Hikube is the Kubernetes-native private cloud platform built and operated by Hidora SA, a Geneva-based hosting provider founded in 2016 by Matthieu Robin. Hidora started out as a Jelastic PaaS partner for Swiss developers and launched Hikube – a CNCF-based sovereign alternative to AWS, Azure and GCP – in 2023.
Hikube’s whole infrastructure compute, storage and network is hosted exclusively in Switzerland, across three physically separate data centres in Geneva, the canton of Vaud (Gland) and Lucerne, with data synchronously replicated between all three sites.
Features & Services
Hikube’s catalogue treats every resource – a Kubernetes cluster, a VM, a database, a storage bucket – as an API-addressable object deployed the same way. Core services include:
- Managed Kubernetes – CNCF-certified clusters based on Talos with a managed control plane, Cilium CNI, native autoscaling and preconfigured add-ons (cert-manager, FluxCD), compatible with kubectl, Helm, FluxCD/ArgoCD and Terraform.
- Cloud instances (VMs) – Virtual machines running Ubuntu, Debian, AlmaLinux, Windows Server and more, with automatic reboot on node failure, hot resize, snapshots and cloud-init support; VMware (VMDK), Proxmox (QCOW2) and ISO imports are supported for migration.
- GPU as a Service – dedicated NVIDIA L4, L40S, A100, H100 and RTX PRO 6000 GPUs, consumable from a VM or directly from a Kubernetes pod via the NVIDIA device plugin, aimed at fine-tuning, inference and other AI/ML workloads that customers want to keep on Swiss soil.
- Managed databases – PostgreSQL, MariaDB, Redis, MongoDB and ClickHouse, with automatic replication, failover and S3-based backups.
- Streaming & messaging – managed Kafka, RabbitMQ and NATS for event streaming and queuing.
- S3-compatible object storage – AWS-compatible buckets, triple-replicated across the three Swiss sites, compatible with the AWS CLI, boto3, Velero and rclone. Gouvernance and Compliance mode available.
Developer Experience
Console
Observability is handled through a multi-tenant console built on Grafana, VictoriaMetrics and VictoriaLogs, deployed inside each customer’s own organisation so metrics and logs are never pooled across customers; a parent organisation view aggregates dashboards across a customer’s projects (production, staging, development).
Documentation
Hikube maintains a public, versioned documentation portal (available in French, English, Italian and German) covering getting-started guides, per-service references (Kubernetes, compute, GPU, databases, messaging, storage) and IaC tooling, plus a public status page and an “ideas & roadmap” board.
Sovereignty & Compliance
As a Swiss rather than EU-based provider, Hikube sits outside the scope of the EU Cloud Sovereignty Framework, which puts an emphasis on EU legal-entity and EU-funding. Its sovereignty case rests on a straightforward foundation: full legal independence from the US Cloud Act, underpinned by an all-Swiss corporate and operational footprint; infrastructure, staff and legal entity all based in Switzerland.
- Jurisdiction: Hidora SA is a Swiss company headquartered in Lancy (Geneva); Hikube markets itself as subject to Swiss law only, with infrastructure, staff and legal entity all based in Switzerland.
- Data locality: all data and compute stay within the three-site Swiss architecture, with synchronous, real-time replication. According to Hidora, it can provide a Data Processing Agreement and pre-fill GDPR/nFADP compliance questionnaires on request.
- Openness / portability: built on open standards (Kubernetes, S3); Hidora is a CNCF Silver Member and Kubernetes Certified Service Provider (KCSP), which it argues keeps workloads, manifests and Terraform modules portable to any other CNCF-compatible provider without modification.
- On-premises option: Hikube can be deployed on customer-owned infrastructure (VMware, bare metal or private cloud) for customers with regulatory requirements to keep the platform inside their own walls. Separately, Hidora also offers on-premises installation of the older Virtuozzo/Jelastic PaaS platform it has run since 2016.
Data Centres
Hikube operates from three independent, Swiss-only sites, each individually certified and each contributing to a triple-replicated, synchronous-write architecture so that the loss of an entire site does not interrupt service:
| Country | City | Name |
|---|---|---|
 Switzerland | Lucerne | EWL Stollen Lucerne |
| Switzerland | Plan-les-Ouates | Stack Infrastructure GEN01 |
| Switzerland | Gland | Stack Infrastructure GEN02 |
The Lucerne site is built into a hardened underground bunker with lake-water cooling. The Geneva site is also notable for reinjecting recovered heat into the local CAD-ZIPLO district heating network, reportedly covering up to 75% of the surrounding industrial zone’s heating demand.
You can also look at the Hikube data centres on the Data Centre Map.
Environmental Policy
All three data centres run on renewable (hydro) electricity. Hidora also holds the EcoEntreprise label, a Swiss sustainable-development/CSR benchmark and a Responsibility Europe CSR certification.
Certifications
ISO 14001
PCI DSSFurthermore, the Lucerne site of Hikube holds a TÜVIT TSI Level III (extended) certificate and participates in the Climate Neutral Data Centre Pact.
Hikube holds “Swiss Label” / “Swiss Hosting” marks, industry labels certifying Swiss-only data hosting and Hidora is a CNCF Silver Member and Kubernetes Certified Service Provider (KCSP) and an EcoEntreprise.
Conclusion
Hikube runs an open-standards stack (Kubernetes, S3) on entirely Swiss-owned, Swiss-located, renewably-powered infrastructure, with triple-site synchronous replication as a real differentiator against most regional providers of its size.
It covers both ends of the stack: raw infrastructure (Kubernetes, VMs) and a solid managed-services layer (databases, messaging, object storage, GPU), so teams can work at whichever level suits them without switching providers. Its natural audience is Swiss and European organisations – finance, healthcare, public sector – that need to keep data and legal exposure inside Switzerland specifically.
Resources
- Hikube – https://hikube.cloud/en/
- Hikube documentation – https://docs.hikube.cloud/en/
- Hikube Infrastructure / green-IT – https://hikube.cloud/en/company/infrastructure
- Hikube status page – https://status.hikube.cloud
- Hidora (parent company) – https://hidora.io/en/
- Hidora – Hikube product page – https://hidora.io/en/hikube
Compare with another provider
- HeadquartersPetit-Lancy, Geneva, Switzerland
- Parent companyHidora
- Cloud since2023
- ISINprivately owned
- Websitehikube.cloud
