The impact of the pandemic on IT in government agencies

Federal government IT priorities and IT spending

The pandemic as a whole has not had a significant impact on the IT budgets of federal executive bodies. Among the 16 FOIVs surveyed by TAdviser, only two departments in 2020, under the influence of the pandemic, reduced IT spending - the Ministry of Emergencies and Rosalkogolregulirovanie. Also, the IT budget was reduced at the Federal Property Management Agency, but this decrease was planned.

The IT priorities of federal authorities during the pandemic were dictated by the need to ensure the work of departments and the life of citizens in the new conditions. In particular, government agencies focused on the transfer of employees, working meetings and meetings to remote mode, the functioning of the necessary information systems, services, technical means, and information security problems.

For example, the main efforts of the FCS were aimed at preventing emergency situations, ensuring information security and organizing employees' work remotely.

In the future, it is planned to increase the capacity of information technology equipment in order to organize a sufficient number of remote workplaces and eliminate possible malfunctions in the work of customs authorities if necessary - in case of force majeure circumstances of such a pandemic, "the FCS noted.

The Social Insurance Fund for Information Technologies has organized the prompt development of special services aimed at ensuring the invalidity of citizens staying from abroad and living with them, working pensioners 65 years and older, as well as the organization of insurance payments to medical workers affected by coronavirus. To support the developed services, the fund organized a hotline.

Rosstat's IT department focused on ensuring remote access for employees to their jobs. At the same time, the task arose to ensure the protection of data, including Rosstat databases during remote operation.

There was a need to strengthen the technical support service and further train its specialists. An additional task was to ensure reliable and uninterrupted video communication during meetings and conferences, "TAdviser was told in Rosstat.

Rosalkogolregulirovanie specialists focused on ensuring the uninterrupted functioning of their systems.

At the same time, it is worth noting that the pandemic made adjustments to the processes of tracking and accepting the results of work, equipment delivered, shifted the emphasis to remote interaction, "the Rosalkogol Regulation said.

FOIVs were actively engaged in the transfer of employees to a remote mode of operation. In some departments, the share of specialists in remote control was more than 70%.

FOIV	Maximum% of employees transferred to remote work
Federal Property Management Agency	89
MES	80
FCS	75
Rosavtodor	51
Ministry of Communications	50
Ministry of Labor	50
Rosstat	over 40
Rosfinmonitoring	30

' '	'TAdviser Survey, September 2020 '

A number of FOIVs identified certain features of transferring employees to a remote mode of operation. For example - in Rosavtodor. Most of the special measures taken by the department to transfer employees to online were related to information security.

If an employee normally works from a secure agency network, where any interaction with the outside world (external communication networks) undergoes the necessary filtering and is protected, then when working remotely, this aspect requires increased attention. In this regard, both the employee's remote workplace and the infrastructure with which remote employee access was implemented were subject to additional protection, TAdviser was informed in Rosavtodor.

IT priorities and IT costs of regional governments

TAdviser interviewed 22 regional management bodies, including IT departments of two Russian capitals. As it turned out, about half of the regions - ten out of twenty-two - in 2020 reduced their IT budgets. These include St. Petersburg, Leningrad, Moscow, Novosibirsk, Belgorod, Nizhny Novgorod, Samara, Sverdlovsk and Vologda regions, as well as the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug.

The IT priorities of the regions during the pandemic were the same as at the federal level - they were associated with ensuring the work of departments and the life of citizens in the new conditions. The main forces were thrown at the relevant information systems, services, technical means, transfer to remote work, and information security problems.

For example, in the Department information technology Moscow , most of the staff involved in ongoing planned projects switched to pandemic-related projects - the digital pass system, the Social Monitoring service, and measures to accelerate the transfer of property services to the electronic type.

The Ministry of Public Administration, Information Technology and Communications of the Moscow Region, in particular, has created systems in the region for monitoring the spread of infection and repurposing clinics for patients. The latter system allows you to analyze and predict data on hospital beds. The agency also ensured the automation of temporary warehouses with medicines, making a database of stocks of medicines and personal protective equipment, and created an information system for emergency selection of medical personnel.

One of the main projects Department of Information Technology and Digital Development of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug during the pandemic was the introduction of the Digital Notification system. It gives citizens the opportunity to control their movement and allows them to generate electronic notifications of their intention to change the regime of self-isolation (go beyond the place of residence, stay), indicating the reason. Also, with the help of this system, authorized patrols can identify people with confirmed infection on the street, COVID-2019 as well as citizens under surveillance for possible COVID-2019 infection or arriving on the territory of the Autonomous Okrug from countries with adverse epidemiological conditions. Using the mobile application of the system, employees of the Department of Internal Affairs of the district MINISTRY OF INTERNAL AFFAIRS Russia promptly check the legality of the stay of citizens outside the house, as well as record the facts of violations by citizens of the self-isolation regime.

The Ministry of Digital Development and Communications of the Novosibirsk Region during the pandemic launched the mobile application "112 - Emergency Assistance." This application is designed to monitor the movement of citizens in isolation, monitor their well-being and call a doctor if their health condition worsens. In addition to him, the ministry launched an automated sending of SMS messages and an automatic calling system for citizens based on the robot consultant Nikolai.

No less actively than FOIVs, regional departments were engaged in the transfer of employees to a remote mode of operation. For example, in St. Petersburg, 70% of civil servants were transferred to the remote site.

Region	Maximum% (number) of remote civil servants in the region
St. Petersburg	70%
Moscow region	more than 50%
Chelyabinsk region	more than 50%
Tyumen region	more than 50%
Republic of Bashkortostan	50%
Rostov region	more than 30%
Krasnoyarsk Krai	30%
KHMAO	18.3%
Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug	more than 2,000 remote workplaces
Leningrad region	more than 1.5 thousand
Komi Republic	1.5 thousand

' '	'TAdviser Survey, September 2020 '

It is noteworthy that in the Samara region civil servants did not switch to remote work at all. However, a work schedule was developed in subordinate institutions to minimize the number of employees working in the office, Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Samara Region, Head of the Department of Information Technology and Communications Konstantin Presnyakov, told TAdviser.

The committee Committee on Informatization and Communication St. Petersburg created a high-performance cryptographic gateway to the secure corporate network of state authorities (IOGV) of St. Petersburg, expanded the network access channel, Internet carried out global changes in the routing scheme of the secure corporate network to ensure personal access of employees of each organization.

Within a few days, according to applications submitted by the executive bodies of state power, the committee issued about eight thousand accounts and individual keys for their employees, organized a system for transferring these keys to end users, developed instructions for setting up home computers and obtaining secure access to state information systems (GIS) through encrypted communication channels. To protect the GIS from possible network attacks on the secure network login channel, the committee installed intrusion detection systems, as well as advanced systems to counter complex threats and identify targeted attacks.

A number of regions identified TAdviser problems they encountered when transferring employees to remote mode of operation.

So, the problems of the committee on informatization and communication of St. Petersburg were associated with the search for the necessary technical solution. It was supposed not only to fulfill all information security requirements, but also to use technical means for this with a friendly user interface, which allows the user of any level of computer literacy according to the instructions to perform the configuration themselves. The work of the committee was also complicated by the limited time frame for the implementation of this project and the constantly changing epidemiological situation. As explained by TAdviser, the time required only to create several thousand accounts is significant, and for each of them it is necessary to create a role and rules of network access in accordance with job responsibilities.

The provision of remote access to employees was complicated by the need to comply on home personal computers (PCs) of employees of executive state authorities with information security standards established on the regional government network so that home PCs used by employees are not sources of additional security threats, the Ministry of Digital Development and Communications of the Novosibirsk Region told TAdviser.

Opinion of IT companies

Many IT companies surveyed by TAdviser notice a decrease in public procurement amid a pandemic in 2020.

According to Ivan Bastrikov, head of projects in the state authorities of Directum, in 2020 the public sector reduces IT costs centrally.

Comparing the fact and the planned amounts for 2020, we see a decrease in the regions - on average by 10-15%. However, according to our estimates, this year's spending will decrease slightly, since 2020 budgets have been approved in advance and will not change significantly. Another thing is 2021. If the epidemiological situation in the country worsens, then IT costs in the public sector can significantly reduce. This will affect decision-making on projects on the ground. Most likely to protect expenses and announce tenders will begin later than usual. Not in the first quarter, but towards the end of the half-year, - suggested Ivan Bastrikov.

According to Igor Nikulin, Deputy General Director for Business Development, Director of the Krok Project Sales and Management Department, in early spring 2020 he had a general course to reduce costs for all government bodies and organizations.

Each of them solved this task according to their own plan: some organizations reduced IT budgets, others cut off basic costs. However, in general, the IT costs of the public sector remained at the level of 2019. Some state bodies have reduced budgets for IT, but this did not greatly affect the overall dynamics, "said TAdviser Igor Nikulin.

Oleg Golovko, First Deputy Managing Director of LANIT-Integration, believes that in 2020 there has been a change in the approach to financing IT services.

It is likely that many projects, of which budgets have already been allocated, will be implemented, but some of them may be launched later. In any case, we will count on the effect of delayed demand: the tasks will not go anywhere, but will be postponed to next year. The state understands that IT is the basic step towards digitalization, and it is the basis for ensuring the competitiveness of the Russian economy, so it makes no sense to save on information technologies, "said Oleg Golovko.

In some areas, he said, there was a certain optimization of the budget, so the integral activity in 2020, after all, is slightly lower than in 2019.

However, this fall we expect seasonal growth in business activity traditional for the IT market. This is mainly due to the budgetary process of state customers and state corporations. Despite the fact that there is a probability of a "second wave," in my opinion, we are now at the stage of leaving the so-called coronacrisis. Spring events adapted the market, even when implementing a negative scenario, customers will implement IT projects, "said TAdviser Oleg Golovko.

The director of Softline's department for working with state organizations, Igor Leipi, in a conversation with TAdviser, noted that in the spring against the background of the pandemic, state organizations really had to postpone the implementation of a number of planned projects. The main reason was the closure of production plants in China, which caused interruptions in the supply of equipment. In addition, the focus of state organizations has shifted to solving critical tasks - technology support for remote work of employees and remote provision of services to the public.

Nevertheless, we are convinced that by the end of the year all the activities planned for it should be executed, especially with regard to work with national projects. At the same time, since the state, represented by the first leaders, understands the full importance of digitalization and automation, this sector of the market will grow by no less than 20% per year, "said TAdviser Igor Leipi.

According to Ivan Skorodumov, Deputy General Director of EOS PV, in 2020 a significant number of organizations were forced to optimize their expenses, including IT projects.

Starting in March 2020, IT projects needed to be quickly and actively developed while reducing IT costs. Understanding the current situation and the significance of IT solutions, leading domestic IT companies offered special conditions for their products, "said TAdviser Ivan Skorodumov.

The dynamics of costs at the end of 2020, in his opinion, may on average decrease by 5-10%.

We observe that for a number of projects the decrease did not occur and will not occur, for a number the decrease will be more significant. So, for example, as you and I know, it has been reduced, and funding for a number of projects under the national Digital Economy program in 2020 has been practically suspended for certain articles, "said Ivan Skorodumov.

Roman Ostapchuk, Deputy General Director for Technical Development of Step Logic, in a conversation with TAdviser, drew attention to the fact that state-owned enterprises, like other organizations, according to him, faced difficulties and budget cuts in 2020. On the other hand, they had urgent tasks to transition to remote and hybrid modes of operation, which required financial costs. However, in general, the dynamics of IT costs of the Russian public sector in 2020 remains below the level of 2019.

According to the head of the department for working with the public sector "FORCE - Development Center" Andrei Burin, state bodies and state organizations in 2020 have a decrease in the range of 10-30% in general from previously announced budgets. However, despite the fact that the tasks are being revised, the budgets for them are being adjusted accordingly, projects in the public sector are continuing, becoming more complex and complex, which pushes the contractor to apply modern mechanisms for managing their profitability.

We are faced with budget cuts in a number of areas, some projects had to be "frozen" or significantly adjusted. Many of our customers are changing priorities and have to quickly make changes to previously approved plans. Therefore, the previously planned tasks are postponed to a later date, "Andrei Burin told TAdviser.

The average dynamics of IT costs of the Russian public sector, he said, will decrease in 2020. However, the share of state projects in the turnover of IT companies may grow.

The increase in their share is due to the fact that the pandemic affected the implementation of the national program "Digital Economy" only positively, although there is a reduction in budgets for individual projects, it accelerated the development of new modern digital platforms and services. Now their development is even faster than before, and for IT companies this means new projects and new state orders. If everything planned is realized, then the share of state projects in circulation will become higher. The main thing is that the budgets allocated for such programs should not be reduced, and the scope of state monopolies should not be expanded, "said Andrei Burin.

According to Andrey Konusov, Director General of Avanpost, government agencies and state organizations in 2020 reduced their IT costs and the IT market will inevitably sit in 2020 due to the pandemic and the lockdown that followed.

The decrease in the entire IT market of Russia in foreign currency terms may range from 15 to 30%, in rubles the situation will be slightly better due to the depreciation of the ruble. In fairness, it should be said that the decline in state IT procurement will be less than in the commercial sector - 10-15%. Far from all state structures began to revise previously approved IT budgets, but commercial organizations, minimizing the risks that have already happened and potential risks, overwhelmingly postponed most of the development projects, which most often include projects for the introduction and development of information systems, "said TAdviser Andrei Konusov.

State procurement, in his opinion, was significantly influenced not only by budget cuts, but also by the failure due to the pandemic of established processes for organizing tenders and conducting procurement procedures.

Few government agencies were seriously prepared for the possibility of a quick transition to remote work. As a result, almost the entire second quarter of 2020 went into adapting to the new reality and starting to function at least somehow. And despite the fact that by about July-August, on the one hand, it was possible to establish life on the "remote site," and on the other, quarantine was canceled, the loss of several months could not but affect the project plans. So, if you look at the number of public procurement contests published during the quarantine period and compare them with last year's figures, then the decrease will be obvious. And catching up with him in the remaining months is unlikely to work. Especially given the possible second wave of incidence, said TAdviser Andrei Konusov.

According to Azon CEO Elena Gutsalo, in the second quarter of 2020, the volume of public procurement was objectively reduced and only those that were worked out before the pandemic began were laid out.

Everyone understands that the state budget in 2020 will be largely deficient, but the Russian government has repeatedly reported that government spending will not be reduced, so we hope that there will be no significant reduction in the third and fourth quarters of 2020. However, in general, the drop in IT costs of the Russian public sector in 2020 relative to 2019 will be, unequivocally, at least 10-15%, "said TAdviser Elena Gutsalo.

According to Alexei Baryshkin, an expert on the digital transformation of Netrik Group of Companies, in 2020 there is a reduction in IT costs by government agencies and state organizations - especially against the background that in 2020 the regional budgets were reoriented to other tasks. However, it is still difficult to say exactly how much technology costs are reduced.

In general, the cost reduction process goes through all items where possible. And this inevitably affected the IT budget. However, the contraction inside it occurs unevenly. Everything is different in different segments of IT - somewhere there was even growth. Overall, we expect IT costs to be reduced by an average of 10-15%. But these are still indicative figures: the result will need to be estimated at the end of the year, and it is possible that the decrease will be less, "said Alexei Baryshkin.

Some IT companies surveyed do not see a decrease in public procurement, noting that no one canceled or stopped previously planned projects. In addition, additional costs were required by projects related to overcoming covid calls.

Sales Director of Rosplatforma Sergey Chlek, speaking with TAdviser, noted that the situation with the coronavirus pandemic certainly made its adjustments to public procurement in 2020, but not in the direction of their reduction, but simply shifted them in time.

As you know, the "lion's share" of public procurement occurs precisely in the fourth quarter, which is still ahead. We see that the process of import substitution of infrastructure software in 2020 has gained some momentum and we believe that the coronavirus pandemic spurred an increase in IT costs in the public sector in 2020, at least for the tasks of ensuring remote work of employees. Therefore, our forecast is an increase in costs by at least 20% compared to 2019, especially in the field of procurement of laptops and remote collaboration tools, "said TAdviser Sergey Chlek.

According to the general director of AMT GROUP, Alexander Goltsov, in Russia there is no reduction in the IT costs of government agencies and state organizations in 2020.

The main problem this year is that due to forced remote work, the implementation of projects has slowed down significantly. However, no one canceled or stopped the planned. In quarantine conditions, it was not very easy to continue working on projects, but, in my opinion, both we and the specialists of our customers worked perfectly in these difficult conditions, "said Alexander Goltsov.

At the same time, he added that, based on plans and budgets for their implementation, data from open sources, the state's costs of informatization in 2020 will increase by an average of 30%. According to Goltsov, development drivers are projects to create a state health information system, projects in the field of public safety and digitalization of regions, socio-cultural projects and automation of the activities of government and management bodies themselves, as well as their interaction.

According to the product director of TM: Corporate Trips of BIT Master Maxim Galimov, the costs of government agencies and state organizations for digitalizing trips in government fleets have not decreased.

Yes, current projects have slowed down due to objective reasons associated with the introduction of quarantine and remote operation. However, in general, state structures at the level of regional governments look in this direction optimistically, are ready to invest in the future, solve long-term problems, "said Maxim Galimov.

He also believes that "it is safe to say that in 2020 IT budgets will be redistributed to projects related to overcoming covid challenges."

Civil servants solve new problems, and in the conditions of remote work of both their own and service providers and software (software). Organizing the work of officials from home, quickly launching new public services in online form are completely new tasks for our state apparatus that were already being solved in the first half of 2020. However, we do not see that IT budgets will be reduced, rather, vice versa. And if it is possible, due to the digitalization of some processes, to sharply reduce costs and at the same time reduce the likelihood of infection, then such projects will clearly receive priority and additional financial support, "said TAdviser Maxim Galimov.

Georgy Lagoda, Deputy General Director of Software Product Group of Companies, speaking with TAdviser, noted that state plans for 2020 were completed back in 2019. Therefore, he assumes that there will be no large budget cuts in 2020, but their redistribution is possible.

So, most likely, the implementation of projects related to the instructions of the president and the government, that is, those for which the departments already have obligations, will continue. Projects related to restructuring and ensuring the work of government agencies in quarantine conditions will also be implemented, for example, the creation of remote jobs, the creation of pass verification systems, etc. Projects that did not have time to start or became more risky, including due to a violation of the equipment supply chain, can be revised or frozen, said TAdviser Georgy Lagoda.

The total amount of IT costs of the state, according to him, in 2020 may be even slightly higher than in 2019, since the budgets for 2020 have already been allocated and plans have been developed.

But the growth rate will definitely slow down. But in 2021, a rollback to the figures of 2019 is quite possible. Projects that did not have time to start in 2020 may already be subject to revision, freezing or cancellation. In any case, they will be studied and evaluated more closely and the cost of 2021 will most likely be less than in 2020, "said Georgy Lagoda.

According to the president of Biorg, Georgy Zuev, there can be no talk of a serious reduction in the state budget, since in 2020 the president showed special attention to the problems of the IT industry, proposing specific measures of state support, which is direct evidence of the importance of the implementation of state projects.

At least, this is true in the framework of the national program "Digital Technologies" and projects related to digitalization - the sphere in which our company has been operating for the past few years. Our experience confirms that the costs of digital transformation in Russia - compared to 2019, in 2020 the budget for it was doubled and amounts to more than 100 billion rubles - as in the whole world, continued their growth, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, "said Georgy Zuev.

Speaking about the prospects for spending on information technologies, he said that most likely the Russian scenario of their dynamics will not get out of the global picture too much and, adjusted for the current situation, will amount to 5-10% in ruble equivalent. Such growth, according to Zuev, will be ensured by the implementation of state programs and purchases related to the Digital Economy, as well as activity by large state and about state players, such as, in particular, Rostelecom, Sberbank and Rostec. At the same time, despite the increase in IT costs in general, the government has already postponed the implementation of a number of initiatives - to finance 5G technologies, improve infrastructure in the field of telecommunications and transport, R&D and plans related to the popularization of individual public services among the population.

What IT projects the public sector saved on

Speaking about projects whose financing was reduced by government agencies, most business representatives do not allocate any specific areas, but only notes that the funds for their implementation could be reduced due to the start that has not yet taken place, or due to the fact that they are not closely linked to the urgent needs of the country.

According to Ivan Bastrikov, in 2020, government agencies abandoned projects that have not yet started. It was launched mainly what was planned for the first half of the year, and many projects that were expected to be launched in the second half of the year were either postponed or started "with a creak" - with long cost justifications and other efforts. At the same time, expenses were distributed in favor of socially significant IT projects.

This is logical: during the pandemic, new state support measures appeared for the population and business. Solutions for interaction with citizens came first. Another point related to the pandemic is the growing demand for mobile jobs for employees and government executives. At the same time, work on interdepartmental electronic document management has intensified. The administration of the Government of the Russian Federation has become much more stringent in demanding that the regions comply with the MADO 2.7 format, thereby building maximum transparency in decision-making and the execution of instructions on the ground. The trend manifested itself after the new prime minister took office and became especially noticeable at the height of the pandemic - in the middle of the year, "Ivan Bastrikov told TAdviser.

Among the IT projects that fell under the knife in the first place in 2020, Igor Nikulin noted "those without which this or that department could live."

For example, if the organization had enough production capacity, but there were plans to expand, then such projects were frozen. In particular, this affected the expansion of the capacities of data centers, the transition to alternative software, etc., "explained TAdviser Igor Nikulin.

According to George Lagoda, the outbreak of coronavirus can serve as a deterrent for projects that did not have time to launch before quarantine, or for projects that are more "image-like," which are not mandatory in terms of fulfilling instructions and do not provide immediate impact.

Ivan Skorodumov is confident that at a later date in 2020, costs will be postponed in "long" projects that allow making such changes with the least losses. At the same time, the situation may differ significantly for different customers and from project to project.

Alexey Baryshkin believes that funding was reduced primarily from projects that do not produce tangible and obvious results in the foreseeable time frame - more strategic, long-term, future-oriented projects.

According to Andrei Konusov, funding was reduced for all promising development projects, where the solution was not required "here and now."

Untouched, as a rule, the costs of technical support for systems already used by the business and those projects that were already in the final stage of implementation remain. Of course, the main bestseller this year was the topic of organizing remote work, in all its manifestations. From the purchase of laptops for employees and the organization of secure communication channels, continuing to implement teamwork and remote communications, to the organization of full-fledged authentication and information security systems for remote work. The latest topics turned out to be more than relevant, since the number of attacks and hacks on remote operation systems in 2020, according to analysts from companies specializing in information security, has grown radically, "Andrei Konusov told TAdviser.

According to Yevgeny Miskevich, in 2020 there was a significant reduction in demand for projects to create a combined automated system with the ability to remotely manage, digital services to improve the quality and efficiency of production.

The key factor determining the recessive scenario of IT costs (-13%) in addition to the coronavirus pandemic and quarantine measures to prevent its spread is, in our opinion, the low margin of supply of hardware solutions and the pegging to the dollar exchange rate. Due to the increase in the exchange rate, suppliers raise prices for imported goods, which negatively affects the implementation of long-term projects. For companies, digitalization and automation are still long investments with a non-guaranteed outcome. Only under favorable economic conditions, state organizations will be ready to invest in long-term high-tech projects, "said Evgeny Miskevich.

In the opinion of Andrei Burin, projects to develop and modernize IT systems, introduce new modules, and expand functionality faced with a reduction in funding. Customers have revised priorities, many tasks have been postponed to 2021 or switched to a work model on requisitions, without fixing the final scope of work for the current period.

According to Elena Gutsalo, first of all in 2020, funding, according to interim data, was reduced for projects related to virtualization systems and projects to modernize and expand computer networks. The current situation with sanctions is also worrying to many, since some decisions are either already forbidden to be applied, or may be prohibited, since there is a risk of blocking licenses.

Projects that were budgeted back in 2019 work directly in our work. I don't see much impetus to development in the public sector, but projects related to the use of domestic solutions began to develop actively. Especially expanded projects related to information security, - said TAdviser Elena Gutsalo.

Sergey Chlek suggests that funding was reduced, in particular, for projects that are not related to the organization of remote work of employees, the automation of "manual processes" and the import substitution of software.

What IT projects have been accelerated

They did not suffer, but even received an impetus to development, according to business representatives, a variety of projects, the urgent need for which was caused by the pandemic. As it is not difficult to guess, these include infrastructure projects for organizing remote workplaces, meetings and negotiations, information security, as well as cloud services.

Adeksander Goltsov notes that projects for the development and modernization of infrastructure, as well as its adaptation to new working conditions, received an impetus to development during the pandemic.

We are talking about both the remote work of government employees, as well as the further development of the public services system, remote education, telemedicine, and so on. In addition to infrastructure, applications are also developing that make this format of interaction more convenient and comfortable, "explained Alexander Goltsov.

Everything related to providing remote work or providing services online will be in demand. This is automation of public services, cloud services, remote services. So, during the quarantine, it became clear the need for high-quality services for distance education, telemedicine services, obtaining government services in full electronic form, without going to the MFC or other government agencies. The situation that arose also again stirred up the discussion about creating Russian analogues of popular remote work services, such as Zoom, Cisco webex, Skype and others, said TAdviser Georgy Lagoda.

After leaving self-insulation, biometrics-based solutions are relevant that allow you to control the wearing of masks and gloves, "said TAdviser Sergey Popov.

The trend that existed before the pandemic for the use of unified communications, collaborative tools, including corporate messengers, in his opinion, received a new development, as government customers were able to assess their advantages during self-isolation.

During the period of self-isolation, the market greatly accelerated in the implementation and practice of all possible remote work solutions and, accordingly, measures to protect such work. In fact, the market will no longer be the same, we have moved to the next level of communications. The pandemic has largely taught many people to use various services, "said Sergey Popov.

The issue of compliance of the basic IT infrastructure with sharply increased loads from remote users was especially acute. We note with satisfaction the growing demand for hyperconvergent solutions, when virtual machines and instances of distributed data storage work reliably on the same servers, thus allowing you to abandon expensive disk arrays and at the same time get the possibility of unlimited scaling as a storage capacity, and computing power by adding ordinary rack servers to the cluster, "said Sergey Chlek.

He also noted that projects to convert the basic IT infrastructure to a hyperconvergent architecture are becoming more and more popular, which allows you to acquire the necessary flexibility and readiness for constantly increasing loads in a short time and with minimal costs.

According to Pavel Gontarev, managing director of the Digital Technologies Mail.ru, the volume of load on government systems is increasing, which leads to the use of new visualization and data processing tools, as well as an increase in the demand for cloud technologies, as cloud computing helps reduce costs.

The obvious benefit is a more efficient use of infrastructure. However, the main advantage is to accelerate the release of digital products. With platform components, the cloud allows you to go through several preparatory stages and immediately begin development. Thus, government agencies reduce the costs of developing and releasing new digital services necessary for more efficient functioning, "explained Pavel Gontarev.

Is it necessary to say that well-known circumstances have updated the attention of state authorities and state corporations to cloud technologies. If earlier the topic of "clouds" could be ignored, now any types of them (public, private or hybrid) are becoming more relevant than ever, "said Oleg Golovko.

According to Igor Nikulin, projects to ensure information security are rapidly developing in 2020.

The first aspect of information security that government agencies actively engaged in is the certification of information systems. Since June 1, 2020, state organizations have no right to operate non-certified information systems. The second reason for the rapid growth of information security projects is associated with the pandemic - the demand for organizing the safe work of remote employees was growing, "Igor Nikulin informed TAdviser.

The risk of the second wave of COVID-19 remains and it is a non-trivial task to rebuild large or small production in such conditions. To prevent the spread of infection, it is necessary to comply with a number of safety rules. During the year, our business analysts see a 14% increase in security demand compared to the previous year. In this unprecedented situation with the pandemic, IT solutions are actively used in the field of medical development: to monitor the implementation of safety rules and the use of protective equipment by medical personnel, to detect social contacts of patients, and to help decrypt X-rays. In the smart metering segment, there is also a positive dynamics - about 10% - in terms of demand for meters with remote data transmission, "said TAdviser Evgeny Miskevich.

He also noted that "many understand that information technology is the only way to maintain a competitive advantage: more efficient management, faster processing of requests, development of goods and services taking into account evolving needs and behavior of customers." Therefore, companies are actively interested in artificial intelligence-based solutions in order to save costs, optimize business processes and increase productivity.

According to Andrei Burin, services to ensure the operability of systems in the new conditions remained in great demand - a tangible increase in the load on server capacities. These include services to migrate between different heterogeneous environments, optimize performance, and partially or completely migrate to cloud hybrid platforms. In addition, the transition to digital services has accelerated.

Not without the support of the state, according to Georgy Zuev, in addition to projects related to information security, projects in the field of artificial intelligence and big data, crowdsourcing, blockchain, and the Internet of things received a new impetus. They began to be actively used in the field of health care and the educational environment, financial organizations and retail, because they reduce the path to the user of the service, making the process more comfortable and safe in a situation of increased health protection measures. In addition, by November, projects to digitize civil status data are being completed at an accelerated pace, as they directly affect the launch of a single federal information register of information about the population of the Russian Federation.