MOSCOW, March 25Domestic “clouds” can completely replace Microsoft products, to which access will soon disappear, and over the past 5-10 years there has been virtually no demand for cloud services of an American developer among large Russian companies, said a partner of the League of Digital Economy, director of the League’s cloud solutions Mikhail Barablin.
Earlier in March, Microsoft Corporation announced in a letter to customers that starting March 20, it would close access to management and design programs for Russian companies, this would also affect cloud solutions. Amazon sent a similar letter. The restrictions are being introduced as part of the 12th package of sanctions from the European Union, which was adopted on December 18. It limits the supply of business analytics software and other products to Russia.
Later, Vice President of Softline Group of Companies Andrey Blagorazumov said that Microsoft representatives are discussing postponing the suspension of access to some of the company’s services, including cloud services, in the Russian Federation from March 20 to the end of the month, which gives time to set up the operation of an alternative infrastructure, while the shutdown will not affect products for individuals.
«In our experience, over the past five to ten years there have been no significant implementations of Microsoft cloud services for large customers, especially for government organizations. In our opinion, such products are not significant for industries… All tasks that were performed using Microsoft services can be solved by Russian analogues. Domestic developments have fewer advanced functions, but there are already quite a lot of Russian “clouds”,” Barablin said.
He also noted that Microsoft services have not been very popular in Russia for a long time due to the relatively high cost in terms of the number of employee jobs. “The answer is simple — these solutions do not perform significant functions,” the expert added.
According to him, domestic services are distinguished by their simplicity, accessibility and economic attractiveness, as well as a more understandable support model. He noted that almost all large companies do not depend on foreign IT solutions, and especially on cloud services.
«The main problem is the habits of users. It will take them some time to get used to new solutions,» Barablin said, adding that the demand for Russian cloud solutions is still actively growing.