Interview with the CEO of Caravan company Stanislav Drugalev

Stanislav Drugalev: Understand that it is more profitable – services of commercial DPC or construction of the – it is possible only after the analysis of a set of factors. As a rule, the long-term period of development of the company is taken into account.

In general the more data the organization and the more sharply processes her need for the continuity of business processes, the more relevant for it own DPC. First of all it concerns industrial hoding, telecom operators, the companies from the sphere of insurance, finance and retail.

But also it is necessary to understand that the cost of construction of DPC in Russia is strongly influenced by changes in foreign exchange market. So, according to analysts, in 2015 it grew more than by 45%. At the same time creation of data center requires not less than two years. And the planning horizon at many domestic companies was reduced in crisis to half a year. Therefore for the Enterprise-organizations and large-scale online projects needing now high IT performance optimal is not a construction, but outsourcing of DPC.

In a similar situation, by the way, and dynamically developing companies already having data center. Growth of volume of the data processed by them does necessary acquisition, installation, service of additional servers and also search of the space for them. From that, how fast and competently it will be implemented, success of business depends. Today even short-term failure in work can lead to losses and loss of reputation. Taking into account it and also universal reduction of IT budgets, increase in prices for the western products, small number of their Asian alternatives outsourcing of DPC is more profitable than development of own platform.

Stanislav Drugalev: The value of any IT outsourcing is that it saves the customer from non-core IT functions, allowing to concentrate on key business challenges. And in the short-term and medium term it always decrease in operating costs. Clients do not need to pay service and repair of the equipment, work of certain IT specialists, power supply, etc.

The commercial DPC can help the client and with reduction of a capital expenditure. It is relevant not only for the period of economic downturn as a result of which the ruble decreases, and the cost of the import IT equipment grows. Services of provider are profitable, for example, in a situation when, about 10 server racks and engineering infrastructure with fault tolerance at the level of Tier-3 urgently are required. On creation of only one this infrastructure sometimes leaves several months and about 50% of the budget for construction of all data center. The provider provides the client with already ready-made solution for the fixed monthly payment.

Besides, some modern DPCs, including ours, are organized on modularity. So, the companies can change step by step the IT infrastructure proceeding from new business needs – for example, to put additional capacities into operation.

For the foreign organizations colocation based on data centers in our country – the easiest way to correspond to the Russian law "About Personal Data". Not accidentally such international players as Google, AliExpress, Booking.com already used it.

Lease of clouds (IaaS, SaaS, PaaS and so forth) can promote reduction of capital costs too. Clients save not only on creation of DPC, engineering infrastructure, but also on "iron". And they receive in the order computing powers when they need it, and in that volume which is really necessary to them. And in some cases can independently change leased IT resources and manage them.

Such advantages are relevant for business which dynamically develops or which needs to solve a specific objective during the specific period. For example, to movie theaters, services of purchase of tickets public clouds help to cope with seasonal peaks of sales, to telecom operators – quickly to make calculations with the large volume of data, to developers – to create and test the innovation product.

Stanislav Drugalev: It is difficult to answer unambiguously. It depends on type of service and volume of the opportunities given within it. Besides some clients within a year can expand and reduce a circle of the used services or change their parameters. The scale of business of the client is also not an indicator: revenue of provider from the SMB company is sometimes higher, than from the Enterprise-enterprise. So, most holdings has own IT infrastructure and the state which supports her. Therefore commercial data center to them it is necessary for placement only of pair of servers ensuring, for example, functioning of the corporate website. The average annual bill in such cases can be about 300 thousand rubles.

Recently demand for services of DPC at owners of online projects grows. These are the most different companies – the network retailer developing online trade, and home shopping, big publishing house and specialized news agency, Internet bank and local payment system. The volume of service which is necessary for them usually includes several server racks, network equipment, lease of an Internet channel with capacity from 100 Mbps. Estimated cost of placement of IT resources in DPC for the similar enterprises – 2.7-3 million rubles a year.

Stanislav Drugalev: If to speak about the cloud direction, then it appeared at us with IaaS-service start. It was not so long ago – in September, 2014. But we initially considered this direction as strategically important. For promotion of the relevant services created even new division and brought it to the market under the Center of Cloud Solutions Caravan Aero brand.

In June, 2015 we started already the second cloud product – VPS (a virtual dedicated server), in September – the third, under the name VDC (virtual data center). And in October transferred all services of a virtual hosting of Caravan company to the new Caravan Aero platform.

Now the Center of cloud solutions has already more than 2000 users. Clients of a virtual hosting and VPS – generally the SMB companies implementing small online projects. At the same time at VPS service the functionality is broader, than at a virtual hosting, but already, than at IaaS. The last is demanded by mainly medium business now. She allows to solve problems of different complexity – from simple placement of a web resource before deployment of the whole IT infrastructure of the company.

VDC, or virtual data center, – the same IaaS, but with broader functionality and thinner network settings for work with virtual resources. It was created taking into account requirements of the large companies, is optimal for non-standard and large-scale IT projects.

Now the products Caravan Aero on dynamics of development can be placed so (as increase): virtual hosting, IaaS, VPS, VDC. It is influenced both by the period of start of services, and demand in the market.

Stanislav Drugalev: The stronger income of business depends on IT, the his requirements to fault tolerance of DPC are higher. The last in many respects is defined by indicators of availability and reliability of the systems of data center at several levels. Engineering infrastructure (complexes of power supply, cooling, fire extinguishing, etc.), IT infrastructure (network solutions), data security concerns them (access control and so forth).

Among keyword parameters there are fault tolerances of systems – duration of idle time of data center in a year, the availability of data center planned by it stops, a possibility of service without shutdown, optimum level of loading of the equipment, the maximum number of accidents in a year. If to speak directly about data security in DPC, then it is reached due to their backup, recovery in case of accident, reservation of communication channels, physical access control to the placed equipment, means of information security (reflection services of cyber attacks, protection against unauthorized cracking, firewalling), etc.

The levels of fault tolerance and data security necessary for this or that company are defined proceeding from its business challenges. The corresponding parameters, limit indicators and obligations of DPC provider for their providing are enshrined in the agreements and SLA concluded with the client. Non-compliance with criteria of rendering services turns for provider into penalties.

Stanislav Drugalev: Selection terms and degree of their importance for the company depend on its business objectives.

If to speak about colocation, then in the forefront there will be level of reliability of DPC (Tier) according to the Uptime Institute standards. The speech about compliance of data center to the approved set of production requirements, including to fault tolerance. So, owners of small online projects (the websites of the companies, online stores, etc.) will suit DPC of Tier 1 or 2 more likely. Are less important for such clients of a guarantee of continuousness of business, than for owners of large online projects (search systems, portals of cellular operators, social networks). At the last idle time even 20–25 min. can turn back huge losses. Therefore they need DPC of Tier 3 and 4.

Other key criteria – duration of work of provider in the market and its reputation, the cost of the services offered them, technical characteristics of DPC and presence of certification at it. The number of the free and involved racks is usually interesting to dynamically developing enterprises.

To the large companies – presence at DPC of different telecom operators and an opportunity to select between them is important. Modern business aims at the most reliable reservation of communication channels. That is why our DPC now densely cooperates with four Russian and international operators at once – RETN Group, MTS, Mastertel and Orange Business Services. For other Enterprise-companies essentially presence at provider of two data centers which are territorially deleted from each other. Their use allows to reserve information that guarantees its recovery in case of accident.

As shows our experience, a considerable role is played also by readiness of provider to conduct a tour on the DPC.

In a case with cloud services the level of service, performance of a disk subsystem is important for operation of virtual servers, mechanisms of reservation and data recovery, orchestration, scaling of resources, compliance to statutory requirements to work with information.

When choosing providers of DPC and clouds SLA and flexibility in discussion of non-standard requests, a set of additional services, technical support in mode 24х7х365 is always estimated.

Stanislav Drugalev: Clients of our DPC – the company of a different profile of activity, the majority of which uses service of colocation. From the largest I can call Банки.ру news agency, Tutu.ru, Tehnosila retail network, Svyaznoy Group, Yuniastrumbank.

Among specific requirements which are imposed recently by the big customers, especially new I would select a little. First, it is review of SLA. It is already not enough to companies to record in the agreement the speed of reaction of provider to possible failure, the detailed description of a problem in connection with it, providing the round-the-clock technical support, etc. standard provisions. For example, compensation of damage in case of refusal of their equipment placed in DPC interests some. Others – free transportation of their equipment from office in DPC and its installation there by forces of provider. But not all customers consider that entering of new points into SLA can negatively affect business processes of DPC, is integrated to additional risks and expenses. Therefore search of an optimal ratio "the SLA parameters necessary for the customer – their cost" means detailed discussions and calculations.

Financial institutions, banks, insurance companies and the enterprises with the developed IT infrastructure always differed in increased requirements to reliability of data center. It could be expressed even in the requirement to organize monitoring of a zone of placement of the equipment, video surveillance or multilevel access control to it, to create in the DPC hall the certain premises under racks with the independent engineering complex.

Perhaps, it is possible to carry the requirement to guarantee performance of a disk subsystem to specific requests of "cloud" clients (for operation of virtual servers).

Stanislav Drugalev: Among our paramount tasks for this year – improvement of client service and technical support in all product directions, development of more flexible approach to customers, withdrawal from banality in discussion of agreements, etc. From the technology point of view in a priority remain preserving at the high level of fault tolerance of physical and cloud platforms and increase in their performance.

Besides, we will continue to develop the cloud services actively. For example, a possibility to store backup copies on the alternative platform in plans for the near future, providing ready images for virtual servers, including routers, firewalls and other important solutions, simplification of integration of the equipment and virtual servers of clients, etc.