Although the growth rate of the cloud market in Russia lags behind that of the world ones, the cloud services market in Russia is currently undergoes a period of rapid growth. In some segments there is already a high level of cloud adoption, other potential customers are still not really trustworthy towards services of this class.
In general, the market will develop in accordance with global technology trends. The share of private clouds will decrease while public clouds in the overall market structure will grow. The main driver of the market are strong national players.
iKs Consulting estimates that the volume of the Russian cloud services market will more than double by 2022. It will be growing at an annual rate of at least 23%, with individual segments expected to grow by 30-31% per year. If developed following the optimistic scenario, the Russian cloud services market will triple by 2023.
Moreover, Russia is already becoming an exporter of cloud services: iKS-Consulting estimates that in 2017 the share of foreign customers in the revenue of Russian cloud providers was 2.2% in the IaaS sector and 5.1% in the SaaS sector. These rates tend to go up.
Why choose Russian server
Data sovereignty
A vital factor for choosing cloud hosting in Russia is the necessity to meet the requirements of local regulators, in particular, the Federal Law No. 152-FZ "On Personal Data". The law obliges data operators to store personal data of customers on servers located in the territory of Russia. This applies to all foreign companies targeting Russian citizens (with or without physical presence in the country). Foreign companies are the first to be brought to the attention of regulators.
Failure to comply with data localization requirements could result in heavy fines and even suspension of operations in Russia. Avoiding these risks is easy, by simply entrusting the storage and protection of personal data in accordance with local law to a Russian cloud provider.
Performance and latency
Physical location of servers matters. The closer the data center to the customers, the better user experience they get. If your project is designed for a Russian-speaking audience, the response in the data centers that are located within the country is faster than that on overseas servers. This is especially crucial for online games and video streaming services. For example, for YouTube or Netflix It is beneficial to have CDN resources in Russia.
Every extra second your application spends requesting data from a foreign server can lead to losing clients. In case of any latency, they will simply leave for the service of your competitors, whose data is on Russian server.
Customer relations
Partnering with a Russian cloud hosting provider instead of cloud giants like Amazon or Microsoft can mean better tech support. Large providers do not have time to give individual attention to each client. They cannot meet each client's unique needs or spend hours resolving technical issues with them. Requests are most often sent by email and then you need waiting for an answer for hours or even days.
Clients have to go through a chain of people and not deal directly with a responsible person. With smaller provider, you are more likely to have direct access to senior technical staff to discuss your requirements. You can also visit their data center to see for yourself how the facility is designed, maintained and managed.
In addition, Russian cloud providers can offer wider range of services. They always have individual solutions and sets of services, while the world's giants often have only standard solutions, although quite flexible.
While the major players continue to dominate the cloud industry, choosing a smaller provider in a country where you deliver services is often more beneficial. By providing in-country cloud solutions, Cloud4Y is able to provide foreign customers with the benefits of performance, with low latency, as well as enable enterprises to address Russian compliance requirements.
