Anastasia Spirkova , Deputy Marketing Director of Astra Group:
Posted: Sun Jan 19, 2025 6:57 am
IT Channel News: How are your relationships with developer partners, with whom you interact as a vendor-to-vendor?
E.S.: We have a long history of cooperation with manufacturers of hardware and software solutions that we rely on when producing our products — since 2015, when the first conversations about import substitution began. And we had been communicating with some of them even earlier: after all, the Russian software market, although extremely narrow, has always existed. And after 2015, this interaction became noticeably closer: we conduct hardware and software testing, and proudly issue compatibility certificates to each other. And these are not just papers; their execution requires a lot of preliminary work.
For example, we create a new laptop, and it turns tanzania company email list out that some Russian software does not “fit” smoothly: problems with the touch panel, webcam, something else. Together, we solve this bottleneck — and as a result, everyone mutually enriches themselves with invaluable experience. Of course, this takes time, resources, money. But everyone understands that without such a process there will be no development.
As a developer of a domestic operating system, we are ready to cooperate with IT companies interested in partnership with players in the Russian infrastructure software market. Qualitative and quantitative growth of the technological cooperation network helps us increase the reach of customers who want to simplify migration from software of foreign vendors and strengthen their independence from them. And one of the priority tasks in this area is to achieve compatibility of our software products with the widest range of other Russian solutions.
As for strategic cooperation, it is important for us that not only we, but also the partner take an active part in the development of the joint project, otherwise the business will be unproductive. This approach allows us to create very strong collaborations. For example, last year we created a joint venture ICL Astra Services with ICL, one of the largest service companies, to support projects for the implementation of Astra Group products and the transition of customers to this OS from foreign software. When deciding to create this collaboration, the main decisive factors for us were ICL's experience and scale: in-house production, deep expertise in the entire stack of Astra Group products, implementation of projects of any complexity and support of heterogeneous IT infrastructures. We have been cooperating with this vendor for a long time and are convinced of its reliability and desire to develop. I will say more: today ICL is the only company with which we have launched a joint venture, and it is with such partners that we are ready to implement the most daring projects.
E.S.: We have a long history of cooperation with manufacturers of hardware and software solutions that we rely on when producing our products — since 2015, when the first conversations about import substitution began. And we had been communicating with some of them even earlier: after all, the Russian software market, although extremely narrow, has always existed. And after 2015, this interaction became noticeably closer: we conduct hardware and software testing, and proudly issue compatibility certificates to each other. And these are not just papers; their execution requires a lot of preliminary work.
For example, we create a new laptop, and it turns tanzania company email list out that some Russian software does not “fit” smoothly: problems with the touch panel, webcam, something else. Together, we solve this bottleneck — and as a result, everyone mutually enriches themselves with invaluable experience. Of course, this takes time, resources, money. But everyone understands that without such a process there will be no development.
As a developer of a domestic operating system, we are ready to cooperate with IT companies interested in partnership with players in the Russian infrastructure software market. Qualitative and quantitative growth of the technological cooperation network helps us increase the reach of customers who want to simplify migration from software of foreign vendors and strengthen their independence from them. And one of the priority tasks in this area is to achieve compatibility of our software products with the widest range of other Russian solutions.
As for strategic cooperation, it is important for us that not only we, but also the partner take an active part in the development of the joint project, otherwise the business will be unproductive. This approach allows us to create very strong collaborations. For example, last year we created a joint venture ICL Astra Services with ICL, one of the largest service companies, to support projects for the implementation of Astra Group products and the transition of customers to this OS from foreign software. When deciding to create this collaboration, the main decisive factors for us were ICL's experience and scale: in-house production, deep expertise in the entire stack of Astra Group products, implementation of projects of any complexity and support of heterogeneous IT infrastructures. We have been cooperating with this vendor for a long time and are convinced of its reliability and desire to develop. I will say more: today ICL is the only company with which we have launched a joint venture, and it is with such partners that we are ready to implement the most daring projects.