KupiVip: Transition from German to Russian

Egor Hludnev: The company already has an experience of placement of the equipment in external DPC: earlier we rented with firmness - places in one of data centers of Germany. The solution "move" from Germany and it was accepted to place the equipment in Russia in 2013. We began to study the market of services of DPC in Russia and came to a conclusion that today domestic providers have an optimal price relation and qualities. Especially as the begun growth of currency rate led to excessive costs for cooperation with foreign provider. Soon there were also known changes of the legislation according to which personal data of Russians should be placed in DPCs in the territory of the country. For today clients of KupiVip.ru are more than 16.5 million people across all Russia, and as the market leader of e-commerce, we should provide to our users the maximum opportunities of data protection according to the new law. Having analyzed offers of the leading data centers of Russia, we selected TrustInfo. Compliance of DPC to the Tier III level was a basic condition.

TAdviser: What else criteria were important?

Egor Hludnev: The present of DPC – its engineering systems and methods of service and also existence a znachitelnogor of number of the large and famous customers having positive experience of cooperation about TrustInfo.

But we paid special attention to availability level indicators – at the level of Tier III they make 99.982%, i.e. the data center of such level can stand idle no more than 1.5 hours a year. It allows to guarantee the uninterrupted customer service delivery that for us, considering the highly competitive market of retail, very important.

Also It should be noted ample opportunities of scaling and a universal portfolio of services of DPC: business will grow, the IT landscape – to change, and we want to be sure that if necessary to increase the volume of the used resources the supplier will be able to make it quickly and with observance of our corporate standards in the field of IT. The fact that the DPC TrustInfo are included into one of the largest Russian IT groups – I-Teco, also played a role.

TAdviser: What advantages were got by the company thanks to service?

Egor Hludnev: First of all, it is guarantees of continuity of operation of the equipment placed in DPC. In TrustInfo double reservation of all key systems therefore it is possible not to be afraid of interruptions in power supply or operation of cooling systems what the server hardware is extremely sensitive to. Actually, it is one of the major cases to select data center not below Tier III as at this level such "secure" of all systems is obligatory.

We also had an opportunity to use the qualitative high-speed links of communication provided by several providers with whom TrustInfo cooperates. And at the same time are saved from a routine which is inevitable with assistance of own DPC: upgrade and hardware maintenance, personnel training, security and access control. It gives a free hand and releases time for development of core business which in e-commerce very strongly depends on the infrastructure moments.

TAdviser: As far as such approach (outsourcing of IT infrastructure) is typical for the sphere of e-commerce? Why?

Egor Hludnev: The e-commerce segment is one of leaders in IT outsourcing use as this model allows to combine several advantages: fast deployment of business at rather low costs of an infrastructure component and access to professional examination. The matter is that not all companies can contain full-fledged IT department which specialists equally well understand all aspects of IT. In case of outsourcing such competences are on the party of provider, and the customer, in fact, rents them – as well as other resources of DPC.

Advantage of outsourcing is also the predictability and transparency of costs, an opportunity to flexibly regulate consumption of necessary services and to spend money only for what is really necessary for business.

TAdviser: In your opinion in what way the service industry of DPC will develop? Whether "classics" – placement of the equipment, technical support, lease of communication channels – or complex approach will be more demanded (the platform + service including providing the equipment for deployment of virtual resources)?

Egor Hludnev: For small and medium business and startups it is simpler to use the SaaS model as it does not require the big capital investments in software and the equipment. For large business by more priority there will be the first option, and such situation can proceed the next several years.

Changes in preference of clients will depend in many respects on how the industry of information security will develop. And anyway, the tone will be set by large providers and big data centers as they have more opportunities to provide high-quality, highly protected service. The most popular will be suppliers who have sufficient competences and can guarantee to the clients safety of the resources entrusted them. For example, conditions of our cooperation about TrustInfo assume accurately – constantly – the registered regulations of response to different situations, pro-active condition monitoring of the equipment, detailed analytical reports. Anyway, the priority choice of clients will be the provider who builds the work is transparent for the client, with guarantees of reliability and based on modern DPC.