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Moscow city government to reject Cisco software in favor of domestic one

MOSCOW, September 08. /ITAR-TASS/. The Moscow city government has decided to switch systems of video surveillance from the US corporation Cisco Systems’ software to its domestic analogue by Netriks, Artyom Yermolayev, director of the city’s IT department, said Monday.

“From the point of view of software, we have already refused foreign products in favor of the domestic ones by 80-90%,” Yermolayev said.

The Moscow system of video surveillance comprises more than 120,000 cameras in blocks of flats and streets. The city’s budget splashes out some 5 billion rubles for their maintenance on an annual basis.

The video surveillance services are provided by wireline operators MGTS, Rostelecom, and Komkor, a unit of Akado.

Yermolayev said that the city government’s divisions are being switched to Russian software. “Each direction has its own switch plan, if not in an urgent then in a long-term prospect, because some of the divisions are not easy to be switched (to Russian software). We need to weigh and estimate investments,” he said.

A significant part of software solutions, which are used by the bodies of the Moscow city government, are created by domestic companies-integrators on the basis of Russian producers.

The most complicated problem is a transfer of data bases. “When it comes to servers to store data, it’s not difficult to replace one hardware piece with another one,” Yermolayev said.

The share of foreign components and software in the total volume, consumed by the city, stands at 20-30%. Moscow creates information systems and orders IT equipment for some 6-7 billion rubles a year, he said.