Share of Russian solutions in major cos' IT infrastructure expected to reach 75% in 1-2 years - experts
MOSCOW. Dec 5 (Interfax) - The share of Russian information technology companies' products in the infrastructure of major Russian companies will grow to 75% in the next one to two years, systems integrator K2Tech said in a study based on interviews with representatives of 116 companies with revenue upwards of 10 billion rubles.
The study found that 68% of Russian companies have begun import substitution projects, but so far they have replaced only 10% to 50% of foreign products, depending on the sector.
Only 13% of companies have roadmaps for import substitution with set migration deadlines. The rest are approaching the issue fairly chaotically and regularly turn to IT companies for advice on replacing given components of their IT infrastructure with domestic products, the company said.
More than 50% of major Russian companies continue to actively use products from foreign vendors, maintaining them independently or with the help of Russian service partners, as well as through parallel imports. Furthermore, 64% of companies believe that common IT solutions cannot be fully replaced by Russian products.
Survey participants believe that at present it is most difficult to replace a number of solutions from Microsoft (office software, mail server, directory service); solutions and services for managing projects and joint work; information security solutions; virtualization tools; ERP systems; database management systems; business intelligence systems; and custom, foremost high performance, server equipment.
Respondents believe that Russian analogs cannot fully replace the features of standard solutions from foreign vendors and point to problems with Russian solutions' compatibility with existing IT infrastructure. In general, they expect the transition to Russian products and solutions to be difficult.
"The caution in replacing the solutions of departed vendors is due to the fact that migration is a difficult, complex process that requires preliminary testing of products - how compatible are they with one another, can they be integrated into existing infrastructure," K2Tech deputy CEO for business development Igor Zeldets was quoted as saying in the company materials.
"Partnership between customers, integrators and vendors, which makes it possible to develop features for the needs of the business through collaboration with one another and feedback, becomes very important in the process of migration," he said.
K2Tech said the main constraint for customers' import substitution projects and development of IT infrastructure in general is a lack of financial resources. This was cited by 44% of respondents, while 22% said the main problem is a shortage of IT professionals.
"In the past two years, demand for IT workers has grown by 18%. The shortage of specialists amounted to 500,000-700,000 people. This is particularly evident on the 1C market. Due to a sharp increase in demand for the vendor's solutions, businesses and IT companies have faced a shortage of highly skilled workers whose competencies are needed in projects to migrate to 1C:ERP," the company said.
In general, the main challenges in the area of IT for major Russian companies in the next two years will in one way or another be related to import substitution projects, developing information security systems and transitioning to the use of cloud solutions, the study's authors reckon.
"The Russian cloud solutions market has grown by more than 40% in the past two years. The popularity of cloud technologies is growing rapidly, particularly amid the unavailability of equipment and shortage of IT professionals," the study said.
In addition, demand is expected to grow for servicing the engineering systems of data processing centers, and major customers are expected to increase internal development of products to solve specific (industry) problems and put them on the market, including with the involvement of IT integrators.