About

We like to know how things work.

IT studio in Rouen for SMBs. We love open source, small structures, and work that gets explained well.

Our conviction

Open source. Because we like to know how things work.

Everything we deploy, people wrote before us, in the open. We use it, we learn from it, we give back to it. Less a strategy than a belonging.

~/initial · why-open-source
$cat ~/initial/why-open-source
  • >The code we deploy was written by thousands of people before us.
  • >We use it, we learn it, we enrich it, we return it.
  • >Read, understand, document, pass on: that's the craft.
  • >Less an ethic than a belonging.
$

Our daily stack

LinuxProxmoxPostgreSQLNextcloudOnlyOfficeResticBorgBackupWireGuardpfSenseZabbixGrafanaPrometheusMattermostTrueNASAnsibleDocker

And more, depending on the need. All documented, verifiable, replaceable.

Our story

How we got here.

Initial Infrastructures wasn't born from a business plan. Five chapters about what we love, what we learned, and what we're trying to build.

  1. 01

    Chapter 01 · The standstill

    One morning, an entire company can come to a halt because of a single switch, a missing backup, or a misconfigured server.

    Most infrastructures stay invisible until the moment they fail.

    That's how we got started.

  2. 02

    Chapter 02 · The foundations

    Before the software, the dashboards and the AI, there are the basics.

    A stable network. Clean systems. Infrastructure built to last.

    Our work is to build those foundations.

  3. 03

    Chapter 03 · The ground

    We mostly work with small businesses, SMBs, workshops, practices, and structures where every breakdown has an immediate impact.

    So we favor systems that are understandable, documented, and maintainable.

  4. 04

    Chapter 04 · Transmission

    Everything we install, we document: configurations, technical choices, procedures, access.

    The goal is for the knowledge to stay with you. So that someone else can take over, understand, and continue.

    An infrastructure is only truly solid when someone other than the person who set it up can run it.

  5. 05

    Chapter 05 · Initial

    Initial Infrastructures was born around a simple idea.

    Build systems that are reliable, clear, and meant to last.

We are not alone

The State is going there. Critical institutions already are.

Open source isn't a gamble. It's a path French administrations and sensitive players have been taking for years, in production, at scale.

Référence

French National Gendarmerie

80,000 workstations on Ubuntu (Gendbuntu) since 2008 · 17 years of production

Référence

DINUM · SILL

Inter-ministerial open source software base recommended for the State

Référence

French State Digital Suite

Tchap, Resana, OnlyOffice, Nextcloud deployed for public agents

Référence

DGFiP

LibreOffice deployed across the agent fleet (French Tax Authority)

Référence

ANSSI

Recommends open source for sensitive systems (RGS, SecNumCloud)

Référence

Ministry of Education

Linux and OnlyOffice used in several academies

Public sources · DINUM, ANSSI, French Ministry of the Interior
The studio

Small, in Rouen, and we like it that way.

We don't chase headcount. We chase the right job, done well, with a single contact who knows what they're talking about.

ParisRouen49.44° N · 1.10° E

Operational studio

Rouen, France

Target

SMBs · 1 to 100 workstations

Approach

Architect mindset

Commitment

Transferable documentation

IT isn't a private club. If it's badly explained, it's because it's badly understood.

Ready to take back control?

Let's discuss your infrastructure. Audit, diagnosis, or just a technical discussion: the first step towards a controlled architecture.