Russian companies have to implement import phase-out on a very tight schedule that is likely to become even tighter. Thus, it is planned to stop using hardware manufactured by foreign vendors at critical infrastructure facilities in Russia starting from 2023. The corresponding decree is being drafted and is subject to approval by the government. Vasily Shpak, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation, told the attendees of ITSF about these upcoming changes in his speech at a plenary session.
Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media of the Russian Federation has already come up with a proposal to ensure migration to Russian software solutions from January 1, 2023 and to Russian hardware starting only from January 1, 2024. The Ministry included this proposal in amendments to the draft of the Presidential Decree “On economic measures to ensure technical independence and security of critical infrastructure facilities”.
However, Evgeny Stepanov, General Director of ICL—KME CS and ICL Techno, expressed his doubts during the round table discussion that it would be possible to equip all critical infrastructure facilities with domestic hardware before the new deadline. He pointed out that deadlines for similar initiatives implemented on a national scale had been postponed in the past.
Evgeny Stepanov also mentioned another milestone: the imports phase-out project that had been largely discussed since 2015 started finally working last year. Quotas, sanctions, and government decrees were put in operation. At the same time, the number of decrees and regulations also increased, they are now released every 6 months.
As for the hardware market, 2020& was a very important year for both ICL and hardware manufacturers in general: for the first time ever, our company manufactured motherboards in Russia, totalling 50 thousand units. Our plans for 2021 are not less ambitious. This is a very important step because one of the basic requirements for the solution to be approved as domestic is that its motherboard should be manufactured in Russia.
Furthermore, it was planned that only computers with Russian processing units will be considered Russian hardware from 2022. For this reason, ICL started developing motherboards based on Baikal CPUs for laptops, all-in-ones, and desktops. Our company is considering Elbrus CPUs as well, but they are very specific as they are initially intended for servers and storage systems. According to Evgeny Stepanov, ICL team hopes that at the end of this year the register of the Ministry of Industry and Trade will include storage system based on Elbrus CPU developed by ICL.
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