Import substitution of virtualization platforms

2024

Migration difficulties and risks for those remaining "in the west"

Many Russian companies continue to use foreign virtualization products such as VMware, Hyper-V, Citrix, etc. The share of foreign products is still significant - about 50-60% for large businesses and 20-30% for state-owned companies.

This is due to factors such as the maturity and functionality of foreign products. For many years, Western vendors have created full-fledged ecosystems of training, personnel certification and technical support, which makes their solutions attractive to users.

To a greater extent, the use of Western products refers to retail and the IT sector: there the business has an understanding of how to maintain the solutions of departed vendors in working order and readiness for risks. They will import substitution solutions last - when the market develops enough to the level of product they require.

Customers postpone the transition to Russian solutions, citing insufficient technical functionality of domestic software and a lack of time for full-fledged testing.

The infrastructure of many companies has historically been built on the basis of VMware, Microsoft, etc. Also, many application systems are certified and supported by vendors only for these platforms. Some companies find ways to circumvent restrictions to maintain access to updates and technical support for foreign products, allowing them to continue using them even under sanctions.

Migration in this case can hardly be called a desirable scenario: the costs and risks are enormous, the return on such investments is not yet obvious. The natural volumes of resistance to change are both tangible and absolutely understandable here: the new hypervisor may require a global restructuring of the entire IT architecture, and in most cases it will not offer the usual functionality. Which will require various "crutches" for patching post-migration lacunae. This also includes the risks of interrupting business processes, downtime of IT systems, data loss and other incidents leading to direct business losses, "says Vyacheslav Volodkovich, General Director of Aerodisk.

Migration to other products requires a lot of change and refinement, careful analysis and planning, serious investment. In addition, the full migration process can take a long time. During the transition period, companies can continue to use foreign products in parallel with the implementation and testing of Russian solutions.

Many customers may not have enough experience with Russian virtualization platforms, which can cause difficulties during migration, and Russian developers have not accumulated experience with large corporate clients.

Unwillingness to migrate to the solutions of domestic manufacturers is usually explained either by the sufficient qualification of engineers in foreign solutions and insufficient in Russian ones, or by the fact that the solutions of foreign manufacturers are more mature and functional, or by the cost of migrating systems from foreign systems to domestic ones. Although here there are solutions that allow migrating virtual machines between various virtualization platforms, private and public clouds with virtually no downtime, which significantly reduces risk and costs, "comments Igor Buday, Head of Platform Solutions at MONT Group.

Another reason is the need to retrain and adapt employees. And also the need to justify the funds invested in licenses for foreign software. If we are talking about fresh versions of foreign products purchased relatively recently (until 2022), the costs should be justified. If licenses were purchased long ago and outdated versions of Western systems are used, customers are rather ready to switch to Russian software.

Companies are migrating, but not as quickly as we would like, this is due to the fact that virtualization is the foundation for building IT infrastructures, and, therefore, a very complex and resource-intensive project in the company. Current Western solutions continue to work in one form or another, so companies are trying to postpone this process for as long as possible. Vendors are trying to help their potential customers and partners with migration by introducing new functionality, as well as integrating new migration methods, including through integration with other manufacturers, "says Evgeny Karpov, CEO of vStack.

Sanctions and geopolitical risks pose difficulties for companies using foreign products:

• Ban on updates and technical support. Russian users have lost access to security updates and new software versions, official technical support of vendors. This increases the risks of vulnerabilities and failures.
• Difficulties acquiring or renewing licenses. It became problematic for companies to renew software licenses due to payment restrictions and the refusal of vendors to work with Russia.
• Risk of increased sanctions. The likelihood of new bans on the use of foreign software by Russian organizations cannot be ruled out, which will force them to switch to other products in an emergency mode.

All these risks are usually offset by the fact that the virtualization environment usually does not "look outside," on the Internet, and is protected by several layers of security. That is, in general, cybersecurity risks exist, but they are not so critical as to outweigh the risks of migration to Russian solutions. There is no functionality on Russian platforms that the customer is used to using, and for a large enterprise, the task is to go "key to key" - migration should not be noticeable at the application level, but for now there are difficulties with this. Also, domestic players have much to develop in terms of performance, stability and resiliency, - comments Pavel Korostelev, head of the product promotion department "Security Code."

As noted by Roman Bychkov, Development Director of SharxDC, the risks when using foreign software are primarily associated with potential vulnerabilities in terms of information security and the lack of any technical support. Also, not all companies think about the risks associated with violation of the law. Migration issues are primarily faced with the inertia of thinking, sabotage of operating personnel, the lack of expertise on domestic products. In addition, migration is a priority for production systems, and here customers are focused on continuity, performance, and stability on new platforms.

The main problem is that the virtualization environment is literally the core of the IT infrastructure, and changing it is very, very difficult. Moreover, migration should not cause easy-to-use business applications. This is difficult, so customers are waiting for which of the developers of virtualization environments will "float out," after which they can consider a short list of applicants.

In many organizations, foreign products are deeply integrated into the IT infrastructure, and replacing them with domestic counterparts requires significant time and financial costs. In addition, there are dependencies on the specific functions and capabilities provided by foreign products, for which there is not always a full-fledged domestic alternative. In some specialized areas or to meet unique business requirements, foreign products can offer functionality that is currently not available in domestic developments, "says Nikita Kazarin, Head of Virtualization and Softline Group of companies Backup Systems.

The situation will change with improving the functionality of the tools and overcoming the inertia of consumer thinking. With the development of domestic solutions and the improvement of their functionality, more and more customers will consider the possibility of migration to Russian platforms.

Russian platforms - there is room to grow and what to strive for

Russian virtualization solutions today cover 60-70% of customers' basic needs. They are already used in both small systems and high-load infrastructures with critical services and services. In Russian virtualization systems, the basic capabilities of the hypervisor are sufficiently worked out. Missing (still) functions are rarely used. With the help of domestic virtualization solutions, you can, in particular, form a single cluster space based on software-defined networks, storage and computing and ensure centralized infrastructure management.

However, many customers lack information about the product roadmap and the ability to influence this process. This is largely due to the fact that a significant part of the solutions in the market are based on open source software. As a result, the developers of a Russian product based on open source themselves do not always understand in which direction their product will develop and in what time frame - the community decides for them.

Also, domestic systems may lack the breadth of functionality available to foreign market leaders. For example, advanced management, automation, and integration capabilities. Issues of scalability, stability and performance are critical for large enterprises, where Russian virtualization systems may be inferior to Western counterparts. In addition, the development of ecosystems among domestic virtualization systems, including third-party tools, add-ons and an active user community, is still lagging behind its foreign counterparts.

Products of domestic suppliers are largely at the beginning of their development cycle. Often, in addition to the open source kernel, small improvements and basic documentation, there is nothing else. Technical support of the product is most often in its infancy. There are no proven and reliable solutions for service providers, full-fledged multi-tenancy on the market, - said Denis Afanasyev, head of the cloud direction of CorpSoft24.

Domestic solutions, it happens, lack the usual functionality, periodically there are questions about stability and performance. However, there is no denying that the industry has taken a big step forward. Domestic products are actively developing, and it can be predicted that the quality of their work will seriously increase in the coming years, - comments Evgeny Makaryin, head of the Linx Cloud product and solution development group.

The initial level of functionality (low-end) is completely closed by Russian vendors. The level of mid-range products at a stable level is supported by about five vendors. The problem remains only with high-end: functionality such as an advanced role model, complicated design of virtual switches, integration with related systems - DSS, monitoring, thin I/O control - all this, if present in Russian virtualization, is quite raw, - notes Vyacheslav Volodkovich, CEO of Aerodisk.

Global products in this segment were valued for a huge number of additional capabilities to fine-tune virtualized environments, allowing you to adapt the tool to any business requirements and technical features of the company's IT landscape.

In addition, foreign platforms have two key advantages: a low entry threshold for novice IT professionals, thanks to detailed up-to-date documentation and a significant number of training courses, and a large number of qualified administrators who are used to working with these solutions.

Domestic suppliers are actively developing their products, taking into account the requirements of customers. Some are already on par with foreign platforms. However, there are still some areas that require improvement, in particular in the field of usability and technical support, "says Evgeny Fedorov, head of the Innostage product area.

Refinement requires tangible investment of man-hours, work on collecting feedback on implementation projects and other investments in the product - for example, the development of open community versions of hypervisors to accelerate the "run-in" and attract an expanded pool of developer competencies.

However, despite all the shortcomings, domestic virtualization systems are actively developing. They strive to maintain the requirements for security, localization and support in Russian. And although in some projects it may be necessary to further expand the functionality and improve compatibility, still domestic systems offer some advantages. These include compliance with the requirements of Russian legislation in the field of processing and storage of personal data, as well as information security. Local support and the possibility of close cooperation with the developer to adapt the product to the specific tasks of the customer are also significant advantages for Russian companies.

Russian developers offer a wide range of solutions that can adapt to specific business needs, work to improve their products, and in the future the situation may change. The choice between domestic and foreign virtualization platforms depends on the specific requirements and conditions of the customer, - comments Pavel Guralnik, CEO of ISPsystem.

Russian virtualization systems, such as Brest PC, Termidesk, VMmanager and others, are already able to close most of the typical customer needs. And in a number of scenarios, for example for the public sector, they surpass foreign counterparts in terms of security, compliance with regulatory requirements, support for Russian cryptography, etc. In addition, Russian solutions ensure technological sovereignty and business continuity, since their developers are and work in our country and will not go anywhere. Of course, domestic virtualization platforms have room to grow, they are already quite competitive and satisfy most of the requirements of Russian customers. The main thing is to continue their active development and promotion, - summarizes Denis Mukhin, Director of Business Development, Director of Virtualization and Cloud Services, Astra Group.

Today, customers can carry out comprehensive import substitution with the simultaneous transition to the architecture of software-defined DSS using Russian software and running on Russian servers. This will allow, simultaneously with the import substitution of old systems, to modernize the IT infrastructure, create a platform for launching new digital services, and reduce dependence on hardware complexes that require constant support from vendors.

Domestic virtualization systems are developing very quickly and, in general, in terms of basic functionality, can replace foreign solutions. The issue of switching to domestic products lies more in the plane of integration into the existing or planned infrastructure, the development of the system software ecosystem, its compatibility with each other and with other solutions, issues of operating a new technological stack within companies, "says Ivan Smirnov, product manager at Cyber ​ ​ Infrastructure of Cyberprotect.

Denis Ageev, founder of the Space trademark, chairman of the board of directors of DAKOM M:

{{quote 'DACOM M is a strategic partner of PJSC RusHydro. Today, the SpaceVM virtualization platform is installed at more than fifty facilities of the largest Russian energy company. The geography of the presence of Space products at RusHydro facilities extends to twenty-two constituent entities of the Russian Federation, including: Moscow, Samara, Novosibirsk regions, the Republic of Dagestan, Krasnoyarsk Territory and many other territories, from the Central to the Far Eastern Federal District. The Space virtualization ecosystem works effectively at key hydroelectric power plants in our country, including the largest hydroelectric power station in the Volga-Kama Cascade and Europe - the Volga hydroelectric power station. The SpaceVM platform is also successfully used directly in the RusHydro actuator.

The technological partners of DAK M are JSC United Shipbuilding Corporation and PJSC GAZPROM NEFT.

SpaceVM is actively used by such large companies as Alrosa, GC PJSC Rosseti, PJSC Gazprom, EVRAZ, Rosatom, UK Global Ports, Concern East Kazakhstan Almaz-Antey, JSC Atomenergomash. Our solutions are widely used by FFIV and regional government bodies: Rosfinmonitoring, the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation, the Government of St. Petersburg and others.}}

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