VITA is an incorporated, non-profit organization of vendors and users having a common market interest in real-time, modular embedded computing systems. Founded in 1984, VITA believes in and champions open system architectures as opposed to proprietary system architectures. VITA's activities are international in scope. The functions performed by VITA are technical, promotional and user related and are aimed at increasing the total market size, providing vendors additional market exposure and providing users with timely technical information.

Today, VITA's mission includes not only promoting VMEbus, but promoting the very concept of open technology as embodied in the many standards currently under development within the VITA Standards Organization. Virtually all players in all markets from the smallest to the largest now use the word "open" in their company and product promotions. The VITA name is now synonymous with open systems.

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VITA has operations in Europe to support regional activities. VITA's Technical Coordinator for European Activities is Hermann Strass. Hermann has been active in the open systems movement since its inception and is a knowledgeable expert on VME and other bus architectures. Hermann offers VMEbus training in English or German at customers' premises worldwide. One or two day courses are available and cover introduction to VMEbus concepts and an overview of the latest developments