pipeline. | A sentence to the Pilae Agent. It plans the change, shows you, and waits for approval. |
You ask for the change. The agent does the work.
Pilae Agent runs inside your perimeter and proposes each change as a plan you read before it runs. Nothing lands without your approval, and every action goes into the same change log as ours.
“Upgrade Odoo in Sunday night’s window”
Runs the upgrade against a staging copy with your custom modules, shows you what changed, and applies it on Sunday once you approve.
“Is our GitLab still on a supported release?”
Compares the running version with the upstream support window and the advisories that apply, and proposes the upgrade path, one major version at a time, for your approval.
Managed hosting stops at the application
Nine is an established Zurich managed service provider. It runs managed servers, managed Kubernetes with Argo CD, Prometheus and Grafana included, an app engine called Deploio, managed databases and colocation, from datacentres in and around Zurich. It states ISO 27001 and ISO 9001 certification and offers 24/7 support. For a team deploying its own code in Switzerland, it is a strong option.
What Nine manages is the platform. The open-source apps your organisation adopted — Nextcloud, Keycloak, n8n — are still yours to configure, upgrade, connect to your directory and restore when something goes wrong.
Pilae operates those apps. That is the unit you buy.
What your contract includes
The apps, operated. Open-source or source-available apps from the catalogue, each under its own published licence, with onboarding at a fixed price.
Changes with approval. The Pilae Agent plans each change, waits for your approval, applies it in your window and records it in the console.
Backups you can prove. Daily, encrypted, offsite in the country you choose, with a restore test every month. See backups.
Watched around the clock. 60-second probes and machine metrics, with alerts that reach Pilae engineers at any hour. See monitoring.
Where you need it. Your own premises, Pilae Cloud in any of 12 regions, six of them in Switzerland and the EU, hybrid or air-gapped, with apps reachable only on a private network.
Moving from Nine
A migration is a service, not a support article. This is the sequence we run, and it is in the fixed price.
Separate your code from adopted software
Your own services can stay on Nine. The open-source apps you adopted are what Pilae takes on.
Inventory the adopted apps
Versions, data, integrations, and who last upgraded each one.
Stand them up beside the old ones
On your premises or in Pilae Cloud, wired to your directory, with nothing switched off yet.
Move the data with a rehearsal
Once to learn the timings, once for real, with the old server live until every check passes.
Then we operate it
Monitoring, backups, monthly restore tests and approved changes in your window, all recorded.
Nine still fits when
- You need Kubernetes or a managed LAMP-style server for your own code, operated in Zurich.
- Colocation or housing of your own hardware in a Swiss datacentre is part of the brief.
- An ISO 27001 certificate held by the provider itself is a procurement requirement today.
Everywhere else, Pilae
The moment the estate has to stay patched, stay proven and stay auditable without someone in your building doing it by hand, the comparison stops being close.