Stanislav Iodkovsky, CEO of IVKS LLC (IVA Technologies, developer of the IVA communications platform), announced from the rostrum of the press club of NP RUSSOFT that Microsoft continued to extend free licenses for MS Teams for Russian schools and universities. "If you're leaving, then leave," he says. "We work with RANEPA, other universities and many schools, and Microsoft extends licenses for all of them. Moreover, Microsoft spends tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars annually on infrastructure alone in order to remain on the Russian educational market, probably in the hope of returning someday."
Stanislav Iodkovsky belize whatsapp resource told a ComNews correspondent that IVA Technologies' position is shared by at least three other developers of Russian VKS services, including Sberbank PJSC (SberJazz). According to him, these four companies have agreed to act through the Association of Software Developers (ARPP) "Domestic Software", which will soon come up with a corresponding initiative. They also discussed this issue with the Ministry of Digital Development and Communications and with the head of the Electronic Democracy Foundation Ilya Massukh.
"I believe that we need to act to the point of blocking foreign videoconferencing services at the DPI level," said Stanislav Iodkovsky, adding that there is hope for the "expulsion" of Microsoft Teams from the educational process in Russia as early as the end of 2023. "We are in favor of there being no foreign solutions of this class in Russia: we already have a mature market for domestic products," the head of IVA Technologies emphasized.
According to Stanislav Iodkovsky, working via MS Teams directly violates Federal Law No. 152 "On Personal Data", which requires processing such data on servers within the Russian Federation. "I would not want my child's big data to be analyzed by someone abroad at the level of Western VKS service servers. Besides, everyone knows that there is no such thing as a free lunch. And the educational process on a Microsoft product in the long term creates the habits of the future consumer, and this also has a negative effect on domestic products," he told a ComNews correspondent.
"While foreign videoconferencing services are practically not used in the public sector, the commercial sector continues to use Zoom: everyone has already learned to renew its paid versions. In our opinion, it should not be in Russia - it damages our market," said the CEO of IVA Technologies. "Microsoft causes even more damage by dumping. Because Microsoft makes Teams free, schools and universities cannot take the risk and start financing videoconferencing. For example, in Moscow alone, there are about 5,000 schools, which create video conferences with over 100,000 participants - and all this happens on foreign servers."
In response to a question from a ComNews correspondent about whether IVA Technologies is ready to provide VKS products for universities and schools free of charge, Stanislav Iodkovsky said: "No, of course not. We are interested in selling this product - the logic of Microsoft's actions [in providing the service free of charge] is outside the framework of market relations. We are certainly ready to introduce a freemium model, but the product cannot be free indefinitely."
Overall, in the Russian market, despite the declared import substitution of software products, in 2023 foreign video conferencing services will retain 40% of the Russian market. However, in 2022 this share was 66%. Such data were cited by Stanislav Iodkovsky.
Dmitry Odintsov, Development Director of TrueConf LLC, told a ComNews correspondent that Russian solutions are ready to replace foreign software for both video lectures and webinars, as well as for asynchronous communications, organizing remote work and interaction between employees of educational institutions. At the same time, TrueConf informed ComNews that it does not share the position of IVA Technologies and does not intend to support its initiative.
"Our main product is a videoconferencing platform with a built-in messenger, which requires hardware capacity for deployment within the school network. There is also the possibility of implementing distance learning using the cloud SaaS model if the TrueConf platform is deployed in the data center of an operator trusted by the school. Among the additional features of TrueConf videoconferencing for schools and universities is a special mode for conducting remote classes "Video Lesson", which allows the lecturer (teacher) to see and hear all students, and students to focus on the lecturer," Dmitry Odintsov emphasized.