OREANDA-NEWS. January 26, 2011. ARMADA (MICEX, RTS: ARMD) informs about a significant market event that may have a positive effect on the company’s business in the future.Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin signed decree No. 2299-r on December 17, 2010, which approves the plan for the federal government authorities’ and subordinate budget institutions’ transition to the use of open-source software between 2011 and 2015. ARMADA currently boasts Russia’s most outstanding expertise in the sphere of open-source software and plans to actively participate in further developing the new IT market segment.

The use of open-source software in the public sector is driven by both economic and national security factors, and is widely popular in France, Germany, Switzerland, and other developed countries, including the U. S. Experts estimate the sales of commercial software in Russia at about \\$1.5 bn per year, nearly \\$1 bn of which is spent by the government to pay for licensed products provided by Microsoft and other foreign software producers. The open-source software will consist of a Linux operating system (for servers, computers, smartphones, etc. ), as well as a number of applications (including provided as a service, SaaS), all of which might replace foreign software products in government.

Revenues of open-source software market participants will be generated by development services, implementation, creation of updates, maintenance of software and teaching users; licenses will be granted to end users free of charge.Commercial products adapted for the open-source software will also be made available, and it will be up to the developers themselves to determine all payment-related matters.

The government’s plan provides for the formation of an open-source software package to provide solutions for typical governmental work (expected to be introduced in 2011). The creation of applications and a single repository (storage) for programs based on open-source software are scheduled for completion in 2012, while the implementation of solutions is expected to be completed by 2014, at which time regular updates of programs in the repository will also be launched. The market’s development also provides for the creation of a support center for users and software developers, and universities will start teaching open-source software development. The government intends to use primarily open-source software for the creation of all new information systems for government bodies.

The plan will be financed by the federal program “Information Society 2011–2020” and the budgets of government institutions. The Russian Communications Ministry will most likely announce the first several tenders for the development of solutions on the basis of open-source software in early 2011.