Vates

Vates is a French open source software publisher that builds virtualisation technology and positions it as an alternative to VMware. It develops XCP-ng, a Xen-based type 1 hypervisor, and Xen Orchestra, a web interface for managing XCP-ng that also handles agentless virtual machine backup, disaster recovery, automation and monitoring.

The company packages these as Vates VMS, a commercial bundle that adds XO Lite, the XOSTOR storage layer and the XO Proxy backup component, together with professional support. Its pitch is that the hypervisor itself has no licence fee and no limits, while the paid subscription covers support and the supported bundle.

Pricing is a subscription charged per host per year. Vates says this has no limit on CPU or RAM and no feature restrictions, which it sets against the more complicated licensing of proprietary vendors. Actual prices were not shown on the page read.

Vates says it was founded in 2012 and describes itself as a French publisher. Its site states that it raised 30 million euros from IRIS and Bpifrance. Users it names include the University of Washington, BedRock Streaming, Kayak, Web.com, Harman and Playtonic Games. The pages read gave no street address, so no city is stated here.

Key facts

• Based in: France
• Founded: 2012
• Products: XCP-ng, Xen Orchestra, Vates VMS
• Funding: 30 million euros from IRIS and Bpifrance
• Pricing: subscription per host per year
• Named users: University of Washington, Kayak, Web.com, Harman