On-premise vs SaaS
Harness Chaos Engineering offers two deployment options to meet your organization's requirements. Choose between the fully managed SaaS solution or deploy the Self-Managed Enterprise Edition on-premises.
Harness Chaos Engineering SaaS
Overview
Harness SaaS is a fully managed, cloud-hosted solution that provides immediate access to chaos engineering capabilities without infrastructure setup or maintenance overhead.
Key Features
- Quick Setup: Start running chaos experiments within minutes
- Managed Infrastructure: No need to manage underlying platform components
- Automatic Updates: Always access the latest features and patches
- Enterprise ChaosHub: Built-in access to 200+ pre-built chaos faults
- AIDA Support: AI Development Assistant for creating governance policies
What's Included
- Complete Platform: Full chaos engineering capabilities out-of-the-box
- Enterprise ChaosHub: Access to comprehensive fault library
- Harness AIDA: AI assistant for policy creation and optimization
- Managed Services: Platform maintenance handled by Harness
- Standard Integrations: Built-in connectors for popular tools
Ideal For
- Organizations wanting to get started quickly
- Teams focused on application development over infrastructure
- Companies with standard compliance requirements
- Development and testing environments
Self-Managed Enterprise Edition (On-Premise)
Overview
The Self-Managed Enterprise Edition allows you to run Harness Chaos Engineering entirely within your own infrastructure, providing complete control over your chaos engineering environment.
Key Features
- Complete Data Control: All data remains within your infrastructure
- Feature Parity: Same capabilities as SaaS with minor timeline differences
- Network Isolation: Deploy in air-gapped or restricted environments
- Custom Configuration: Tailor the platform to your specific needs
- Enterprise Integration: LDAP, SSO, and custom authentication
Architecture Components
- Chaos Control Plane: Manages experiments and orchestration
- Database Layer: MongoDB and TimescaleDB for data storage
- Monitoring Stack: Prometheus and Grafana for observability
- Authentication Service: User management and access control
- Load Balancer: NGINX or Istio virtual services
Infrastructure Requirements
Minimum Requirements
- CPU: 16 cores total
- Memory: 32 GB RAM
- Storage: 500 GB SSD
- Kubernetes: v1.21+ (any CNCF-certified distribution)
Recommended for Production
- CPU: 32+ cores
- Memory: 64+ GB RAM
- Storage: 1+ TB NVMe SSD
- High Availability: Multi-node setup with redundancy
Deployment Options
- Cloud: Deploy on public cloud Kubernetes services
- Connected: On-premises with internet connectivity
- Air-gapped: Completely isolated environments
- Signed Certificates: Custom certificate management
Limitations Compared to SaaS
- Enterprise ChaosHub: Not connected by default
- Contact Harness Support for access
- Can be added as a custom ChaosHub
- Harness AIDA: AI Development Assistant not available
- Updates: Manual deployment of platform updates required
- Maintenance: Customer responsibility for platform operations
Feature Comparison
| Feature | SaaS | Self-Managed Enterprise |
|---|---|---|
| Setup Time | Minutes | Days to Weeks |
| Platform Maintenance | Managed by Harness | Customer Responsibility |
| Feature Updates | Automatic | Manual Deployment |
| Enterprise ChaosHub | ✅ Included | ❌ Requires Setup |
| Harness AIDA | ✅ Available | ❌ Not Available |
| Data Location | Harness Cloud | Customer Infrastructure |
| Air-gapped Deployment | ❌ Not Supported | ✅ Supported |
| Custom Integrations | Standard APIs | Full API Access |
| Compliance Control | Shared Responsibility | Full Customer Control |
Supported Platforms (Both Deployments)
Both SaaS and Self-Managed Enterprise Edition support the same target platforms:
Kubernetes Distributions
- Amazon EKS (k8s 1.21+)
- Azure AKS (k8s 1.21+)
- Google GKE (k8s 1.21+)
- Red Hat OpenShift (k8s 1.21+)
- Rancher (k8s 1.21+)
- VMware Tanzu (k8s 1.21+)
- Self-managed clusters (k8s 1.21+)
Operating Systems
- Ubuntu 16.04+
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7+
- CentOS 7+
- Debian 10+
- Fedora 30+
- openSUSE Leap 15.4+
Chaos Fault Categories
Both deployments support the same fault types across Linux, Kubernetes, Windows, VMware, AWS, GCP, and Azure platforms.
Making the Decision
Choose SaaS If You:
- Want to get started quickly with minimal setup
- Prefer managed services and automatic updates
- Need immediate access to Enterprise ChaosHub
- Want to use Harness AIDA for policy creation
- Have standard security and compliance requirements
Choose Self-Managed Enterprise Edition If You:
- Have strict data sovereignty requirements
- Need to deploy in air-gapped environments
- Require complete control over the platform
- Operate in highly regulated industries
- Have existing on-premises infrastructure expertise
- Need custom security implementations
Getting Started
SaaS Deployment
- Sign Up: Create your Harness account at app.harness.io
- Create Project: Set up your first chaos engineering project
- Connect Infrastructure: Link your Kubernetes clusters or cloud accounts
- Run First Experiment: Follow the getting started guide
Self-Managed Enterprise Edition
- Contact Sales: Discuss licensing and requirements
- Plan Infrastructure: Review system requirements
- Install Platform: Deploy using Helm charts
- Configure Access: Set up authentication and networking
- Connect ChaosHub: Request Enterprise ChaosHub access if needed
Support
SaaS Support
- Included Support: Platform maintenance and updates
- Community Resources: Documentation, forums, and examples
- Enterprise Support: Available for enterprise customers
Self-Managed Support
- Installation Guidance: Professional services available
- Platform Updates: Customer-managed deployment
- Enterprise Support: Dedicated support for enterprise customers
- Community Resources: Access to documentation and forums
Next Steps
- Review Requirements: Assess your security, compliance, and operational needs
- Compare Options: Use the feature comparison to evaluate both deployments
- Plan Deployment: Choose the option that best fits your organization
- Get Started: Follow the appropriate getting started guide
For detailed information about supported platforms and limitations, see What's Supported.