American Microsoft offers to combat coronavirus to deploy large-scale in Russia, its products and services — including medicine, education, predictive Analytics and cybersecurity. Access to many of them for the state can be free for at least six months. Domestic developers regard the idea of Microsoft as a threat to national security, as the Corporation will thus receive the data about the Russians. But the domestic system of solutions of this level just yet, say the experts.Some services and technical support Microsoft may be free for six months for state and departmental agencies and more time for educational organizations in Russia, follows from the proposals that the American Corporation was sent to the Ministry (a copy is in “Kommersant”). Among the products offered — cloud services for remote working and shared services for cybersecurity, predictive Analytics on the situation with the spread of the coronavirus (in this part, the Corporation offers partner solutions), intelligent robots and solutions for medical institutions.Microsoft is actively cooperating with governments, NGOs and companies around the world, including Russia, and is taking practical measures to help cope with the effects of the current world unfavorable situation, told “Kommersant” in the Corporation. The communications Ministry confirmed the receipt of proposals.Most domestic competitors Microsoft urge you to be careful about its proposals. They are a threat to national security and should be treated by law enforcement, a categorical Executive Director of the Association of software developers “national software” Renat Lachine. According to him, under the pretext of a pandemic, Western vendors are encouraged to violate multiple laws.In particular, it is forbidden to transfer data of Russian citizens to be processed on foreign servers to bypass the established procedure, said Mr Lashin, and Microsoft, in fact, offers to store and process outside the country critical of the state agencies, medical and educational institutions.Finally, continues Mr. Lachine, to make such a proposition to kill domestic industry of software development.To the question “Kommersant”, it is planned the organization of a data center in Russia in case of acceptance of offers, Microsoft did not answer. On the website of the Corporation provided that the service of the Russian users in data centers in Europe and the United States.The Microsoft initiative is similar to the “attempted attack” of the domestic software (SW) that occurred in 2008, said General Director of “Basalt SPO” Alexey Smirnov: when preparing Vnedrenie�� in schools in the Russian operating system “Alt Linux” and Microsoft offered schools a license to Windows and Office “almost nothing” — at $8 for a workplace that stopped the passage of the domestic products. In this case, the point is not dumping, but in an attempt to block the elimination of technological dependence, he said.Previously, Microsoft had no competitors in its traditional markets because the local industry is late, but in new markets, for example, remote access solutions, domestic companies can compete, the President of Association “RUSSOFT” Valentin Makarov. At the same time, the idea of free provision of products and services positive from a humanitarian point of view, he admits. TrueConf company (domestic developer of software for video conferencing) also provides the license for free, said its development Director Dmitry Odintsov: since the beginning of self-isolation the government agencies, medical institutions, universities and schools, they are issued more than 2.5 million In this case further support and extension of Microsoft licenses can be much more expensive than the Russian counterparts introduction, he warns.In General, the Russian developers are not able to offer system solutions, such as those that have Microsoft, Amazon or Google, says the founder of the ANO “Information culture” Ivan begtin, major Russian companies have a lot, but it’s “not even 10%” that will ensure world leaders. “In Russia there are good solutions in some segments, but there is no systematic solutions to key issues. For example, one does not provide full corporate communications, including it and data storage systems, and office programs, and system video-conferencing,” he says. To ensure such consistency, the Russian companies need to go global, to work with the audience, comparable in size with the USA, China and India combined, said Mr. Begtin, yet effective to use the products of world leaders, not to create their alternative. According to experts, many governments are already working with Microsoft, which will host their site their data centers, but the Russian government is unlikely to be ready for major contracts with the Corporation, considering how much money has already been spent on the development of domestic products, including cloud services.Yulia Stepanova
