In Russia, they will create an alternative to the cloud services of Microsoft and Amazon for 1 billion rubles


    Photo: Sergey Kiselev / Kommersant

    Within the framework of the Rosplatforma project, Parallels company is developing a domestic cloud service that can serve as an alternative to Microsoft Azure and Amazon Cloud, Kommersant writes . According to Parallels executives, this will help achieve "technological independence from the United States." The company itself was founded by domestic entrepreneur Sergei Belousov, but now the company’s assets are largely owned by foreign shareholders. Experts believe that the goal of Parallels is to create a product in Russia in order to bring its own products in line with Russian law. The total cost of the "cloud" project will be more than 1 billion rubles.

    The main part, the core of Rosplatform, will be Parallels Cloud Server, Parallels Automation services and virtual desktops (VDI). "Rosplatforma will become the basis of Russia's electronic sovereignty, the subject of strategic exports to countries seeking technological independence from the United States ..." - said in a video message from the company. Now, according to the authors of the project, the share of foreign software in the Russian Federation is about 75%. This is more than 90 billion rubles in monetary terms.

    A separate legal entity will be created to work on the Rosplatform platform project, 50% of which will belong to Russian citizens. Thus, all products of the new company will meet the requirements of domestic law. Recall that from January 1 of next year, all government agencies will be required to report on the purchase of foreign software. By the way, now the shareholders of Parallels are companies such as Bessemer Venture Partners, Insight Venture Partners, Intel Capital, Almaz Capital, Russia Partners, Cisco and Ingram Micro, so it’s difficult to call it purely Russian. True, the equity participation of partners is unknown.

    For 2015-2016, the company hopes to receive about 1.05 billion rubles of third-party investments, and by 2018 Rosplatforma hopes to bring it to self-sufficiency. Since 2020, the project initiators plan to receive more than $ 50 million a year, as a company turnover, with an annual profit of $ 8 million. They also want to bring Rosplatforma to IPO, with an initial placement cost of $ 400 million.

    The project is led by Vladimir Rubanov, ex-president of STC IT Rosa, who currently holds the position of vice president in the Odin virtualization department, as part of Parallels. Also, according to Kommersant, a large number of managers from STC IT Rosa, which is co-owned by former communications minister Leonid Reiman, have joined Parallels. The departure of Vladimir Rubanov provoked a fairly large conflict, so Reiman is unlikely to invest in Rosplatform, according to sources familiar with the situation.

    Previously, the project initiators planned to raise public funds, for which the project was first presented to Dmitry Medvedev, and then an application for funding was submitted to the Ministry of Communications. However, the company could not receive funds for the project.

    “Cloud services for providers are not critical in terms of import substitution,” he explains. “Now the public sector needs to switch to Russian application software, including operating systems, database management systems,” said Ilya Massukh, president of the Information Democracy Fund.

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