|
Page 1 of 5  In this interview, Andrey Grebnev tells us why he thinks AJAX is more hype than substance. He talks about the Java technologies that he is excited about and also gives us an overview of the IT scene in Russia.
We all read reports saying that Russia is changing rapidly and that it will be an IT force to reckon with in the near future. However when it comes to ground realities in Russia and the kind of software development and Java work happening in the country, most of us know very little.
We speak to Andrey about IT in Russia, how offshoring works in the country as well as his exploits in the Java world. Andrey also gives us an overview of the opensource AtLeap CMS and tells us when to go for a PHP CMS and when will a Java CMS be a better pick.
IndicThreads >> Hi Andrey! Thanks for being on IndicThreads. Could you introduce yourself to our readers?
Andrey Grebnev >> Hi, and thanks for inviting me. Before Russian custom software development company Blandware all my career was concerned with offshore IT outsourcing too: remote developer in big Russian company, Project Manager in small Russian company. Then for some time I was in Intel Corp. research and development center. Then I was General Manager of Russian production unit of Spanish company. Simultaneously during several years I give IT lectures in Udmurtia State University. As you can see, my career is so many-sided.
"Growth of internal Russian IT market is about 20-25% annually...
IndicThreads >> Can you tell us a little more about how IT and software development in Russia works? Do you think the scene in Russia is different from that in the other BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries? Andrey Grebnev >> I was at conference ?Teaching IT in Russia? one month ago. This conference musters representatives of big Russian IT companies and representatives of world-famous corporations (Intel, Microsoft, IBM, Apple) and leading Russian Universities. The conference was under the aegis of Information and Computer Industry Association (APKIT). Association unites more than 200 companies and they are hold up to 70% in a number of sectors of IT market. Sometimes I will give you some latest data from discussions and reports of this conference including report of Byahov O.V. (Ministry of IT and Communication). The sales volume of our IT market is about 0.7% of world one (and 0.3% added cost). However the growth of internal Russian IT market is about 20-25% annually. Russia intends to invest around $650 million in the IT sector over the next five years to be among the world's top 10 countries in IT by 2010. This year the government of Russia has taken a decision to create several IT techno-parks with tax breaks and reduced customs on imported equipment for companies operating from there.
"Russia intends to invest in the IT sector
to be one of the world's top 10 countries in IT by 2010... There is a very big percent of educated people in Russia (including high education). We are always proud of our high education. The number of institutes of higher education has been doubled last 10 years. For example our students are always in the top of ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest. I think it is very big index of Russian education to have first places among 1.5 thousands universities from about 70 countries. Our education graduates 180 thousands of students a year which have deepest fundamental IT knowledge including perfect mathematical base. I mean applied mathematics, formal logic, theory of algorithms, discrete mathematics and so on. Their knowledge will not become antiquated after 5-6 years (it is IT cycle). However Russia does not have debugged system of ?two-years? colleges (as for example in India) which graduate students which have knowledge in one concrete technology or programming language and are ready to work in real projects. Russia has one of the highest percent engineers in the world.
"Russia graduates 180 thousand students a year,
each having deep fundamental IT knowledge.... For example it is not accident that Intel Corp. has been working in Russia from 1991. Now Intel has research and development centers in 5 Russian?s cities with 1 thousand employees. The high level of Computer science in Russia allows Intel to carry out high-intellect research in most difficult areas: High Performance Computing, Network and Wireless technologies, Microprocessors and Compilers etc. As for concrete technologies, for example Java, Sun Microsystems opened its first Center of High Technologies in Saint-Petersburg city last year. About 300 employees work at Sun Studio (Sun Studio Enterprise, Java Studio Creator), J2SE, J2ME, Jini technologies. Other world-famous companies have their R&D centers in the country, e.g. Motorola, Dell, Siemens etc. Boeing has the largest development center outside of US in Russia. For all who are interested in Russian IT-market I can advise non-profit portal Outsoursing-Russia.com dedicated to outsourcing of software development to Russia. In May Outsourcing-Russia.com has combined forces with largest IT association of Russia ? RUSSOFT Association. RUSSOFT unites 80+ companies with more than 6000 highly qualified, professional software engineers. The president of RUSSOFT Association is Valentin Makarov. I have discussed the problems of IT companies in non-central cities just some weeks ago at dinner with him.
<< Start < Previous 1 2 3 4 5 Next > End >>
|
Home | 
