In the interview for “Merezhi i Biznes”, Volodymyr Pokatilov, Director of the PARKOVYI Data Center, summed up this year’s results in the Data Center and Cloud Services segment. He explained why the extended service concept is a trend in 2024.

What are the realities for the successful operation of a Ukrainian data center was dictated the year 2023?

We end this year with the slogan: “even more energy independence, fault tolerance, security and backup”.

The continuing active phase of the war has become a catalyst for companies to increase their demands for Data center readiness to withstand all the challenges of war multiplied by 2.

At the same time, clients’ requests became more meaningful and focused on specific indicators of autonomous operation. The main request is a request for uninterrupted operation of the entire IT Infrastructure of the Data Center for at least 72 hours in the complete absence of external power supply. Additionally, we have requests to ensure the autonomous operation of the Data Center for 10 days, again in the complete absence of external power sources. We satisfy these requests by having diesel generator sets in our arsenal, which ensure continuous operation of the PARKOVYI Data Center during a power outage of 10 days. And this is even before the first fuel delivery.

Services with uninterrupted communication channels are also required. The main example is web connectivity. We are demonstrating our willingness to ensure Internet availability during blackouts. This is confirmed by the audit, when clients see the redundancy with direct connections to traffic exchange points and the absence of active equipment. Together, this allows us to operate even in the event of a total city blackout.

What can we expect from the commercial data center market in Ukraine in the year 2024?

Among the main events, we note the migration of commercial businesses to Ukrainian data centers after the expiration of Microsoft Azure prolonged licences in March. This, in turn, will be a catalyst for the expansion of physical equipment that provides Cloud Infrastructure in Data Centers.

In addition, the trend of the geographical redundancy and the duplication of physical locations in the Data Center and in the geographically dispersed Cloud will continue to grow.

Ваші очікування щодо вектору розвитку українських хмарних сервісів в 2024 році?

We see the positive dynamics in 2023 compared to 2022, taking into account the volume of the Ukrainian public sector cloud services market – +17.9% growth. Expressed numerically, this amounts to UAH 54 million 841 thousand*. The situation is more conservative for the commercial segment. As we all know, the Ukrainian commercial organisations can use Microsoft’s cloud services on preferential terms until the end of March 2024. The press service of the Ministry of Digital Transformation reported this.

This has a direct impact on the volume of such clients in the Ukrainian cloud providers. This means that the main task for Ukrainian Data Centers in the first quarter of 2024 is to provide a high-quality service that will help organise the migration of commercial organisations’ Cloud Infrastructure from foreign locations to the home, to the Ukrainian Cloud. For this purpose, the PARKOVYI Data Center together with Microsoft Certified Partner Span Ukraine Company is ready to ensure the quick and painless migration of cloud capacities while maintaining the necessary Microsoft services and further supporting their effective functioning.

Will the dynamics and sentiments of the global cloud provider market affect cloud development in Ukraine?

According to Canalys, as of August 2023, the global cloud service providers showed a negative growth trend in the first two quarters of 2023, which against the background of all macroeconomic factors will continue in the future. Analysing the Ukrainian cloud services market in the context of the war and significant migration of the public sector and commercial companies to Western hyperscalers, we have a stable growth trend, which will be qualitatively supported by the completion of Azure licences for the commercial segment at the end of 1 quarter 2024 and will be strengthened by the return of the public sector to the Ukrainian cloud after the end of the war.

What did the year 2023 bring for the PARKOVYI Data Center?

I cannot but start with the titanic work of our technical team, who have ensured that existing certificates have been confirmed and statuses obtained, including:

• SAP Certified Provider in Cloud and Infrastructure Operations status. This status confirms that the PARKOVYI Data Center’s Cloud Infrastructure in compliance the highest SAP standards.
• Certification of the Information Security Management System with the receipt of the ISO/IEC 27001 Certificate in the latest version 2022, specifically ensuring greater resistance to cyber threats and improved protection of personal data.
• We received the ISO/IEC 27701 Certificate to enhance an information security. We also received the ISO 9001 Certificate to enhance our quality management system for delivering Data Center and Cloud Services.
• VMware Cloud Verified and VMware Advanced status.

Together, these ISO and SAP certifications allow us to enhance our algorithms to protect personal data and to increase resilience to cyber threats. The Cloud Verified status gives our clients access to advanced cloud solutions that are fully compliant with VMware’s requirements and technologies. In addition, the year 2023 has allowed us to upgrade and expand the capabilities of our Data Center equipment and infrastructure. This is more than a million dollars of investment in this area alone. In terms of business metrics, our Data Center revenue in this segment grew by 55% and our Cloud revenue grew by 75%.

What major cloud services has the PARKOVYI Data Center launched this year?

We have recently launched a Service that will help organise stable remote work for employees, even during prolonged power outages. CDI (Cloud Desktop Infrastructure) is suitable not only for a conventional IT department with 100 or more workstations and a ready-made IT infrastructure, but also for small teams, start-ups or small businesses with 5 or more employees. This is its key advantage, along with the speed and ease of deployment.

Even if you need to use specialised software that is not available on your home computer, you can install it on a remote workplace and thus access it from any computer or smartphone. Cloud workstations not only avoid problems with power supply, but also ensure data security. A computer can break down, there is a risk that a laptop or phone will be stolen, but in these cases, the work data is stored, as well as access to it. But only if you pass two-factor authentication.

What impact has the year 2023 had at the PARKOVYI Data Center?

The key focus in the operation of our company is to support the stable functioning and development of Ukrainian business. The main challenge remains ensuring uninterrupted operations, especially during all possible challenges of the war. Now and in the near future, we are placing a strong emphasis on the service approach.

This includes expanded Remote Hands capabilities for companies whose offices are not in Kyiv or who are experiencing a shortage of staff skills. And customisation of services for state institutions and the commercial segment, when we actually build the infrastructure from scratch for a specific request.

Our new products and services make it possible to rely on the uninterrupted operation of not only state institutions, large and medium businesses, but also start-ups and small teams.

This year, we have become more active in developing social and charitable projects together with the United World Cultures Foundation / UWCF. The most memorable was the All-Ukrainian Photo and Drawing Contest, when we, as part of the jury, purchased equipment for one of the nominees – children from a group of young technicians who repair electrical appliances and small equipment for the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

*The data is taken from the Prozorro electronic platform