PostgreSQL Sovereignty: Beyond "Hosted in Switzerland"
Major managed PostgreSQL services: Amazon RDS, Google Cloud SQL, Azure Database for PostgreSQL. All run on US-owned infrastructure under US law. Your application data, financial records, and customer information are accessible under the CLOUD Act without Swiss judicial process.
Running PostgreSQL on Swiss infrastructure solves the data residency question. However, sovereignty is more than where data is stored. The EU Cloud Sovereignty Framework defines eight dimensions that determine whether your provider is truly sovereign.
PostgreSQL and the licence question
PostgreSQL is released under the PostgreSQL Licence, a permissive open-source licence similar to BSD and MIT. It places no restrictions on commercial use, distribution, or modification. There is no re-licensing risk, no dual-licence commercial trap, and no vendor controlling the project roadmap.
One of the most permissive open-source licences in production use, the PostgreSQL Licence means: full data portability via standard SQL and pg_dump, no lock-in through licence terms, and freedom to run PostgreSQL on any infrastructure you choose.
VSHN operates PostgreSQL using CloudNativePG, a fully open-source Kubernetes operator. CloudNativePG is a CNCF project. There is no proprietary service layer between your data and the database engine.
PostgreSQL sovereignty compared
| Dimension | Amazon RDS | Google Cloud SQL | Azure Database | VSHN Managed PostgreSQL |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ownership | Amazon (USA) | Google (USA) | Microsoft (USA) | VSHN AG (Switzerland) |
| Governing law | US law | US law | US law | Swiss law |
| CLOUD Act | Exposed | Exposed | Exposed | Not exposed |
| Data location | AWS EU/Zurich regions | GCP Zurich region | Azure EU regions | Switzerland (cloudscale.ch, Exoscale, or your choice) |
| Source code | Proprietary service layer | Proprietary service layer | Proprietary service layer | Fully open source (CloudNativePG) |
| Operations team | USA | USA | USA/India | Switzerland (Swiss-only option) |
| Certifications | SOC 2, ISO 27001 | SOC 2, ISO 27001 | SOC 2, ISO 27001 | ISO 27001, ISAE 3402 Type II |
VSHN sovereignty self-assessment
We applied the EU's Cloud Sovereignty Framework (v1.2.1, October 2025) to our own services. This framework was used to score providers in the EU's EUR 180M sovereign cloud tender in April 2026. Three pure-European providers achieved SEAL-3, while a consortium involving Google Cloud scored only SEAL-2.
This is a self-assessment, not a formal SEAL certification. We publish it for transparency so customers can evaluate our sovereignty profile using the same structured criteria the EU uses.
| # | Dimension | Weight | Assessment | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SOV-1 | Strategic | 15% | Strong | Swiss AG, no foreign parent, all shareholders Swiss citizens (Commercial Register) |
| SOV-2 | Legal | 10% | Strong | Swiss law (GTC), no CLOUD Act, EU adequacy decision |
| SOV-3 | Data & AI | 10% | Strong | Swiss DCs by default. Sovereign key management via Managed OpenBao + Swiss HSM |
| SOV-4 | Operational | 15% | Strong | Swiss 24/7 ops, Swiss-only support option. All services on vanilla Kubernetes |
| SOV-5 | Supply Chain | 20% | Strong | Infrastructure-agnostic: customer chooses provider. Open-source software |
| SOV-6 | Technology | 15% | Strong | 100% open source. VSHN contributes to K8up (CNCF), Crossplane providers, Project Syn |
| SOV-7 | Security | 10% | Strong | ISO 27001, ISAE 3402 Type II, Swiss SOC. FINMA-regulated customers |
| SOV-8 | Environmental | 5% | Moderate | DC operators: Green Datacenter AG (ISO 22301/27001/27701), Exoscale sustainability. VSHN CSR policy |
Overall: SEAL-3 equivalent. This is the same level achieved by the winners of the EU's own sovereignty tender. No provider worldwide achieved SEAL-4, as it requires fully EU/EEA-sourced hardware supply chains and open-source foundations. Structural gaps are shared by every cloud provider.
Try Swiss infrastructure: Servala (managed services, free trial), Exoscale (Swiss IaaS). Want help choosing? Contact us.
Get a sovereignty assessment for your database layer
Running Amazon RDS or Google Cloud SQL and concerned about jurisdictional risk? We assess your sovereignty profile against the EU framework and plan a migration to Swiss-hosted PostgreSQL.