Our Mission
Giving people the power to build their infrastructure with open-source materials
Our products empower millions of people around the world to build and support the best virtual infrastructure.
Our story
In 2022 Vates celebrated its 10th year birthday. From a software integrator to editor of a complete virtualization stack, we have a rich history, full of twists and turns and exciting adventures.
The awesome beginning
Vates is founded by Olivier, Nithida, and Julien in Grenoble, a French city located in the Alps, close to Lyon and the skiing stations. At the time, the company was an Open Source solution integrator and an audit company.
Xen Orchestra appears
The very first version of Xen Orchestra is born. Originally designed as an internal tool, it got the attention of some of Vates' original customers and benefits from a seed round of investments to become an Open Source solution with pro support for companies.
First commercial XOA
The very first commercial edition of Xen Orchestra was released in 2014 and just like that, Vates is now a software publisher.
Big customers
Vates continues to grow during this period, getting the recognition of more and more major companies around the globe. Kayak, Citrix, BNP Paribas and many others and many more are subscribing to Xen Orchestra Appliance. The team continue to grow and before the end of the year, we are 7 people working Full Time for Vates.
Fundraising XCP-ng
We started the XCP-ng project with Kickstarter funding and raised nearly 650% of our initial goal. XCP-ng project is born after a change in the pricing model and Open Source orientation of Citrix Hypervisor.
XCP-ng first release
XCP-ng 7.4, based on Citrix Hypervisor 7.4 is the very first release of our open source virtualization platform.
Million Euros Company
In the end of 2018, our company reached 1M EUR in turnover. Our team grew to 10 people working on both XCP-ng and Xen Orchestra. About a year after the launch of the XCP-ng project, our virtualization platform has been downloaded 18K times and more than 1.000 users are registered on the community forum - and that's only the beginning.
Innovation contest
The innovation contest helps XCP-ng benefit from a 1.2M EUR grant to invest in XCP-ng cybersecurity development. A big recognition (and financial help) for our project
Growing ecosystem
In the end of 2019, our team is almost 20 people FTE, 6 of them or working exclusively on the XCP-ng virtualization platform. During this year, we reached 1.3M EUR of turnover and we formed many company partnerships, developing an amazing solution working with XCP-ng (or going to) - among those partnership, Vates and LINBIT alliance to develop XOSTOR hyperconvergence solution based on drbd.
Joining the Linux Foundation
XCP-ng virtualization platform becomes part of the Linux Foundation as one of the Xen incubated projects. This is an important recognition for the project as well as for our commitment to Open Source.
Long Term Service edition
To meet the growing demand of our customers with the largest infrastructures, XCP-ng 8.2 becomes the first LTS edition available for our platform. Supported for a minimum of 5 years.
Kalray, Vates and Scaleway alliance
With the aim of providing an innovative solution for Datacenters, Vates, Scaleway and Kalray are joining forces. The emergence of DPUs (Data Processing Units) will be one of the pillars of future IT infrastructures and we want to be at the forefront of this innovation.
Joining RISC-V International
We believe that one of the future market revolutions will take place in open source hardware infrastructure, just as open source software has changed the way businesses operate in the past. That's why Vates has joined RISC-V International, with the aim of participating in this revolution by providing expertise on virtualization instructions in future open source CPUs.
Innovative solution in Gartner's virtualization guide
In 2022, Vates' solution, with XCP-ng and Xen Orchestra, is listed in the Gartner's guide in both "Representative Providers of Hypervisor-Based Server Virtualization" and "Representative Provider of Open-Source Virtualization Projects" (among some very large players like Amazon or VMware).
Vates gets a makeover
To celebrate the company's 10th anniversary, we worked with some great people who were able to convey the unique and cool identity of our startup. Our new graphic identity and the homogenization of our offer was born.
Continued recognition in Gartner's virtualization guide
Vates has once again been recognized in the Gartner Market Guide for Server Virtualization. We're listed as a "Representative Vendor", a testament to our significant role in this rapidly evolving market.
1M unique downloads
In 2023, Vates is composed of no less than 36 people, dedicated to developing, innovating and maintaining the Vates Virtualization Management Stack for many years to come. We've accomplished a lot, but we still feel like we're at the beginning of the adventure and our projects are still ongoing thanks to our community.
The rocket takes off
In 2024, our growth is soaring. We've expanded to over 60 team members and counting, while successfully bringing Fortune 500 companies onto our stack. We're powering more datacenters and public clouds than ever before!
XCP-ng 8.3 release
Vates releases XCP-ng 8.3, the latest milestone in the 8.x series. This version introduces support for Windows 11 via vTPM, a revamped visual identity aligned with XO Lite, and fully drops PV virtualization. It lays the groundwork for the upcoming LTS and the transition to XCP-ng 9.0.
Xen Winter Meetup organized by Vates
Vates hosts the Xen Winter Meetup 2025 at Université Grenoble Alpes. The event brings together developers, researchers, and students for technical talks and hands-on workshops, further cementing Vates’ role in the Xen Project ecosystem.
Strategic ecosystem partnerships
- EasyVirt: Integration of DC Scope with XCP-ng and Xen Orchestra for smarter resource monitoring and optimization.
- VyOS Networks: Collaboration to embed advanced networking capabilities into the Vates VMS stack, offering open alternatives to solutions like VMware NSX.
- Exodata: Partnership to offer a fully sovereign French cloud stack, combining Vates’ open-source virtualization with Exodata’s infrastructure and cybersecurity expertise.
- 2CRSi: Joint offering of pre-installed, high-performance servers with built-in Vates VMS to accelerate deployments and boost energy efficiency.
Enterprise adoption
Organizations such as Harman, NASA, Cloud Temple, NIST or NSF are now using Vates VMS components in their infrastructure, underscoring the reliability, flexibility, and maturity of Vates' open virtualization stack.
Our principles
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Kindness
We always have and always assume good intentions. If something is to blame, we blame the process, not the people. We share sucess and failure as a team!
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Openness
Open Source is our founding values, we truly believe that sharing knowledge and code is the right thing to do. We are always eager to partner with others (people as companies).
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Solidarity
Inside our company, we are always here to help people when they need assistance. Outside the company, we always try to assist our users, regardless of their status.
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Freedom
Freedom to work when and where you want, to be creative and think outside the box, to give opinion and provide constructive feedback.
Our leadership
The initial shareholder structure has 3 equal partners. Their profiles, as different as they are complementary, allow them to apprehend IT projects as a whole: Olivier Lambert, Nithida Vialle and Julien Fontanet.
Working at Vates
Vates is a company that has been growing steadily for 10 years. Many opportunities arise regularly. If you would like to join us, please send us your application - we try to answer to everyone.
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Our vision of pro support
Our main mission is to provide support for XCP-ng and Xen Orchestra. We attach particular importance to being out of the ordinary and thus accompany our users in their missions
Our users are talking about Vates' platform
Back up your XCP-ng with Xen Orchestra, deploy a hybrid infrastructure on XCP-ng, or simply administer thousands of VMs, discover how our customers have made XCP-ng and Xen Orchestra their best ally.