Data center technologies. TAdviser 2025 Review

How the technology market for data centers is developing today, what Russian manufacturers offer to customers and operators of data centers, and how successful the import substitution process is in this area - in the TAdviser review.

According to most of the experts surveyed, the Russian market for data centers and technologies for data centers is in the stage of active development. With the increase in the pace of digitalization and the transition to cloud solutions, the demand for data centers has grown significantly. Large commercial companies, as well as government organizations, pay great attention to the development of their own data center infrastructure or use provider services. The increase in demand for data center services is due to the increase in data volumes and the need to store, process and analyze them.

The catalyst is largely the public sector, which continues to rapidly increase computing power. The data center infrastructure plays a key role in supporting high-load systems: big data analytics platforms, data marts, cloud storage, etc.

By 2024, the total number of all standing places [1]had grown by more than 17%, compared with the previous period. Market participants note that this trend continues in 2025.

At the end of last year and preliminary forecasts for the future, we see very good market growth prospects, despite certain problems in our industry. In terms of aggregate indicators, the data center market has both grown and continues to grow. We communicate with customers, talk with them about the development of their implementation projects and based on this we build quite optimistic forecasts. Now the center of network solutions "Jet Infosystems" participates in several projects, where customers have adopted large-scale long-term programs for the development of their infrastructure, for which we are also developing solutions for the construction of data centers. We see that enterprises continue to implement digital transformation programs in their technological processes, in their business model. This leads to a radical increase in computing power and an increase in the need for construction of both large and small data centers, - comments Vsevolod Vorobyov, head of the data center of the network solutions center "Jet Infosystems."

At the same time, the market experienced a shortage of capacity from an oversupply of customers. Commercial data centers cannot offer the necessary number of locations and meet all customer requirements, including those related to the availability of high-load racks. In addition, by 2025, the cost of rent increased markedly.

This is largely due to the high interest rate and, as a result, the freezing by large companies of projects for the construction of their own data centers. In the past two years, corporate customers have preferred rental of racks from leading operators. Due to the tangible shortage of standing places in just a year, the cost of renting increased to 30%, - explains Konstantin Zinoviev, director of the engineering infrastructure department of the Rubytech Group.

To fill the gaps, many enterprises began to build their own data centers, instead of renting racks. Under current conditions, such a campaign is more effective and profitable.

We have noted many times that there has been a shortage of standing places on the market for many years. Russia is in the stage of active digital transformation, data volumes are growing, so more and more data centers will be required. But at the same time, the construction of data centers is a resource-intensive and long process, for this reason the shortage of standing places will continue in the foreseeable future. In terms of quality, Russian data centers, including ours, are one of the best in the world. We have new facilities, a high level of service. But certainly not everything is perfect. There is a shortage of resources, price volatility, an increase in the key rate - all this complicates or increases the time for the construction and commissioning of new data centers, "says Ilya Hala, General Director of the 3data data center network.

The high key rate has a negative impact on the start of new construction projects due to the fact that the period of return on investment in the project is very long, and until there are significant changes in economic conditions, unfortunately, nothing will change. Capital investments in the construction of a data center are very significant and with a high key rate, we have two ways: either the economic environment is changing for the better, that is, prices for services are rising sharply, or additional support from the state appears, for example, subsidies, targeted lending for the construction of a data center and other measures, - notes Alexey Zabrodin, technical director of RTK-data center.

Many commercial data centers and engineering equipment suppliers struggle with long-term planning. As a result, there are often messages about the suspension of the construction of new data centers or the postponement of the completion of projects. This situation will continue for the next few years, - said Denis Gasilin, Marketing Director of C3 Solutions.

The demand for the capacity of data centers is increasing faster than supply. The active development of artificial intelligence, machine learning, data analytics, cloud technologies - all this requires capacity. Therefore, for objective reasons, the modern data center market in Russia can be assessed as a "seller market." We see that the sale of "futures" at the capacity of data centers becomes a common practice, even at the stage of their construction - with 50% of the facility's readiness, customers can already occupy more than 70% of the capacity. On the one hand, this gives the customer guarantees during strategic planning, on the other hand, data center operators get the opportunity to speed up construction and move on to the next facilities, - comments Dmitry Yusupov, Commercial Director of DataRu Cloud.

One of the key trends in recent years is the development of regional projects for the construction of data centers. Now many data centers are being built in the Urals, Siberia, the Far East and, according to experts, this trend will continue to gain momentum. In the meantime, the bulk of data centers of large companies are concentrated in the capital region. Moscow and the region account for more than 70% of the total number of stands.

St. Petersburg is not far behind Moscow. According to the St. Petersburg Information and Analytical Center, as of November 2024, the excess of demand over supply was 700 racks. According to analysts, within five years the demand for data center services in St. Petersburg will grow in the range from 75% to 250%.

Large companies need a robust infrastructure that provides not only high performance, but also security for their data. Investments in new data centers are becoming part of the long-term plans of companies aimed at strengthening their position in the market.

Commercial data centers are becoming an object of increased interest from investors, developers, industrial enterprises and energy companies. The growth in the investment attractiveness of the data center is also due to the growth in demand for cloud services provided using the closest to the user periphery of the cloud network infrastructure (collocated resources): rental services for racks and entire data centers, - comments Semyon Kogan, Advisor to the General Director for the formation of the technical strategy of the T8.

Another key trend is the import substitution of the hardware base, including information protection tools. For critical information infrastructure and state information systems, the use of Russian solutions is a mandatory requirement.

Higher relevance of import substitution at application level. In particular, over the past year, customer demand for domestic software tools for building a virtualization environment has significantly increased, which have proven security functions certified in accordance with the requirements of the FSTEC of Russia, "says Mikhail Yanenko, director and founder of the K2-9b Group of companies (part of the Inferit ecosystem, Softline Group).

According to Andrei Aksenov, General Director of IXcellerate, the main market drivers were projects of key players in the digital economy, expansion and scaling of cloud services, growth in data volumes and tightening requirements for localization and their protection, as well as the development of projects based on artificial intelligence.

In 2023-2024, many large companies tested various solutions, implemented small MVP projects, and some launched AI services into industrial operation. Most of the projects were implemented on cloud resources without sensitive data. By the end of 2025, we should expect more large projects using AI in the perimeter of companies.

This trend forces companies to take a fresh look at the requirements for the computing and engineering infrastructure of the data center. Servers with GPUs used for AI services are many times more expensive, consume much more electricity and emit a lot of heat. You have to look for a compromise or invest in the data center infrastructure (additional power, water cooling, etc.), or buy specialized GPU servers designed to provide minimal power consumption and optimal air cooling, "says Kirill Gladyshev, head of AI business development at FIGURA.

Sanctions restrictions have led to a serious change in the landscape in the market, especially in terms of manufacturers and their service support. Problems continue with the supply of iron due to sanctions pressure from the West on Russia, as well as China, from where the necessary parts for data centers were mainly purchased. The development of some projects was also negatively affected by limited access to financing. The market is also affected by the shortage of qualified personnel in terms of the design, construction and operation of the data center.

One of the challenges remains the high cost of financing and the low availability of loans for the construction of new data centers, as well as the lack of investment in the development and development of domestic engineering solutions for the data center market. As Pavel Eroshkin, Product Director of Octopus Group of Companies Yuztech notes, an important point in organizing the work of the data center is uninterrupted power supply. The cost of electricity in Russia is relatively high, which increases the cost of operating the data center. Also, some regions of Russia may face restrictions on access to necessary infrastructure, such as fast communication networks, for example.

But even taking into account the difficulties, we see bright prospects: the market is growing, new projects are starting, and the old ones are being implemented as planned. We expect that in the next two years there will be an increase in volume, capacity, and the number of standing places by 20-30% - although the actual development of events will depend on many factors. Now we see that demand exceeds supply, - adds Vsevolod Vorobyov.

The refinancing rate is now high. In addition, banks do not issue loans. Therefore, with an increase in the cost of equipment, its maintenance and labor, data centers will raise prices commensurate with the increase in inflation, and maybe more. Mass construction of new data centers will slow down, as a result - the shortage of racks in the market will continue, at least remaining at the same level. Other trends include a reduction in customer data centers for capital expenditures and migration to service models, such as clouds. As well as an increase in the demand for electricity for data center racks, including those used for AI-based systems, - predicts Maria Markova, commercial director of Linx.

According to Sergei Torgovtsev, Deputy Technical Director of AMT GROUP, the demand for cloud services will grow, and serious players in the corporate segment will continue to build their data centers, gradually moving from Moscow and St. Petersburg to large regional centers.

Despite the obvious barriers, many commercial and enterprise data centers were launched last year. This is due to an increase in digitalization and the active transition of large companies to the clouds. Therefore, we can assume further growth in demand in the industry and positive development dynamics, - agrees Denis Gasilin.

The Russian data center market is in an interesting stage of development and growth. New technology solutions are being introduced, such as hyperconverged infrastructure, software-defined networks, NGFW, as well as the development of cloud services and solutions for automating infrastructure management. There are new players on the market. The prospects are associated with a further increase in demand for data center services, increased use of cloud solutions and increased requirements for infrastructure reliability and security, "adds Andrei Korolyov, Head of Presale Trinities Integration.

Digitalization of business and government participation in the IT sector may be an incentive to create new capacities. At the same time, in a few years, when the construction cycles are completed, a situation with an excess of supply may arise, which will lead to price stabilization and strengthening the positions of large players.

It is expected that by 2028 the number of standing places will increase, reaching 148 thousand, and the market volume in monetary terms will grow 2.8 times - up to 121 billion rubles, which will double than in 2023. However, the market will face a number of challenges, including an increase in the cost of electricity and the need for import substitution of equipment. Nevertheless, efforts to improve energy efficiency and support from the state create conditions for their further development, - said Dmitry Khomutov, director of Ideco.

Data center computing infrastructure is traditionally considered a conservative area. Despite rapid changes in IT, the emergence of new technologies and approaches, the foundation of IT infrastructure remains unchanged. At the same time, the evolution of the data center does not stand still and is moving towards unification, automation and maximum flexibility.

Training neural networks, tasks related to BI, require a huge amount of computing power, located very tightly. This increases the power requirements per server rack in the data center. If earlier customers rented a 5-kilowatt rack, now in each terms of reference the requirements have increased - from 6 to 20 kW.

Existing capacities are no longer satisfied with customers. The projects that were completed and put into operation in 2024, and even more so those that were created earlier, were built according to traditional rather low technological standards. For example, the energy density per rack in the data center in existing projects is 5-10 kW, which does not meet modern requirements at all. At the moment, the norm is 20 kW per rack at least, and the market is already looking for technological solutions and sites for the construction of a data center with an energy consumption density of up to 40-60 kW per rack. We are likely to see either projects to modernize existing data centers, or a significant redesign of technological requirements in new projects, based on an analysis of current market needs, "says Ruslan Zadinov, Director of the Clouds and Data Department at Reksoft.

Data centers are actively implementing intelligent monitoring systems, smart sockets and racks that track the physical location of servers, heat generation and power consumption in real time. As a result, hardware management integrates with automation, turning modern data centers into flexible, self-driving systems.

More companies are moving from centralized data centers to distributed models, where computing resources are located closer to data sources (edge computing). This is especially true for tasks that require low latency, such as IoT, video surveillance, and real-time data processing. Integrating local data centers with public and private clouds allows companies to flexibly manage resources, scale, and optimize costs.

We are seeing a trend towards creating hybrid environments that combine data center resources and cloud services. Many customers prefer to use clouds to back up data, as well as to scale their computing power online. The cloud is becoming more popular, but this does not affect the demand for colocation, - said Ilya Hala, CEO of the 3data data center network.

Companies create their own cloud platforms that aggregate all the underlying layers and provide IT infrastructure in the form of services. Such hybrid clouds can provide access to virtual machines created in different virtualization systems, as well as to other, more complex and complex services: databases, Kubernetes clusters, queue systems, etc.

Sergey Terekhin, Deputy Director of the CPVK for Integrated Presale at Jet Infosystems, identifies three key areas in the development of computing infrastructure: standardization of server equipment, the evolution of storage systems and the growth of unified platforms.

Modern data centers have finally switched to typical equipment (commodity hardware). The server segment is dominated by x86 solutions, the so-called pizza boxes are standard servers with a height of 1-2U. Previously, such systems were actively promoted by large cloud providers: Google, Microsoft and AWS. These are many servers of the same type running software platforms, today they have become the corporate standard. The market is increasingly moving to software defined storages (SDS). At the same time, even in the SDS environment, more and more customers are moving away from proprietary and vendor platforms to Open-Source solutions. Now data storage is often built on the same unified servers, but with disk on board and specialized software that turns them into scalable distributed storage systems, explains Sergey Terekhin.

The expert also notes that earlier, even in typed data centers, one could find a variety of solutions for different problems. Today, the computing infrastructure is reduced to a single resource pool, on top of which a unified platform is deployed - for example, for virtualization or containerization. Such solutions provide flexibility: virtual machines and services can seamlessly move between servers and even between different data centers.

We can expect that niche and specialized solutions will gradually leave the market. In particular, software defined storages over time can completely displace traditional hardware storage systems, leaving specialized equipment only for narrow tasks.

Sergey Tradesmen, Deputy Technical Director of AMT GROUP, highlights among the main trends the transition to high-density architectures and the use of low-power servers, increasing interest in virtualization and containerization, the development of automation and orchestration technologies that help improve load management and ensure high availability of services.

In this segment, Russian manufacturers have established the development and production of their own solutions, both in the x86/64 server segment and in the OCP server equipment market. And it is in this segment that we can now note the tendency not just to release new server models on the market and enter them into the register of goods of Russian origin, but to develop our own production, improve the quality of products and strive for a greater percentage of localization, "says Sergey Tradesmen.

Virtualization remains a key technology for leveraging data center resources, so companies and organizations continue to deploy multi-core processors for hypervisors everywhere. Containerization technologies (Docker, Kubernetes) are becoming the standard for application deployment and management. They provide greater flexibility, faster deployment, and efficient resource utilization. To solve the problems of artificial intelligence, machine learning and big data analysis, companies and organizations actively use specialized accelerators (GPU, FPGA, TPU). As for the choice of hardware server platforms, Russia is increasingly abandoning blade platforms due to problems with vendor lock-in in terms of scaling and pricing. In addition, promising types of NVMe form factors are being actively introduced into server platforms, "adds Konstantin Radaev, CTO of SONET.

The number of projects based on the Open Computing Project (OCP) standard is growing. Until a few years ago, these were fragmentary projects and pilot zones. Now experts note that the projects of new data centers are either built entirely on this technology, which saves up to 40% on the operation of systems, or, at least, have significant areas of premises based on OCP.

The focus on the 5th and 6th generations of processors, a significant increase in computing density and the use of AMD EPYC processors are also visible.

Import substitution shifted the vector from traditional on-premium solutions to more flexible models. And not only technological, but also business. For example, a subscription interaction where computing resources are provided at a lower cost than your own data center deployment. It also solves the problem that a number of players in the Russian market are talking about - the lack of territories and capacities for increasing computing.

Large customers are actively moving towards import substitution. In this case, there is a shift from a point replacement of individual components to the creation of a holistic trusted IT landscape. As part of this trend, a new import-replaced infrastructure is being built in parallel with the existing one. Thus, entire machine rooms appear, equipped with domestic software and hardware complexes. This makes it possible to significantly simplify and speed up the import substitution process, ensuring a smooth transition without risks to the continuity of business processes, "says Anton Karasev, CTO of Skala^r.

Russian IT companies generally follow global trends, there is a gradual increase in the density of the equipment used, and server utilization is growing. Import substitution in the IT part occurs in about the same way as, for example, in the automotive sector. At Russian factories, servers are assembled or equipped with pre-assembled components, - said Alexey Eremenko, director of the data center business unit at VK.

Basically, there is a transition to servers and hardware systems manufactured in Russia, and more and more systems are emerging that can replace Western high-performance systems with Russian solutions, for this purpose application developers and equipment manufacturers are united. But there are also limitations, for example, our servers still remain within the framework of two processor architectures, but this is a task for the future, - comments Alexey Zakharov, director of technological consulting at Axiom JDK.

Domestic solutions can not always compete with foreign ones in terms of performance and reliability, so many companies continue to use proven technologies.

In the field of server import substitution, customers in half of cases consider Russian systems that are not included in the registry (that is, OEMs of Chinese platforms such as Gigabyte, Inspure and similar). Registry equipment is almost 1.5 times more expensive, while it has no significant differences and is used only where there is state regulation of projects. The use of Class A brands (HPE, DELL) in large data centers is limited. In the field of software for data centers, it is hereditary used, VMware but Russian cloud platforms are increasingly being considered. There are a lot of self-written systems based on open source software, that is, the customer develops all the software inside himself, - explains the Sergey Caplius director of the department of computing systems. STEP LOGIC

According to Andrei Korolev, head of the presale department of Trinities Integration, new models of Russian equipment are now appearing, and customers are already switching or will continue to switch to it in the coming years.

Storage technologies are evolving in several key areas focused on improving efficiency, reliability, scalability, and cost savings.

Increase storage capacity and density. Hard drive manufacturers are increasing their storage capacity with technologies that can reach 20 TB or more. In the field of solid state drives (SSDs), new developments already provide over 64 TB of capacity.

Object storage. By implementing object storage, you can handle vast amounts of unstructured data for high availability and scalability.

If earlier the market was traditionally determined by classic DSS, now two key trends are clearly traced. First, the share of software-defined storage is increasing. Secondly, the demand for object storage is growing, as modern backup applications are increasingly using them as the main backend. Year after year, these trends only intensify, as evidenced by the growing number of implementations of such solutions both in the commercial sector and in government agencies, "says Anton Karasev, technical director of the Skala^r.

In private corporate data centers, companies are now more likely to use traditional dedicated storage or hyperconverged systems (HCIs) to store data online. The first are more versatile, simple and reliable compared to HCI, which are well suited to a limited range of tasks. For example, for virtual desktops that require horizontal scaling. A hyperconverged infrastructure integrates servers, storage, and networks into a single system, thereby simplifying data center scaling and reducing costs.

DSS supports block storage for virtualization clusters and are also relevant. databases Since file access to data is now less in demand, customers are increasing the need for object storage to accommodate information system components and Docker containers. As the main type of medium for operational data of the company, - SSD collectors are used HDD , and they are used by them to store backups, archives and volumetric non-compressible data. The NVMe connection interface is becoming more popular than SAS. It allows you to increase performance and reduce cost, - adds Konstantin Radaev, CTO of SONET.

In the Russian market, storage manufacturers can be counted using the fingers of one hand, although if you look at the entire market, you get the feeling that they have already exceeded a hundred. But all this is not so, these are variations of software DSS using server hardware from various manufacturers, in terms of functionality they will all be the same, except for what software they chose as the basis. We have only two completely classic hardware systems in Russia, which are gradually catching up with world manufacturers in terms of functionality and performance, - said Boris Eroshin, senior system architect of ICL Services.

The expert notes that so far there are no systems on the market with disaster recovery clusters, de-publishing functionality like that of world vendors. At the same time, in terms of performance in IOPS, Russian developments are already competing with foreign ones. Also, domestic developers are not inferior in terms of alternative levels of RAID fault tolerance, which give greater reliability in contrast to foreign ones.

According to Sergei Torgovtsev, Deputy Technical Director of AMT GROUP, there is no offer from domestic manufacturers in the Hi-End or senior Mid-range DSS segments. Russian products, mainly built within the framework of the concept of software-defined storage, are just beginning to advance. In general, we can say that the import substitution process in the field of storage technologies is actively developing. Russian manufacturers are working to create competitive solutions, but to achieve the level of international analogues, it is necessary to continue investments in development and innovation.

Improving safety. Backup and recovery systems are actively evolving, including snapshots and data replication to remote data centers.

Automation and AI analytics. Data center storage technologies are increasingly using automation and artificial intelligence mechanisms to optimize storage and data management.

Today's IT infrastructure is increasingly complex and distributed. Managing and processing data on your own becomes almost impossible. Artificial intelligence will optimize the operation of the data center, for example, predict the load, manage resources and ensure security. Machine learning will automate tasks in the data center, for example, efficiently configure servers, manage configuration and ensure uninterrupted operation. The growth of sensor connectivity leads to the emergence of a huge amount of data that needs to be stored, processed and analyzed in data centers. Thus, the development of the Internet of Things will lead to an increase in the need for data center management, - says Pavel Eroshkin, Product Director of Octopus, Yuztech Group of Companies.

Import substitution in the field of data protection. Operators who comply with the 152-FZ and undergo IP certification are increasingly using equipment and hardware systems from domestic manufacturers to ensure the protection of personal data.

The main trend in storage development is the transition from traditional storage to cloud and hybrid models that provide flexible scaling and efficient load sharing. In parallel, import substitution accelerates the development of domestic solutions, including storage and backup systems, which reduces dependence on foreign technologies. Another trend is the growing need for distributed storage, especially among large companies and government organizations, where territorial resiliency is critical, corresponding to the Tier 3 and higher data center level. Even more attention is paid to cybersecurity issues. Protecting data and backups from attacks, including ransomware, is becoming a priority for both business and government agencies, "comments Igor Shkonda, Head of Storage Systems at Jet Infosystems.

Judging by the 2024 projects, some companies are ready to give preference to Western vendors to satisfy some of the requests. Even though the cost of such systems is much higher, and support is many times more difficult. The maturity of technologies, the breadth of the product line and the proven reliability when used under high load are often more determining factors than the price and proximity of the vendor. Therefore, in my opinion, in order to increase the share of the use of domestic systems, Russian manufacturers should pay attention to these aspects, - said Ruslan Zadinov, director of the Clouds and Data department of Reksoft.

Import substitution has contributed to current processes, Russian players are emerging in the market of classic data storage systems, as well as software for hyper-converged solutions, but it will still take a lot of time and investment to create fully functional solutions similar to foreign ones, "says Andrei Korolyov, head of the presale department" Trinities Integration. "

S3 storage applications. Such storage facilities have practically no growth limits, and in combination with Russian software and equipment, can provide a significant increase in performance and have disaster resistance and reliability functions. The main trend in large companies is the use of these technologies in the PAC.

From the list of advanced functionality, DSS are fixed as a standard for dynamic data distribution technology across all disks in a pool. The use of containerization to separate DSS services is actively developing.

At the same time, the development of these technologies from scratch requires significant time, financial and human resources. In this regard, domestic solutions are at the level of the basic functionality of corporate DSS ten years ago. In terms of software-defined DSS (SDS), the situation with the number of developments looks better. However, these are either open-source solutions at the initial stage, or mature, previously highly specialized products. Now they are being adapted for universal operational storage tasks. The situation is gradually improving, and Russian solutions are already working, although, in some cases, with "childhood diseases," comments Konstantin Radaev.

Storage technologies are undergoing significant changes. The focus shifts to software-defined systems that can efficiently distribute load and scale based on business needs.

As in the case of the computing infrastructure, import substitution occurs, but foreign technologies are still mainly used for high-performance solutions, while domestic developments are successfully used in less critical segments, sums up Andrei Zubkov, head of the MONS project office (KORUS Consulting Group of Companies).

The focus of the data center's network infrastructure is inextricably linked to the widespread adoption of HPC systems that require network infrastructure availability, minimal latency, and scalability and reliability.

The main trends that experts note in this segment:

Creation and development of automation and orchestration systems

In this direction, market participants expect in the near future the emergence of new products for effective management of the network architecture of data centers.

Growing Computing Demands

High rates of digitalization of business and government agencies lead to the need to create more reliable, flexible and scalable solutions in the field of data center network infrastructure.

Increasing Need for Power Savings

Energy costs are one of the main elements that have an impact on data center operating costs. In this regard, operators are beginning to actively invest in new technologies that will help reduce electricity consumption and improve the overall efficiency of managed infrastructure.

Reducing power consumption will result in better prices for customers using the data center's grid infrastructure. You can reduce energy costs, including through virtualization and redistribution, depending on the current load, of the main functions between data centers, - said Semyon Kogan, advisor to the general director for the formation of the technical strategy of the T8.

Network Infrastructure Virtualization

Traditional hardware networks do not provide the flexibility required to manage modern workloads, especially in cloud and hybrid environments. SDN (Software-Defined Networking) replaces physical switches and routers with software solutions, making network infrastructure management more dynamic, scalable, and automated.

The main reason for the growing interest in virtualization was the increase in data volumes and the spread of multi-cloud solutions. Today, companies are increasingly working with several cloud providers at once, which means that flexible network management, their isolation and quick adaptation to load changes are required. Kubernetes Networking plays an important role here, as containerized applications require automatic scaling and flexible management of network resources. There is an urgent need in the market for a high-quality domestic VMware NSX solution that can provide SDN and microsegmentation. The development of multi-cloud environments and AI infrastructures requires flexible network management, so it is necessary to develop a competitive SDN product, to the requirements of the local market, but also competitive for the global market, - comments Alexander Britkin, founder of TrafficSoft.

Improve the performance of switch ports to connect servers. Expansion of Ethernet 400G and 800G

Many hyper-scalable data centers have already moved from 100G to Ethernet 400G, and 800G becomes the next logical step. The need for 800G is primarily due to AI loads, which generate unprecedented amounts of data. Modern AI models require real-time processing of petabyte data arrays and a significant increase in network connection speeds. There is a growing demand for DWDM equipment to provide high-speed links between two or more data centers.

The use of 100G and 400G interfaces between data centers has ceased to be exotic, now advanced data centers are connected by channels that aggregate several ports 100G or 400G and here the use of DWDM equipment instead of a large amount of "dark fiber" becomes a very profitable and justified solution. In general, competition between manufacturers in this segment of network equipment is intensifying, which gradually improves the competitiveness of domestic products, although it still needs to go a long way to catch up with the best Western and Chinese models, "says Evgeny Knyazev, Director of the STEP LOGIC Network Solutions Department.

Russian manufacturers are switching to high-performance switches and routers capable of transmitting data at speeds up to 400 Gbps. This allows you to replace the products of Western manufacturers, which, together with the applause of security systems, gives not only an expansion of the ability to transfer large amounts of data, but also to ensure perimeter protection and counter the increasing threats of information security, "adds Alexey Zakharov, Director of Technology Consulting Axiom JDK.

Zero Trust Networking Implementation

With the development of hybrid cloud solutions and the increase in cyber threats, the usual perimeter protection methods no longer work as before. The Zero Trust Networking (or ZTN) approach offers a new security principle where no one is considered reliable by default. An important part of ZTN is microsegmentation - it divides the network into isolated zones, preventing threats from spreading. That is, if an attacker gains access to one part of the network, he will not be able to easily penetrate further, for example, into databases.

Growth of network equipment supply (switches, load balancers, DWDM multiplexers) from domestic manufacturers

Many Russian manufacturers have improved the software of their switches in terms of supporting the main industrial technology for building modern data centers. At the same time, the tendency to purchase data center switches from foreign vendors remains, since their functional readiness is still higher. They also surpass domestic equipment in terms of performance and the availability of orchestration systems.

The creation of Russian network equipment is an ambitious task and many have swung at it. But not everyone has achieved any results. We can say that in general now there are not very many solutions in different niches that could be relied on for industrial application. The good news for the market is that these solutions still exist, they can be used and built infrastructures. The development is primarily aimed at improving productivity, supporting new high-speed data transfer protocols. And this is a good trend. At the same time, there is also a trend towards the development of solutions of software-defined networks, which is very important for building cloud and virtual infrastructures, "says Alexey Zabrodin, technical director of RTK-DPC.

In recent years, the data center network infrastructure has become increasingly connected with the cloud, the Leaf-Spine architecture is gaining popularity, which provides better reliability and connectivity between servers. In this regard, the transition from switches with 25G ports to 100G and higher is intensified. Even despite the difficulties in acquiring and supporting classic foreign vendors, domestic solutions are still not popular due to the high price, comparable to foreign equipment, and not the highest reliability. However, Russian vendors are popular in the information security segment. Many SECaaS providers use UserGate, S-Terra and Eltex firewalls and firewalls, "explains Daniil Dolbilov, head of network department at Linx Datacenter.

If you look at the Russian market of products used to build the data center network infrastructure, you can note quite high-quality progress in this segment. A significant part of the domestic equipment designed to build data center networks supports the most common protocol stack for this purpose - VXLAN/EVPN. Last year, we could observe the entry into the market of data center switches included in the register of Russian products and providing equipment connections at speeds up to 400 Gbps, - said Sergey Tradesmen, Deputy Technical Director of AMT GROUP.

Network solutions at the data center level are already emerging on the Russian market, allowing you to deploy infrastructure with 25/40/10 Gb/s network interfaces. The main drawback of Russian developments is the lack of fully functional centralized means of managing the network infrastructure of the data center level, - said Andrei Korolyov, head of the presale department of Trinities Integration.

In parallel, the need for networks for HPC and AI clusters is growing at a rapid pace. In this direction, Russian manufacturers are still in the role of catching up.

Automation of processes using artificial intelligence algorithms

Automation of processes using artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms is a response to the increased demand for cloud network infrastructure services. It is primarily about such promising solutions as automation of processes in the convergence of telecommunications and IT services with the integration of cloud and virtualized network elements.

Increase focus on traffic security and network monitoring

Import substitution in this area is progressing - domestic solutions cannot yet always compete with foreign ones in terms of functionality and quality of support, but the situation is gradually improving due to state initiatives and investments.

Increasing computing requirements and technology developments are also influencing hardware transformation. Companies are thinking about changing the "hardware," which is morally outdated or not supported, increasing capacity and standing places. In managing engineering systems, the data center is increasingly using DCIM - dispatching systems with AI elements, language models.

Trends in the development of technological filling of equipment for the engineering infrastructure of the data center are aimed at optimization, reduction of power consumption of the supporting infrastructure, losses.

Growing number of modular solutions

Experts associate the increase in demand for modular technologies in the Russian data center market with the possibility of scaling and operational deployment of infrastructure in the future.

Now most of the projects that we start with customers are created using a modular approach and are designed for further scalability over time. We lay down design solutions that allow customers to build their infrastructure painlessly and quickly when needed. Modular technologies involve gradual implementation, from year to year. Together with customers, we select sites and create design solutions for large data centers, which we implement in stages, - comments Vsevolod Vorobyov, head of the data center of the network solutions center "Jet Infosystems."

Growing Demand for Edge Computing

Increasingly, small data centers are located in the regions, in close proximity to the customer's production sites. Peripheral computing in this case allows you to more efficiently aggregate, dispose of, defragment data in place and interact with central data centers.

Non-standard cooling systems

Instead of the previously popular cabinet and inter-row air conditioners, cold wall solutions are increasingly found in which conventional fan heat exchangers are used. In corporate data centers, a complete rejection of air conditioning systems is also practiced. In this case, the cooling of the racks is carried out by external air with or without the return air from the engine room, if the outside temperature allows this to be done. There is a growing interest in innovative solutions based on combined and liquid cooling.

Now we have begun to explore promising developments with full water cooling, where air is not used to cool the main fuel elements. We see the future in this and believe that this will become the main trend in the coming years, "says Alexey Zabrodin, Technical Director of RTK-DPC.

Data center operators are actively solving the issue of finding alternatives to the usual solutions both in terms of power supply to data centers and in terms of climate control. In the case of generators, Western products, they quickly found replacements in the domestic and Asian markets, they demonstrate fairly stable operation. As for cooling systems, the situation here is complicated by the fact that Asian and Russian solutions sometimes require a complete restructuring of engineering systems and maintenance. This, in turn, entails the formation of a new SPTA fund, as well as retraining of personnel. Some data center operators, seeing all the difficulties of switching to new systems and the instability of logistics, decide to develop their RnD direction. Such custom solutions make it possible to ensure the reliability of the data center and open up the opportunity for growth and scaling, "explains Dmitry Yusupov, Commercial Director of DataRu Cloud.

Focus on energy efficiency

Data center engineering infrastructure is becoming more energy efficient and environmentally friendly. The trend is the use of more advanced and productive equipment, the launch of projects for the disposal of excess heat.

The development of the data center infrastructure is actively continuing towards increasing productivity and energy efficiency. The total power consumption of data centers continues to grow along with an increase in the average load on the rack - in new contracts for 2024, this figure in IXcellerate was 12 kW and above. We also see an increase in the size of the average installation - customer projects are becoming larger in order to meet the requirements of the modern digital economy. The use of more powerful and productive equipment by our clients, including for machine learning projects, increases the requirements for the data center infrastructure, "said Andrey Aksenov, CEO of IXcellerate.

Transformation of fire extinguishing systems

Some major DPC market players are either abandoning the firefighting system entirely or using an alternative gas firefighting system for extinguishing finely dispersed water (TPV), which also results in significant cost savings.

In parallel, the data center itself is being digitalized, operators are developing digital twins, which will subsequently lead to the introduction of artificial intelligence systems for monitoring and managing the data center infrastructure.

Experts assess import substitution in the field of engineering infrastructure in different ways: from optimistic statements that most of the equipment is already supplied by Russian manufacturers to restrained estimates of migration rates. Issues related to the service and reliability of individual engineering systems, specialized software remain open.

The situation with import substitution is leveling off: we are working with domestic equipment manufacturers to replace vendors who have left the market and ensure the usual quality of solutions. Domestic equipment has an understandable service model and in many cases it is much better suited to the needs of our customers. As for the types of equipment, server racks, components, SCS, cable communications - all this has long been imported. In terms of heavy equipment, such as uninterruptible power supplies and air conditioning systems, it is a little more difficult, but there are also solutions for almost everything. If earlier we most often combined components and added solutions from our partners from other countries - China, Turkey, etc., now the data center can be almost completely built on Russian equipment, - said Vsevolod Vorobyov.

It is expected that in 2025 the data center engineering infrastructure market in Russia will grow by an average of 5-10%. This is largely facilitated by the process of import substitution of IT equipment, which consumes more electricity than eminent counterparts. If we talk about engineering equipment, today Russian data centers use, albeit not the most advanced, but quite reliable and well-proven solutions. The gaps formed after the departure of leading foreign vendors are gradually being filled: now in the domestic IT market there are solutions in almost all classes of engineering equipment. They are quite affordable, "says Konstantin Zinoviev, director of the engineering infrastructure department of the Rubytech Group.

Andrei Zubkov, head of the MONS project office (KORUS Consulting Group of Companies), notes that many customers still prefer proven foreign or Chinese solutions, even if there are domestic analogues, because the reliability and quality of these systems are confirmed by operational experience. Import substitution is underway, but its pace remains low due to the need for long tests and certifications, as well as increased security requirements. According to Alexei Lebedev, director of the competence center for engineering infrastructure T1 Integration, today the key trend is the dominance of decisions by Chinese manufacturers. Despite the gradual growth of the data center market, full import substitution will not be achieved without its own plants for the production of key components (compressors, fans, pumps) - even using Chinese technologies.

Dependence on imported components will continue in the coming years - and it will be an important task to overcome it. Despite the localization of some types of products (for example, low-voltage equipment), preferential lending to the construction of data centers and the development of capacities for projects in the field of AI, the Russian IT industry is still quite dependent on Asian suppliers, the expert emphasizes.

Import substitution in this area is quite successful. Russian companies develop and implement their own solutions for power supply, redundancy, connectivity and monitoring. However, for some components, such as high-performance chillers and air conditioning systems, uninterruptible power supplies, DSU, dependence on imports remains, adds Andrey Aksenov.

In some cases, European vendors continue to supply components using parallel imports.

According to FSTEC estimates, a large number of large companies now need to improve information security systems. According to Solar, attacks on critical infrastructure have increased sevenfold over the past three years, forcing companies to pay more attention to information security.

Against this background, experts note the active development and growth of the market for domestic information security tools. Russian vendors are expanding the line of manufactured solutions, developing their functionality, adding support for work in multitennicity mode, paying attention to improving the stability and reliability of products.

An important trend was the need to strengthen data center protection against DDoS attacks. Threats of this type are increasingly sophisticated and large-scale, which requires modern solutions to prevent them. A wide selection of Anti-DDoS solutions has already appeared on the Russian market with a sufficient margin of performance and efficiency.

Many additional information security services have been added to the portfolio of services of large data center operators. Customers have become interested in protecting against attacks at the L7 level and when migrating services. Companies also require geodistributed redundancy when the infrastructure is backed up in another data center and switching for the client must be seamless. At the same time, not all information security solutions can be used in the construction of cloud infrastructures, which is due to both compatibility problems with the stack of technologies used, and limitations in the performance and functionality of tools.

Key vendors strive for the ecosystem of their solutions, actively developing their own lines of protection to take into account the basic needs of customers. At the same time, in recent years, significant competition has been observed among the developers of NGFW, WAF and SIEM solutions, as they are in great demand in the market. Some vendors are trying to release information security tools of increased performance, taking into account the peculiarities of use in cloud infrastructures and data centers. Key manufacturers of security tools are developing information security services for customers based on their own solutions independently or with the participation of partners, - comments Denis Poladyev, Director of Information Security at RTK-DPC.

Manufacturers of information security solutions for data centers are actively working to increase data transfer rates. If now 100 GB/s per node per NGFW on mixed traffic is a pass to the NGFW server club, then in the near future the requirements will increase. Already today, market efforts are focused on 400 GB/s-1 TB/s speeds on a limited number of clustered devices operating in active-active mode while maintaining session status. We expect that next year this bar will be accepted as a standard. Integrated systems for detecting and countering attacks are actively being developed and built, including a bundle: EDR/XDR-NTA-SIEM-TI-IRP/SOAR with further integration with automation systems for managing host configurations and active network equipment. At the same time, artificial intelligence technologies are actively used at various phases of this pipeline, "says Dmitry Romanchenko, Deputy Director of the Information Security Department of the Rubytech Group.

There is still a need to secure the communication channels and perimeter of the network infrastructure while maintaining high throughput. This explains the high demand for Russian multifunctional firewalls, which combine high performance and a wide range of security functions at various levels of the OSI model. Over the past couple of years, almost all the largest Russian manufacturers have presented their solutions in this area, - adds Mikhail Yanenko, director and founder of the K2-9b Group (part of the Inferit ecosystem, Softline Group of Companies).

Comprehensive security systems are relevant for data centers, combining hardware and software, as well as artificial intelligence technologies for detecting anomalies and analyzing threats.

Protection of containerization in conjunction with, DevSecOps a high-performance system enciphering using Russian algorithms at speeds of 50GB/s and higher, the practice of using AI to automatically identify vulnerabilities and adaptive patching are actively developing. Approaches are implemented both with vulnerability control ON and patching in runtime, and exclusively in the development environment.

Russian ecosystems of integrated access control to information resources, infrastructure and data have formed: IDM/IAM/IGA, FAM/SSO, DS, ABAC-class systems.

Application-level data protection solutions are implemented, data encryption and anonymization technologies are used, and information leakage prevention systems are being developed DLP (). There is a growing demand for cloud security and compliance solutions.

Today there is a trend towards the use of protected IaaS. Providers keep their finger on the pulse and try to meet the challenges of the market. It becomes extremely expensive to maintain information systems on its resources (a large capex for the server infrastructure, remuneration of administrators, information security costs, etc.). This is pushing businesses to see cloud providers as cost optimization. Import substitution acted as a driver for placing sensitive information in the cloud. Thanks to certified domestic security tools, it became possible to comprehensively approach data protection in the cloud, "said Grigory Filatov, head of information security at Linx Cloud.

According to Rubytech estimates, in the public sector, which today acquires a significant share of decisions to protect data centers of federal executive bodies, the share of purchased Russian information security equipment ranges from 70 to 90%. But at the KII facilities in industry, the situation is the opposite: no more than 40% of information security funds are imported. The exception is antivirus tools: here the indicator is close to 100%.

But, despite the active development of domestic solutions, advanced foreign systems still remain leaders in this area. Time is needed to create complete Russian products and implement them into the existing infrastructure. However, according to experts, Russian companies are able to adapt to new conditions and increase the level of security for data centers.

The Russian technology market for data centers demonstrates stability and develops against the background of the departure of Western vendors, sanctions and growing technological requirements.

Reducing the key rate can make loans for the construction and modernization of data centers more affordable and stimulate investments in data centers. Service providers will be able to access cheaper funding. State support for the development of the data center market, for example, subsidies or tax incentives, will contribute to the growth and development of technology.

Technology trends for data centers reflect changes in requests from the business and public sector. Increasing computing power, improving energy efficiency, adaptive architectures, ensuring security and integrating artificial intelligence will significantly affect the development of data centers in the future.

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