MOSCOW, April 26. /TASS/. More than half (61%) of Russian companies continue using services of the American corporation Microsoft, according to research by Kontur.Tolk IT project (obtained by TASS).

In particular, 45% of companies continue using the Windows operating system, 14% still use the Microsoft package of office programs, while 8% of firms use OneDrive cloud storage and Microsoft’s SQL Server data management system. Meanwhile, more than half of respondents are concerned about the possible blocking of access to Microsoft products, and have started searching for alternative services on the Russian market.

All in all, 57% of companies replaced at least one foreign service with a Russian one over the past few years, analysts noted. Respondents managed to replace foreign postal services (27%), corporate messengers (19%), cloud storages (12%) and videoconferencing services (10%), according to the research.

Meanwhile 21% of respondents said that they find it difficult to find an alternative to operating systems, 8% revealed difficulties with replacing remote access services, while another 6% - of database management systems.

The survey was conducted via online polling among 1,214 respondents in April 2024. Business owners, director generals, heads of departments and individual contributors from large Russian cities with a population over 1 mln people took part in the survey.

Initially cloud products were to be blocked on March 20. Later it was reported that the corporation had postponed this to the end of the month. However, a source in the Softline group of companies, which holds a dialogue with Microsoft on the disconnections, told TASS that there were no blockages as of April 1. Several sources on the market told TASS that after its decision to block cloud products in Russia the corporation also continues extending licenses to Russian corporate clients.

The corporation did not plan to disconnect products for individuals. Restrictions are related to the 12th package of EU sanctions against Russia dated December 19, 2023. It limited the supply of software for business analytics and other products to Russia.