Moscow’s administration replaces Microsoft Outlook with local software
6,000 workstations of the Moscow's government will get MyOffice email service instead of Microsoft Outlook. The decision as aimed at supporting Russian vendors as a response to the western sanctions. Tatarstan is already working on the replacement programme
Moscow's government changes Microsoft Outlook for local software, claims Bloomberg. The national email service MyOffice is created by a Russian developer New Cloud Technologies. At first the service will be installed at 6,000 workstations with a further expansion to 600,000 machines of the capital's municipal workers. In the future, New Cloud Technologies' solutions may replace another foreign office software likeMicrosoft Office or even Microsoft Windows.
The plan responds to Vladimir Putin's strategy to replace foreign imports in many spheres with domestic goods and services. According to the government's decree issued last November, there is a priority of the national software for state and municipal governments. 'We want the money of taxpayers and state-run firms to be primarily spent on local software,' said Minister of Telecom and Mass Communications Nikolay Nikiforov. The country's software market is estimated at $3 billion. Another reason is that Russian-made software is considered to be more reliable and safer, especially for storing official data.
The Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications of Russia has already made a list of Russian software products and recommended state companies suppliers. Earlier Moscow's government changedAmerican Cisco Systems Inc. technology used for city surveillance cameras to a domestic product. Rossiya Segodnya state news agency switched from Oracle database systems to another software supported by Russian programmers. Nikolay Nikiforov also announced that from 2017, a number of government institutions 'will be tightening their grip' on those who aren't choosing local alternatives.
Meanwhile, Moscow is not a pioneer in implementing the local software. Tatarstan is a pilot region where a complex replacement programme was launched in June. New Cloud Technologies are supposed to provide all Tatarstan schools with their office product for free. Tatarstan, in turn, will act as a testing ground for the company's cloud services. In addition, New Cloud Technologies plan a number of joint activities with Innopolis University focused on the development of educational programmes.
New Cloud Technologies CJSC was founded in March 2014. The major shareholder of the company is Rostelecom's Senior Vice-PresidentAndrey Cheglakov. MyOffice platform including office application, email service, cloud storage and so on is the vendor's flagship development.