Rostelecom removed VMware software and switched to the Russian virtualization system

2025: Project Completion

Public Joint Stock Company Rostelecom"" completed a large-scale migration of its virtual infrastructure from the American software VMware to the Russian Basis Dynamix platform. This became known on March 25, 2025. According to the operator, VMware vSphere vRealize more than 15 thousand virtual servers were transferred from the platforms.

According to CNews, the replacement affected the entire IT infrastructure of the company, including the corporate center and seven macro-regional branches. The project started in 2023 and covered not only current systems, but also archival, as well as non-targeted solutions, the transfer of which is scheduled for the end of 2025.

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Фото: Freepik

The Basis Dynamix platform was developed by Basis. The project used versions of Dynamix Standard and Dynamix Enterprise. They replaced VMware products designed for server virtualization and virtual machine management.

During the transition, the domestic utility Mind Migrate, developed by Mind Software, was used. This tool provided automatic migration of virtual machines, and also made it possible to redistribute loads between different clusters. Mind Software Commercial Director Georgy Dzhanoev noted that the use of Mind Migrate made it possible to minimize technological downtime and adapt the solution to the Rostelecom infrastructure.

The speed of virtual machine migration reached 300 servers per week. According to Denis Romanov, director of professional services at Basis, such rates are considered extremely high, especially given the scale and distribution of the operator's IT infrastructure.

The project was implemented by a team of 10 engineers from Rostelecom and its technological partners. Kirill Peschany, Vice President, Director for IT Operation and Infrastructure of the Rostelecom IT Block, stressed that manually such a transfer would take much longer and would require significant human resources.^[1]

2023: Project for a comprehensive transition to domestic virtualization solutions

Rostelecom and the Russian developer of regional services Basis have signed a long-term agreement on a comprehensive transition of the company to domestic virtualization solutions. This was announced on April 11, 2023 to TAdviser by representatives of Rostelecom. According to them, the agreement is designed for five years and includes the installation and technical support of software on the IT infrastructure of the Rostelecom group of companies, including subsidiaries. In addition, Basis organizes 30 thousand virtual desktops.

Photo: bcs-express.ru

"Rostelecom plans to comprehensively switch to domestic solutions for publishing server virtualizations applications and creating virtual workplaces," said IT Vadim Kartashev, director of operation and development of Rostelecom's infrastructure. - The transition of the company to the products of domestic developers, first of all, is associated with the need to replace foreign solutions. Foreign vendors left Russian market and stopped supplying new software, as well as supporting existing ones. "

Under the terms of the agreement, Basis will provide Rostelecom with access to the following set of company products:

• Basic Dynamix is a high-performance platform based on a dynamic infrastructure that allows you to manage virtual servers and containers;
• "Bas.WorkPlace" - software for creating a virtual desktop infrastructure;
• "Basiz.vCore" - hypervisor of the first type and virtualization management system, a universal software package for the enterprise IT infrastructure;
• "BasicVirtual Security" - a means of protecting information of virtualization systems and cloud platforms;
• BasicWorkPlace Security is a set of tools for organizing secure terminal access to closed and open security loops, ensuring that data is not transferred between them.

Import substitution is not the only reason for choosing Basis products, said Vadim Kartashev. Rostelecom is a large group of companies with complex business processes, for which flexible adaptation of an IT solution is important, and other manufacturers, he said, rarely give such an opportunity.

Recently, a large-scale pilot project to deploy VDI infrastructure using'Basis' products was completed. We have seen the functionality and applicability of solutions in the company's infrastructure. Now we are moving on to a large-scale deployment on the entire IT infrastructure of the Rostelecom group of companies, "added Vadim Kartashev.

Another important area of ​ ​ the agreement will be the transfer of Rostelecom's internal private cloud to the Basic Dynamix solution stack. According to the company's calculations, this will increase the level of infrastructure automation and resource allocation flexibility, enable internal devops commands to work in the Infrastructure-as-Code concept and, as a result, reduce the time for the company's new products to market.

"Our key task is to provide the customer with access to a platform of high degree of customization, which will allow organizing a complex hybrid scheme of remote work of employees. Solutions "Basis" will provide the client with virtual infrastructure and will allow seamless transition from foreign solutions to independent domestic ones, "said Ivan Ermakov, director of business development at Basis.

According to the TAdviser study, Basis virtualization is one of the most advanced among Russian solutions in terms of functionality, support and integration capabilities. "Basis" offers multi-product ecosystem with a single management system that covers the and segments. IaaS PaaS The company replaces solutions,,, and VMware Nutanix Microsoft Azure Stack Citrix other foreign vendors.