What happened last year: No. 1 on IT services in the country, 2000+ projects, many engineering stories

Happy new year to you, friends! The fact is that we traditionally sum up the results of 2016 in April, when everything was counted to the smallest detail and the annual reporting was submitted. And now, at the start of the holidays, there was an opportunity to look back again and tell not about the results, but rather about the trends from the observations of our experts. It just so happened that from a modest position of integrator No. 1 among IT service providers in the country (according to PA Consulting group rating). At the end of the year 16, we had 2174 people in the state, and we have completed more than 2000 projects worth 28.5 billion rubles. We see, if not the entire ICT picture in the country, then its main part is for sure.

Go!

So, oddly enough, last year the intensity of the fight against spam decreased. The share of spam in mail traffic last year fell significantly, in particular, according to Symantec, its performance is comparable to the level of 2003. More precisely, spam has become smarter, phishing emails have become part of targeted APT attacks, especially against banks. They are massively sent cool RTF, which creates a no less cool exe-file, and then everything else that is needed from payload is already installed.

From the important - everywhere one can feel the transition to domestic solutions.

In the field of information security, this transition is especially acute.In addition, the focus was on the protection of strategically important industrial facilities and their automated process control systems (ACS TP). In particular, this is stated in the version of the new Information Security Doctrine. Threats to the critical information infrastructure of the Russian Federation and the enterprises of the military-industrial complex are among the most relevant at the global level. There is also a tendency towards a comprehensive approach to information security (perhaps only in our practice). Customers are striving not only to fix the problem, but to act within the framework of a single concept, which is compiled from the audit of IT infrastructure and business processes. To minimize the threats of targeted attacks, integrated monitoring of network and IT resources, tracking user behavior are used.

Much has changed in outsourcing. Already some of our customers are considering the possibility of introducing a comprehensive system that will automatically control the life of office equipment, upload and update software needed for specific employees and their functions in the company. And if now employees are doing this (it does not matter - insourcing or outsourcing), then soon it can become a managed service that is fully automated and can save employees time and prevent the occurrence of unexpected breakdowns and production downtimes.

Business analyticscontinues to be all the same relevant - no one still knows what to do with the accumulated data (they are used for a few percent of the possible), but we have already done a couple of very funny things. Alas, I can’t tell, there is a very tough NDA.

The Internet of things is gaining popularity and applicability. Last year, they even launched the IoT Development Roadmap until 2020. The presence of an expert community and a roadmap supported at the state level in itself indicates that the sphere is developing. A revision of the rules for using frequency ranges is planned. Ultimately, it was because of this legislative basis that the terminator cat suffered - we initially deployed a trigger video surveillance system when business processes are involved in an event in the system.

In a sense, the field of electronic document management turned upside down.It became clear that the user must become a face. Commercial companies are gradually moving to collaboration and document storage environments similar to social networks. We have been using a corporate social network for several years now, which replaces quite a lot of internal services: an internal corporate portal, a knowledge base, specialized content management systems, and a media portal. The old problem of reconciling documents from mobile devices has also been removed - tools have appeared that allow you to encrypt data on mobile devices or store an electronic signature key on a special device that can be connected to a smartphone or tablet in a secure manner. Another of the trends in the EDMS market is the availability of case-management capabilities in the system, that is, storage of regulations and work on them at the same time. Notation BPMN (Business Process Model and Notation) is already almost de facto supported by different platforms, especially new systems. As for CMMN (Case Management Model and Notation), so far it has not received such a breadth of spread, but is slowly penetrating into systems almost on a par with DMN (Decision Management Notation).

Infrastructure solutions. We are waiting for shifts in favor of a software-defined data center, although few people still know what it is. Here here you can see some of our latest thinking on the subject.

In terms of import substitution in the field of software- a complete rainbow. In 2016, the Unified Register of Domestic Software appeared; FZ-188 on preferences for Russian software manufacturers began to operate. Of course, import substitution could lead to the loss of a certain share of the Russian market by foreign companies, but so far this has not led to large losses. However, developers of industrial versions of competitive products received some advantages - in particular, 1C, Red Soft, Kaspersky and Positive technologies, “cloud” products, infrastructure solutions for creating cloud services, for example, based on OpenStack, as well as MyOffice office applications.

In the field of computing infrastructure, import substitution is also booming. Asian manufacturers are especially pleased: Huawei, Lenovo. Their equipment is not inferior to Western counterparts in performance and computing capabilities. These are mainly x86-based solutions that banks, retail chains, logistics companies and industrialists are eyeing.

Contact centers are getting smarter.The emphasis is now on personalizing services, improving the quality and speed of their service, reducing costs. The topic of managing customer experience is becoming extremely relevant. An online contact center operator can follow the entire route of subscribers' contact: when, with whom, on what issues and through which channels (voice, e-mail, SMS, chat, social media, IVR) he interacted. The history of relationships also allows you to analyze the emotional loyalty of customers, correctly respond to complaints and complaints, it is better to sell.

Software Defined Networks.The practice of gradual adaptation of SDN and strategic planning for the full virtualization of ICT infrastructure is developing. The attention to the subject of SDN is enormous, and the market continues to grow. Leading analytical agencies give very optimistic estimates: Gartner has included SDN in the TOP10 technological trends of the industry for many years, and IDC and Infonetics Reseach estimate the potential of the SDN / NFV market by 2018 at $ 8-11 billion with an annual growth of about 90%. Market players see SDN as a way to save and increase the profitability of services. Infonetics Research analysts are confident that the cost of maintaining telecommunications infrastructure can be reduced by 48% per year, and capital costs - even more than 50%. The essence of a software-defined network is the ability to centrally manage network equipment, where a special SDN controller performs the function of the "brain". This requires a smaller number of service specialists and makes it possible to distribute the load on resources between different network sections 20-30% more efficiently. In other words, the benefits of implementing SDN are obvious today, but so far in complexity it resembles matanalysis. To simplify the implementation, we have opened a laboratory of SDN solutions, where you can try and play everything.

Monetization of IT solutions. Any crowded object such as a stadium, hotel, shopping center or airport can be turned into a source of additional income from advertising. Well, or broadcast something else useful to fans, buyers, passengers. Or for students - at the MSTU named after N. E. Bauman, we installed the Digital Signage system.

Given that 60% of customers actively use mobile services, it is logical to assume that Wi-Fi in the very near future will take on the function of a unifying platform that will effectively attract customers. For example, there is a solution for Wi-Fi analytics of customer behavior based on Cisco Connected Mobile Experiences (CMX). It monitors all Wi-Fi signals in real time, collects and combines information about the location of mobile devices and user behavior on the network, including demographic data from social networks. The solution monitors the movement of visitor flows and creates heat maps in real time, thus determining the most visited sections and driving routes. In addition, users connected to Wi-Fi can be offered specialized content on devices, receiving additional income from advertising. In general, if you did not pay for Wi-Fi - you are a product. And they will count you!

Telecommunications operators have a high interest in the Revenue Sharing model. The idea is that the operator does not need to create their own infrastructure for each service, this is the responsibility of the developer or integrator. The provider’s task is to ensure the delivery of the service to the consumer (“transport”) and the sale channel (sales channel). After the service is launched and offered to consumers, the operator and its technology partner receive interest from the generated additional revenue. As our experience shows, the Revenue Sharing model is becoming more and more popular, regardless of the sphere in which it is applied. In the case of mobile operators, we already have good experience in 10 countries .

By directions

Now I’ll tell you a little more about our departments in order to give examples of projects relevant for a variety of businesses within Russia.

Software

The guys from DIT are doing everything that cannot be thrown into the wall. For example, they modernize the ship’s IT subsystems in Russia ( example ), stratify “drunk” databases, recognize faces and cats. 518 projects per year, of which 119 - above 10 million rubles.

In addition to the mentioned projects, it is worth noting the introduction of 1C in Khrunichev, and how the IAM system was implemented in DPD in Russia, and the consulting project - the introduction of the KPI system in the Russian world. The most memorable project of the year, of course, was how they looked for a terminator cat in the warehouse with the help of video hunting and how they distinguished the cart from the superintendent . Made a portal + kiosks for personnel tasks in Fosagro. The most successful and large-scale project of this year is the creation of a single information space that ensures the effective interaction of hundreds of departments from different countries within the framework of a large international organization. Its purpose is to simplify operations and procedures that begin on the territory of one state and end on the territory of another. About this, too, while you can’t talk in detail on the NDA.

Telecommunications

The DTK division is signalmen and networkers. From their point of view, any environment, if properly built, is suitable for transmitting packets over the network without delay. In 2016, DTK had more than 400 projects; there are very interesting and complex ones. For example, our engineers continued to upgrade the Tele2 contact center . By the way, this KC is already 10 years old. All this time we provide round-the-clock technical support. The VTB24 CC was modernized , and there appeared a smart IVR. Almost like a chat bot, just an answering machine. At Neiva Bank, we have created a fully functional contact center: according to their assessment, the efficiency of operators has increased by 20%. An interesting project was with Aeroexpresswhere we upgraded the data network without stopping business processes. Previously, there was no separation into network layers, and there was a dependence on providers. Now everything is much better, plus p2p telephony has appeared.

For the Eurasian Economic Commission (ECE), they implemented a complex that allows holding video conferences with a large number of participants from different countries, working with them on documents and effectively managing meetings. Great work, 10 full-fledged subsystems.

In October, they completed a project to create the IT infrastructure of FC Krasnodar, about it will be separately later. Together with colleagues from the Department of Intelligent Buildings (DIZ), they designed and implemented 45 low-current systems at the stadium, including security systems, television broadcasting, telecommunications, multimedia, as well as automation and dispatch systems for engineering systems. I note that FC Krasnodar is the only stadium in Russia equipped with high-speed High Density Wi-Fi. Usually, due to the large number of fans at the same time at the match, the stadiums are technologically unable to provide high-quality cellular communications and wireless Internet. Our solution allowed us to provide 100% coverage of the stadium bowl. Thanks to HD Wi-Fi, fans can always stay in touch and share sports content on social networks directly during the match.

Engineering minced buildings

DIZ projects are the most chic of engineering romance. Either build a boiler room with a specific controller inside, then reconstruct the courthouse, then build a data center, then a trigeneration center for North Ossetia-Alania, or something else. And then drive them to Aldan - repair something by hand, bend the cable on the roof of the bank at night, and repair the –50 antennas in the north in the winter. Only once they got into the heat: a telescope was installed in the mountains of Chile.

This year there were 493 projects. The most interesting are the mentioned stadium in Krasnodar (together with DTK), CSKA stadium, smart office ALROSA (together with DTK), arbitration courtin the Smolensk region. We just started the project of equipping the stadium in Yekaterinburg, in mid-summer we plan to close the project for the construction of the Stavropol Auto plant.

The general trend - energy-efficient innovative solutions with a reasonable price are in demand. More and more vendors are opening production in Russia in order to stop holding back exchange differences.

Well, we got our own staff of architects. And among us there are already people who designed skyscrapers and several metro stations.

Hyload

These are ICE projects, in essence - infrastructure workers and cloud workers. They have the most “silent” work - there are many routines for moving and configurations, and all the news is quiet. Well, yes, in nuclear power engineering there is now fault-tolerant computing, nothing will crash anywhere. Well, it didn’t wail before that. Etc. In total, 770 projects were implemented during the year as part of the ICE area. The coolest ones are Rosagro in the cloud, VR solutions for DeLaval, virtualization of computing infrastructure for Svyaz-Bank , did a lot of interesting things for Vostok-Zapad, raised hyperconverged solutions for Zelgros .

The general trend is that everyone is going to the cloud, and more and more power is needed.Even the most conservative bankers began to transfer more and more services to the cloud, and in the market this is becoming the norm. Needs are slightly ahead of what Russia can offer now, and it is difficult to scale to the West. Plus HPC became needed at remote sites. Often you need the service "secure cloud as a service." Demand for cloud services is growing, and along with this, requirements for ensuring their security are formalized. We offer Security-as-a-Service based on certified FSTEC and FSB tools for the correct protection of PD.

More projects - of one nuclear company ensured the failure-free operation of the file system and the resource-intensive computing system in the conditions of lack of own resources for their placement - moved to our Uptime Institute data center of Tier III Gold Certification of Operational Sustainability level. About flash-arrays: we see that bankers and retail want to do more calculations in RAM - and productivity is many times greater, and the number of simultaneously processed transactions increases by orders of magnitude. “Kastorama” - we corrected the mistakes of the previous contractor from India, reconfigured everything, made monitoring systems, the customer is satisfied. Well, they migrated to the Unistream IT cloud . They made a distributed platform and flexible infrastructure for bankers, ready for peak loads and testing.

Total

Everyone has a crisis, and in IT - a crazy race. In the 16th year, everyone wildly saved, so I had to think a lot and look for unconventional solutions to problems. For example, banks began to switch from RISC-machines to x86 (an unprecedented thing) and implement in-memory computing, administrators of large networks began to deal with SDDC and SDN-technologies (this is something like secret steps of matanalysis for a regular admin), plus now many interesting developments (including from open source) began to be done domestically. And this year is even more fun, but more on that the next new year in April. Or June.