Last month, a pilot project was announced by state-backed technology investment group Rostec to switch from Windows to a Russian-developed, Linux-based operating system.
Russian Helicopters, the Rostec subsidiary conducting the project, has unveiled a three-year plan to develop an alternative to its current IT architecture. The project aims to replace step-by-step Microsoft Windows for Linux, including Astra Linux Special Edition, a Russian-made protected operating system.
“No doubt, the task is extremely difficult. A whole generation of specialists has grown up over the past 25 years to focus entirely on IT infrastructure based on what we currently consider ‘risky’ international solutions by IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, EMC, Cisco, Siemens, SAP and others. It’s very important now to support companies that develop domestic IT solutions,” said Mikhail Nosov, head of IT at Russian Helicopters.
Russian Helicopters and other Rostec companies will be supported in their effort by RT-Inform, Rostec’s key IT development arm, and United Instrumentation Corporation, also a Rostec asset.
Import substitution strategy
Rostec’s move is part of a large set of actions that are designed to lessen Russian reliance on foreign technology and digital services. As reported by East-West Digital News, this import substitution strategy concerns, in particular, client and mobile operating systems, server operating systems, database management systems, cloud software and virtualisation, as well as user-defined office software.
Such domestic software should be developed until 2025 in collaboration with other countries, in particular the BRICS states, the Russian government hopes.
Under a law which came into force on Jan. 1, 2016, Russian government bodies are no longer allowed to buy foreign software if there is an available domestic version. According to the ministry of communications, until now the share of imported software in the government sector was between 50% and 97%, depending on the type.
The new regulation threatens the position of IT giants such as Microsoft, SAP, Oracle and IBM, which may lose a share of the Russian market.
In the technological field, however, Russia cannot reach autarky, a senior Russian official warned last year, because the domestic market is too small and because US tech firms are too far ahead of Russian companies.
