View source for Software:Tailscale

{{Short description|Software company}}
{{Infobox company
| name = Tailscale Inc.
| logo = Tailscale-Logo-Black.svg
| type = [[Finance:Privately held company|Private]]
| foundation = 2019
| location = Toronto, Canada
| location_country = Canada
| key_people = {{unbulleted list|Avery Pennarun|David Crawshaw|David Carney|Brad Fitzpatrick}}
| industry = {{unbulleted list|Computer networking|[[Software-defined networking]]}}
| operating_income = 
| slogan = 
| net_income = 
| parent = 
| homepage = {{Official URL}}
| footnotes =
}}

'''Tailscale Inc.''' is a software company based in Toronto, Canada. Tailscale develops a partially open-source [[Software-defined networking|software-defined]] [[Mesh networking|mesh]] [[Virtual private network|virtual private network]] (VPN) and a web-based management service.{{efn|Although Tailscale sells VPN services, it is not a [[VPN service]] in the typical sense that is aimed at censorship bypasses,{{Citation needed|reason=Do typical VPNs provide censorship bypasses?|date=May 2022}} but at providing [[Mesh networking|mesh networking]]}}<ref>{{Cite web |first=Sarah |last=Rogers |date=2021-09-09 |title=Tailscale VPN review |url=https://www.techradar.com/reviews/tailscale-vpn |access-date=2022-04-13 |website=[[TechRadar]] |language=en |archive-url=https://archive.today/20210919020433/https://www.techradar.com/reviews/tailscale-vpn |archive-date=19 September 2021}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Vaughan-Nichols |first=Steven |title=Tailscale launches Wireguard-secured mesh network |url=https://www.zdnet.com/home-and-office/networking/tailscale-launches-wireguard-secured-mesh-network/ |access-date=2022-04-13 |website=[[ZDNet]] |language=en |archive-url=https://archive.today/20230223175120/https://www.zdnet.com/home-and-office/networking/tailscale-launches-wireguard-secured-mesh-network/ |archive-date=23 February 2023}}</ref> The company provides a [[Zero-configuration networking|zero config]] ''VPN as a service'' under the same name.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Hanselman|first=Scott|title=Using Tailscale on Windows to network more easily with WSL2 and Visual Studio Code|url=https://www.hanselman.com/blog/using-tailscale-on-windows-to-network-more-easily-with-wsl2-and-visual-studio-code|access-date=2021-02-01|website=www.hanselman.com|archive-url=https://archive.today/20140809111809/http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/nightwish-drummer-jukka-nevalainen-forced-to-take-break-from-band-due-to-health-issues/|archive-date=2014-08-09|url-status=live}}</ref>{{better|date=February 2023}}

{{Infobox software
| name = Tailscale
| developer = Tailscale Inc.
| latest_release_version = 1.58.0<ref>[https://github.com/tailscale/tailscale/releases "Tailscale releases"]</ref>
| latest_release_date = {{release date and age|2024|01|18}}
| operating_system = [[Software:Microsoft Windows|Microsoft Windows]], [[Software:MacOS|macOS]], [[Software:Linux|Linux]], [[Software:Android (operating system)|Android]], [[Software:IOS|iOS]], [[Software:TvOS|tvOS]]
| genre = [[Software-defined networking|SD-WAN]], [[Peer-to-peer|P2P]], [[Virtual private network|VPN]]
| license = BSD
| website = {{URL|https://tailscale.com}}
}}

== History ==
Founded in 2019 by Google engineers Avery Pennarun, David Crawshaw, David Carney, and Brad Fitzpatrick,<ref name="tcseriesb">{{Cite web |title=Tailscale lands $100 million to 'transform' enterprise VPNs with mesh technology |url=https://techcrunch.com/2022/05/04/tailscale-lands-100-million-to-transform-enterprise-vpns-with-mesh-technology/ |date=5 May 2022 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20230223174332/https://techcrunch.com/2022/05/04/tailscale-lands-100-million-to-transform-enterprise-vpns-with-mesh-technology/ |archive-date=23 February 2023 |work=TechCrunch |last=Kyle |first=Wiggers}}</ref> the company secured funding of $12 million in a [[Finance:Series A round|Series A round]] in November 2020 led by Accel with seed investors, Heavybit and Uncork Capital participating.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Dillet|first=Romain|title=Tailscale raises $12 million for its WireGuard-based corporate VPN|url=https://social.techcrunch.com/2020/11/10/tailscale-raises-12-million-for-its-wireguard-based-corporate-vpn/|access-date=2021-02-01|website=TechCrunch|date=10 November 2020 |language=en-US |archive-url=https://archive.today/20230223175010/https://techcrunch.com/2020/11/10/tailscale-raises-12-million-for-its-wireguard-based-corporate-vpn/ |archive-date=23 February 2023}}</ref> In May 2022, the company became a [[Finance:Unicorn|Unicorn]], raising a $100 million Series B round, led by CRV and Insight Partners, with participation from existing investors.{{r|tcseriesb}}<ref>{{Cite web |last=Tailscale |title=Tailscale raises $100M… to fix the Internet |url=https://tailscale.com/blog/series-b/ |access-date=2022-05-05 |website=Tailscale |date=4 May 2022 |language=en |archive-url=https://archive.today/20220506052045/https://tailscale.com/blog/series-b/ |archive-date=6 May 2022}}</ref>

The company's name is inspired from a research paper ''The Tail at Scale''{{efn|{{cite web|url=https://research.google/pubs/pub40801/ |title= The Tail at Scale |access-date=9 March 2021 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20211214150610/https://research.google/pubs/pub40801/ |archive-date=14 December 2021 |last1=Dean |first1=Jeffrey |last2=André Barroso |first2=Luiz |work=[[Company:Google|Google]]}} }} published by Google.<ref>{{cite AV media |title=Security Cryptography Whatever: Tailscale with Avery Pennarun & Brad Fitzpatrick |url=https://www.buzzsprout.com/1822302/9890092-tailscale-with-avery-pennarun-brad-fitzpatrick |archive-date=23 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230223185357/https://www.buzzsprout.com/1822302/9890092-tailscale-with-avery-pennarun-brad-fitzpatrick |date=15 Jan 2022 |via=archive.org |time=45m53s |access-date=23 February 2023 |url-status=bot: unknown }}</ref>

== Software ==
The open-source software acts in combination with the management service to establish [[Peer-to-peer|peer-to-peer]] or relayed VPN communication with other clients using the [[Software:WireGuard|WireGuard]] protocol. If the software fails to establish direct communication it falls back to using relays provided by the company. The IPv4 addresses given to clients are in the carrier-grade NAT reserved space. This was chosen to avoid interference with existing networks. The configuration also allows routing of traffic to networks behind the client on some clients.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Morgan|first=Ethel|title=Tailscale|url=https://ethulhu.co.uk/tailscale|access-date=2021-02-01|website=ethulhu.co.uk |archive-url=https://archive.today/20230223174752/https://ethulhu.co.uk/tailscale |archive-date=23 February 2023}}</ref>{{better|date=February 2023}}

== See also ==
* [[Software:LogMeIn Hamachi|LogMeIn Hamachi]]
* [[Software:ZeroTier|ZeroTier]]

== Notes ==
{{Notelist}}

== References ==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* {{twitter|tailscale}}
* {{GitHub|tailscale|Tailscale}}

[[Category:Mesh networking]]
[[Category:Companies (Computing)]]
[[Category:Companies]]

{{Sourceattribution|Tailscale|1}}