Русский
Freesoft continues the column "Author's Columns". In this article Mikhail Kalinichenko, General Director of Protexen Technology (StarForce), spoke in detail about trends in the IT market, as well as about the prospects for the Russian technology business.
There are two obvious trends on IT market. Firstly,any solution has to work on mobile devices. That is why mobile development is becoming a must for any company that specializes in any field, from game development to corporate information protection. The direction of mobile development is simply obligatory for any company on the market, regardless of its specialization and size.
Secondly, the focus is on import substitution. The state order implies that Russian developers must create analogues of already used foreign software. Taking into account that the most serious customers are companies with state participation, large IT market players cannot do without work within the framework of the state order.
It is very difficult to predict what will be in demand in the context of a changed market in 5-10 years, but it is always possible to follow the emerging trends. In other words, tracking breakthrough technologies that have not yet "shot out" on the wide market, but have already found their first incarnation, can determine the direction of work.
For example, five years ago, augmented reality technologies were used in the development of games and gadgets for games. Then, the first objects with navigation based on augmented reality technology appeared, such as navigation in Moscow zoo or a virtual model of a nuclear submarine for staff training. Today, these projects are expensive to develop and maintain. But there is already a tendency to cheapen and replicate them. Therefore, we can safely assume that projects with augmented reality elements will enter our everyday life and will be in demand.
The same is happening with biometric authentication. Previously, biometrics was used quite rarely, but now phones and ATMs are already equipped with such identifiers. We can assume that soon there will be biometric locks for regular city apartments and the like.
Obviously, the greatest value in IT-development is the developers themselves, that is, people. In today's Russian reality, it is not the attraction of employees that is important, but rather the retention of employees. There is quite a large outflow of IT specialists abroad. Star programmers are leaving and companies are losing valuable staff.
At the same time Russian companies are actively competing on the foreign market. The focus on the Pacific region is especially relevant now. Firstly, it is rapidly developing in general. Secondly, it is the Pacific region where high-tech production is concentrated.
Another "positive" difference of IT-business, which gives it certain preferences: unlike other types of business, IT can afford to "tolerate" its ballast for quite a long time. Obsolete software, of course, requires certain costs, first of all, human ones - for technical support, for example. But at the same time it is still profitable, though not very profitable. But fortunately, outdated programs do not occupy warehouse territories, do not deteriorate over time, and so on.
It can be noted that the prospects for the domestic IT-business are not bad: there is demand on the domestic market and opportunities abroad. The main thing is to "keep your nose to the wind" and not work against the market.