“It will slow down”: IT specialists called the consequences of Microsoft leaving Russia

From October there will be no legal corporate Windows in the Russian Federation

Microsoft, the purveyor of a number of fundamental computer programs led by the Windows operating system, has announced that after September 30, the licenses for its products will cease to be valid and will not be renewed. We are talking about programs for corporate clients (that is, computers for individuals with a preinstalled system should not be affected). However, the final withdrawal of Microsoft from the everyday life of Russian companies may lead to unpleasant consequences. Which ones – found out “MK”.

At the moment, according to monitoring companies, the products of the company founded by Bill Gates continue to be used by 70-90% of corporate users (two years ago this figure exceeded 95%). We are talking not only about the operating system (including its server versions), but also about the Microsoft Office suite, database management systems and a number of other specific applications deeply integrated into the systems.

The company’s decision was rather abrupt: it became known from a letter from the support service to one of the Russian customers, who, at the same time, received an offer from Microsoft to renew software subscriptions just a few months ago. The vendor explained the decision by the need to comply with US, EU and UK sanctions against Russia.

Russian or open alternatives for most of the company’s products generally exist – there will be no catastrophic consequences, as predicted by IT specialists interviewed by the correspondent of the publication. However, the discomfort that may arise from the rejection of Microsoft products is likely to be felt by most residents of the country.

– In a nutshell, everything will slow down and fail, – predicts a specialist from the ΙΤ-department of one of the executive authorities of Moscow. – We used to be proud of the Russian digitalization of the state apparatus, but due to the problems of import substitution and sanctions, it is now holding on by a thread from collapse.

As the interlocutor of MK, who participated in the development and implementation of several federal registries, recalls, the issue of import substitution of software on the basis of which these products and databases were made was raised from the very beginning – it was discussed back in the first half of the 2010s. “Even then, the security forces demanded completely Russian software, and the developers stood up against it with their breasts: it’s impossible,” the expert recalls.

As a result, in most areas not related to state secrets or law enforcement agencies, registries and databases, as well as shells for the operation of the “digital state” were created on the basis of industry international standards – that is, products of Microsoft, Oracle and other giants. Because of this, when Western sanctions began, problems arose.

“On the part of the user, nothing is particularly noticeable, it just all began to work more slowly and produce a little more errors than before,” the expert says. – But what happens inside the system is a quiet feat of those who, with obscenities and blood, transfers all products to domestic developments. Many of which are “raw”, and absolutely everything, even in small things, differs from the originals.

As an IT employee of one of the large banks told MK, the transfer of the back office to office suites of Russian development has not yet been fully completed, although it started more than a year ago. And the point is not the lack of training of employees, but the fact that macros (mini-programs that perform standard operations for a given workplace) and corporate identity of the company (fonts, forms, logos) need to be “transplanted” to another platform.

– It is theoretically possible to use pirated software, but you need to understand that corporate use is different from home use, that we are obliged to guarantee the security of software, – the system administrator of the Moscow executive authority shares. – If a failure occurs due to the fault of the program, either the manufacturer of this program or our department is responsible for it. Therefore, no one will take responsibility for putting something licensed without permission from the very top. Such rules have been in effect for at least seven years that I have been working in this position.

Among the industries in which, as a result of Microsoft’s departure, software solutions may slow down and become less reliable, MK’s interlocutors named the electronic document management of authorities (public services at all levels), including medical, as well as data exchange as part of the administration of traffic violations: according to developer of state registries, a significant part of the code of this software is designed specifically for “Microsoft” platforms, and alteration may degrade their performance.