How IT companies assess software import independence in federal and regional authorities

The import independence of software in federal and regional authorities, according to experts from domestic IT companies, is insufficient. According to a survey conducted by TAdviser in the spring of 2022 among Russian vendors and integrators working with the public sector, software import independence in authorities is estimated at an average of 50-60%. That is, about half of the systems used are foreign developments or solutions based on them, experts say.

According to Konstantin Lyanguzov, head of the business unit for working with state authorities of Directum, the solution to this issue, first of all, limited funding. Someone was hindered by more urgent priority tasks, there were not enough resources to solve them, and in some cases the life of the products after the last changes was short, respectively, it was not time to carry out modernization and replacement was postponed.

On average, we can talk about the use of import-independent software in government agencies and companies with state participation at the level of 50% of the total mass of products. Of course, this is not enough in the current situation, such an indicator does not correspond to the previously indicated targets. But the situation has changed. Today it is a vital necessity. The pace of import substitution has already increased, and if financing this task does not crush them, then significant progress can be made by mid-2023, "explains Directum expert.

Now it is impossible to call software in federal and regional authorities independent, says Kirill Dyakov, managing partner of Mirapolis. According to him, the authorities continue to use foreign services from Google, Zoom, Microsoft and many others. Migration to Russian solutions is inevitable, but the pace will be different, he predicts. Business critical systems that block companies' processes will be replaced first. Fast migration will not work, especially for large projects - it takes time and resources. If the company uses cloud solutions, then the risks of data loss are high for it, so the likelihood of imminent migration to the Russian solution is higher.

Since the beginning of the import substitution program, many have simply analyzed, understood the scale of the move and left everything as it is. Now the deadlines are compressed, and the possibilities are limited, therefore, even considering that there are full-fledged Russian analogues, there is a risk of leaving for unlicensed software in the short and medium term, if the process is not legally regulated, "said Kirill Dyakov.

Of course, expert assessments are subjective because they represent companies operating in different segments and classes of IT solutions. Nevertheless, such a survey partly allows you to compare the vendor and the environment of the systems that they encounter during the implementation of IT projects.

Pavel Kashtanov, General Director of Synthellect, which develops the TESSA EDMS, estimates the indicator of import independence of government agencies at 60-70%. He notes that many Russian products operate on the basis of foreign system software - operating systems and database management systems. In addition, by switching to Russian products in terms of server software, many organizations continue to use operating systems and office packages from Microsoft, often their outdated versions. This is familiar to users, and the massive transition to new software for thousands of employees is organizationally difficult, requires a sharp strengthening of the support service and can lead to a temporary collapse in work.

Document management is easier in this sense than with many other software classes, since traditionally the EDMS market is dominated by solutions from domestic manufacturers, but there are also difficulties here. If the technical side of the platform architectural solution is built using imported databases, risks may arise. TESSA uses the.NET open source platform (.NET Core) and the free DBMS as the basic technologies. PostgreSQL In addition, our technological partners are Russian companies producing operating systems,, ALT Linux, Astra Linux RED OS Alter OS, etc., with them we conducted a series of special compatibility tests. The platform also successfully operates with alternative office applications (including the P7 office, LibreOffice, AlterOffice), and a fully functional cross-platform web client will provide users with access to all TESSA functions, regardless of the type of device and operating system used. Thus, if we talk about the prospects for complete import independence, it is important to switch to those solutions that work on the basis of open source technologies, the expert believes.

Alexander Nazarov, the sales director, Haulmont adds that many organizations only replace different systems when they become obsolete until completely unusable. This is due to the desire to save time and money, since import substitution requires not only the purchase of new software, but also data migration, modification in accordance with the peculiarities of workflows and integration with various systems.

In addition to this, both for import substitution projects and for others, an interested person is required, namely, he is sometimes not in the organization: there are those appointed and obliged, but there is no mover, "says Alexander Nazarov.

Alexey Peregudov, director of work with partners of the EOS company, which also represents the EDMS market, proposes to pay attention to several more reasons that prevent switching to domestic software and because of which the percentage of use of foreign solutions is still unreasonably high.

Let's forget about the money that is always not there. And let's forget about "inconvenient" and "dysfunctional." The latter, especially, is a very debatable concept. Can we change operating systems on work computers now? Yes. On all PCs? No. Why? Because there are historical applications used that cannot be ported to the Linux environment. Because there is a problem with peripheral hardware drivers, which is not so easy to replace now. Can we replace office packages? Here, rather yes. Servers OS? We can, but not everywhere. Virtualization tools, specialized application applications. There are things in the IT infrastructure that do not allow this to be done here and now. Can we achieve this? Of course, but you will have to remember about money. But, honestly, nothing prevents at least 80% of civil servants from working only on domestic software, "says Alexey Peregudov.

A number of experts are more critical of the current situation in this area. So, according to Alexander Belokrylov, General Director of Bellsoft, 80% of information systems use foreign software or Open Source without support.

Unfortunately, the realities are such that the customer begins to import after the execution of the risk - when the system has already stood up, - he explains.

Artem Grishkovsky, Commercial Director of Triaflai (Trusted Environment, part of the Group of company Systematica), estimates the full import independence of software in the authorities at only 10%. He notes that not all Russian systems are isolated from foreign technologies.

The possibility of import dependence is determined by the desire to import substitution - that is, if there is demand, then the supply on the domestic market will be formed and at the same time there are already serious products and reserves in the field of software, which allows you to replace foreign software and not lose automated tasks in functionality, - says the representative of Triaflai.

Information security experts pay attention to the lack of uniform standards for system software. Lev Matveev, chairman of the board of directors of SearchInform, says that the main stumbling block for import substitution is precisely the difficulties with operating systems and databases. There are domestic solutions, their quality is improving, but the lack of uniform standards creates difficulties for application software developers. They are forced to manage to make versions for each variation. In the case of operating systems, support dozens of different versions of Linux.

In practice, this means that you have to postpone the functional development of your own software and refine it for these different versions of the operating system. When import substitution was planned, one could expect that the market itself will reveal the most competitive core, i.e. one DBMS and OS of the most powerful will remain. In the current situation of emergency import substitution and the risk that any equipment will turn into a "brick," this path will have to be reduced with the help of a regulator, which, at least for government agencies, will select a single operating system and a single database. I see no other way out how to speed up the process of replacing application software with domestic software, - says Lev Matveev.

The head of the analytics department of "SearchInform" Alexei Parfentiev adds that in general it is too early to talk about import independence, since the problem is not solved by "naughty."

The replacement rate, of course, has increased, but I think no more than 15% of the public sector is still ready for a complete rejection of Western software, he said.

In addition, according to him, the issue with the Russian "iron" has not actually been resolved.

Without this, put at least all Russian software at once, the car remains vulnerable. For example, if a foreign manufacturer refuses to carry out service and supply components for the repair and assembly of new gadgets to Russia. At best, we will reach some independence from imports in five years if we mobilize development right now. So far, everything looks like a lot will have to start literally from scratch - take at least the production of microchips and other electronics, without which the release of Elbrus and Baikal has already "stood up," the expert notes.

Ruslan Rakhmetov, CEO of Security Vision, also speaks about the insufficient level of import-independent solutions. According to his estimates, the share of Russian software products and systems of its own development used in the authorities does not exceed 50%, and the remaining products are imported.

It should be noted that the use of publicly available Open Source solutions, which often replace commercial foreign products, can also pose a certain threat, since their software components and modules can be modified by a developer who complies with the requirements of foreign jurisdiction. Also in Russia, dependence on foreign hardware solutions is still high, and this is a significant risk, since some Chinese players began to leave the Russian market after Western manufacturers of telecommunications and network equipment. Full import independence can be prepared when a comprehensive information ecosystem is created that provides reliable and safe interaction between domestic hardware created at microelectronic factories within the country and Russian operating systems, drivers, system utilities, application software and information protection tools, explains the Security Vision expert.

And yet I want to end on a more optimistic note. And some developers of specialized solutions, in which cases on the basis of import substitution and import dependence are more than successful, can add positivity.

According to Alexey Lyubimov, CEO of 3iTech, a company that deals mainly with speech technologies and solutions for processing unstructured data, in this area, initially customers most often considered Russian software, regardless of the course on import substitution. According to him, only a Russian vendor can provide a truly high level of recognition in Russian. And even all other things being equal, the difference in value with a foreign decision differs by an order of magnitude. Also, we must not forget about the processing of personal data. Russian vendors have always had advantages here.

If we talk about engineering software and the provision of state and regional structures in the context of the requirements of the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 331 of March 05, 2021, then the farther from the center, the issues with import substitution are resolved better, they say in the group of companies "SeaSoft" (CSoft). This is due to the fact that Western decisions, which largely contradict domestic legislation, did not have time to penetrate the regions. In addition, the decisions of the Russian Government on the introduction of information modeling technologies in the design and construction industry played an important role here.

In terms of video communication, it can be argued that complete import independence is almost reality. Russian customers from the public sector were forced to look for domestic analogues of VKS systems back in 2014 in order to replace outdated equipment in the first wave of sanctions or expand existing networks, in most cases built on software and terminal equipment of foreign vendors - Poly Polycom (),,,, etc Cisco Lifesize. Avaya After the presidential decree in March 2022, which banned the use of foreign software at KII facilities, the number of requests from departments that, for some reason, did not completely switch to the domestic Aerospace Forces, or they needed additional licenses to scale the infrastructure, the company notes. Vinteo

In most cases, the situation in the Russian software market is already positive - it is high-quality, competitive and, as a rule, cheaper than imported analogues. In fact, when switching to domestic software, the customer is already fully working and does not incur losses, and can also save money, "adds Dmitry Seryi, Deputy Director and Co-Founder of Vinteo.

Vladimir Zalesky, managing partner of FIS, is also optimistic about the prospects. According to him, the time passed from 2014-2015 was enough for a generation of systems to change in mass, and the systems that came to replace were originally designed on Russian or open source technologies.

The prospects for complete import-independent software in the authorities can be talked about in a positive way. There is nothing that is insurmountable, especially if there is time and appropriate funding. Plus, Russian programmers and developers are one of the most professional, competent and in demand in the world, the expert says.

BIA Technologies believes that the public sector today is much less dependent on Western developments than the rest, since it initially installed mainly domestic software.

The few foreign ones that are present in the authorities can be relatively painless and quickly replaced. This can take from six months to one and a half years, the company believes.

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