Interview of TAdviser with the head of outsourcing of computing infrastructures of CROC Renat Sayfutdinov

Renat Sayfutdinov: In the world of service in outsourcing of data centers have success, regardless of degree of a krizisnost of an economic situation long ago. In the West already sufficient operating experience of DPCs is accumulated, the market is segmented and standardized there. The Russian companies equal on global trends and try to make use of experience of foreign colleagues. Our customers understand need of minimization of current expenses, look for ways of their optimization. And outsourcing of DPCs is one of real options of this optimization. Earlier each Russian organization had own IT infrastructure, and now many prefer to use both the equipment, and IT examination on the terms of outsourcing.

Renat Sayfutdinov: Yes, it becomes a mainstream. According to analysts, this year the total amount of the Russian market is more than 20 billion rubles, and this indicator grows annually. Change of preferences can be shown, in particular, on cloud services: there was demand for the corporate IT infrastructures selected in a cloud.

Renat Sayfutdinov: Own IT infrastructure requires, as we know, maintenance, support, capital costs of acquisition new and upgrade of the old equipment. The customer can delegate the solution of these tasks on the outsourcing company. Besides, outsourcing allows to use more flexibly computing resources, receiving and using them as required — in that volume in what it is required for business during a specific time frame.

Renat Sayfutdinov: As it was already told, the customer saves on transfer of capital costs (CAPEX) to current, operational (OPEX). And it is connected with the fact that the customer should not buy the equipment, to be spent for its upgrade. The second article of economy is absence or serious decrease in the wages fund of IT specialists. And among expenses It should be noted monthly payment of services in providing computing powers, but I would not tell that it is additional, essentially new item of expenditure. It is transfer of expenses from category capital to operating rooms.

Renat Sayfutdinov: I think that taking into account perspective of 3-5 years expenses on IT according to both schemes — own data center and receiving services on the terms of outsourcing — will be approximately equal. But at the same time customers know that they service, support of the used equipment will not pour out in additional expenses for IT examination, upgrade, and, respectively, additional "rehypothecations" of the IT budget will not be required. Besides, we provide a guarantee of work of all solution in general, including SLA. It is necessary to remember also how the equipment and examination quickly becomes outdated, and we are responsible for their invariable quality and compliance to requirements of the customer.

Renat Sayfutdinov: Demand for services of data centers is observed literally from all companies, young and old — and from representatives of a segment of SMB, and from the enterprises of the Enterprise level. In an industry section it is possible to select retail in which revenue any economic crisis instantly is reflected. Respectively, CROC observes increase in requests from such customers as retail chain stores.

Renat Sayfutdinov: Situation today following: not all companies attended to the translation of the personal data and information systems working with them from foreign data centers in the Russian. And only units managed to make it according to requirements of the Russian legislation till September 1, 2015. Some companies are in process of search of options of migration of personal data to Russia. There are also such companies which so far did not even think of it, and would cost.

Renat Sayfutdinov: Loud process with public trial on results of checks of Roskomnadzor could change a situation, but such precedent did not happen yet. However there are examples when the company finds the name in the list of the planned checks of the controlling department and begins to show activity — looks for service provider, develops plans for data migration, trying to be in time to be prepared for date of check.

Renat Sayfutdinov: We implemented about ten projects on migration of personal data, customers select mainly a cloud as in this case process of transfer is performed quicker. But here it is worth noticing that we probably see only iceberg top: many companies use resources of our computing platforms not only only because of the law on PDN, they consider it as the solution of a complex of business challenges. Here also desire to increase reliability of work of the placed services, and the requirement to bigger flexibility of provision of services to final customers, and many other things can enter. Regarding outsourcing of DPCs I would like to note the project implemented by us for one large foreign cosmetic company. It was one of the few which executed migration of information systems on the Russian territory in full accordance with requirements of the legislation. The company treated process very responsibly, the customer independently designed the plan of migration. We were asked to design IT infrastructure which would satisfy to requirements of the IC. After the approval of the project we unrolled the corresponding landscape and started together with the customer directly migration. At the moment the support and maintenance of the postponed IT infrastructure enters our tasks.

Renat Sayfutdinov: After three years the customer has the right to select other provider. But already now, a year later, the company was convinced of our examination and customer focus. It as a result developed into one more joint project within which one more information system of the customer which is not connected with personal data of the Russian citizens any more will be transferred to our data center.

Renat Sayfutdinov: The most important factor is an economic crisis which forces the companies to look for ways of optimization of the IT costs. Devaluation helped the Russian IT-Business in respect of the competition to foreign data centers. Many nonresidents of the Russian Federation came to a conclusion that it is profitable to keep infrastructure in Russia not only because thus compliance to requirements of the legislation is provided. At a current rate of ruble foreign providers are less attractive, than Russian.

Renat Sayfutdinov: Yes, the market is quite competitive. And we offer not only outsourcing of IT infrastructures, but also the cloud services very popular in the West. In the current conditions the Russian cloud providers managed to declare themselves in the western market and to catch foreign customers.

Renat Sayfutdinov: Three options of cooperation are possible: a public cloud of CROC which customers can use for satisfaction of certain internal requirements; the selected cloud infrastructure in a format of a private cloud for the purpose of exclusive use by one customer; hybrid option. Among our clients there are retailers using hybrid format of a cloud. It is especially relevant for retail as in peaks of seasonal sales attendance of the websites sharply increases, and it allows to increase computing powers quickly.

Renat Sayfutdinov: CROC has a wide experience of use of the most various equipment, it is a lot of existing affiliate programs. We show the maximum flexibility, are always ready to listen and consider the customer's wishes in respect of use of the specific equipment. But at the same time on the basis of wide experience and on a ratio "the price — quality" we select the equipment of Dell on which, in particular, computing resources of a public cloud of CROC are completely implemented. Besides, in the project of the cosmetic IT infrastructure company mentioned by me above it is constructed based on servers and DWH from Dell.

Renat Sayfutdinov: As you know, one of the main and the services which already became traditional — placement of racks in DPC (co-location), and in this plan of any changes in the market you should not expect. The trend on placement of IT infrastructure of state companies in commercial data centers is browsed. Demand for SaaS and PaaS continues to grow. Customers understood that use of cloud services is more effective than traditional approach both in respect of resources, and in respect of finance. It is possible to tell that the Russian customers broke the certain psychological barrier existing earlier and today even large industrial enterprises place the IT infrastructures in clouds.

Renat Sayfutdinov: Really, there is still a certain category of the customers having prejudice concerning clouds in respect of information security support. In this case we or offer option with the selected cloud IT infrastructure, or a hybrid cloud when the vital information is placed in a private cloud, on the selected equipment, and other — in a public cloud of CROC.

Renat Sayfutdinov: Yes, and such customers there is a lot of. They resort, generally to service in placement of racks with the equipment. We based on our DPC, for example, project and we build reserve data centers. In particular, in due time unrolled infrastructure of RDPC for Inteza bank. But among our clients it is possible to note also other financial institutions — the payment operators who are using a cloud of CROC and underwent certification on the standard of security of PCI DSS.

Renat Sayfutdinov: Unfortunately, the new anti-terrorist law does not detail technical requirements to information storage, only storage lives of messages of users — up to 6 months are stated in the document. But considering the nature of the used data and the requirement to operators to provide information to state agencies, we can assume that implementation of the law will require purchase of new powerful storage systems, creation of reserve platforms with the mechanism of remote replication and communication channels with high capacity. It will give an impetus for development of the relevant producers of hardware and telecommunication equipment. Meanwhile, we expect also gain in the market of providers of services of the DPCs having at the moment free capacities which will be able to be provided by the TV set to operators in lease.