OREANDA-NEWS. A partnership has been established between a successfully growing Turkish integrator, NGN, and CROC, the leader in IT infrastructure design and implementation in Russia for the last 11 years. The partnership is designed to enhance the Turkish partner's technical expertise in developing comprehensive IT solutions and to jointly implement major IT infrastructure projects in Turkey.

CROC is one of the five largest IT companies in Russia, and its annual revenue exceeds USD 1 billion. CROC's principal lines of business include: data center creation; computing capacity outsourcing via its own data centers (with total floor space of 6,000 square meters and total power of 11MW); provision of cloud services; creation of telecom infrastructure and related audio/video (AV) services; software development and business application implementation; infrastructure software solutions; information security; industrial automation; engineering (physical) infrastructure for buildings and data centers; IT support of all implemented systems (computing, telecom and engineering equipment); and IT process outsourcing.

CROC has been working in the Russian IT market since 1992, works closely with over 180 hardware, software and telecom vendors, and is the leading Russian partner of IBM, HP, EMC, Dell, Fujitsu, Cisco Systems, Avaya, Microsoft, Oracle, and other global IT vendors in Russia and CIS. This allows CROC to be a specialist in the implementation of integrated solutions comprising infrastructure creation and business process automation.

The company's public projects include: the creation of the largest IBM-based integration solution for Sberbank of Russia; the implementation of a multi-tiered storage system for Home Credit Bank; the launch of an integrated set of audio and video (AV) systems for Sberbank Far East Bank's Office of the Future, one of the largest projects in terms of innovations; a cloud storage archive for a major Russian retailer M.video; multimedia solution design for RUSNANO, including 14 AV systems; the implementation of the Unified Industry Document Management system for 25 entities of the State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom.

Furthermore, one of the largest data centers in Russia (total space of over 6,000 sq m) was created by CROC for major cellular carrier MegaFon. Another notable engineering project in terms of its size was the implementation of a full-scale power-supply system within the World Trade Center's new site in Moscow, covering 20 and 30 story buildings as well as a four-story parking lot. CROC also created an integrated set of AV and information systems for OAO Mosvodokanal to process information from over three thousand sources.

Next Generation Networks company (NGN or Bilgi ve Iletisim Hizmetleri A.S.), founded in 2005, has inspired CROC's interest due to the many similarities in the companies' business lines, key vendors, and customer industries.

NGN is a recognized IT market player in Turkey with respect to backup and archiving, information and network security, data center creation and cloud technology, network solutions, IT consulting and outsourcing. NGN partners with the largest global vendors, including Microsoft, EMC, IBM, HP, Dell, Cisco, Avaya, Fujitsu, Symantec, VMware, Veeam, Imperva, etc. NGN customers include financial institutions, telecom providers, retailers, energy companies, various manufacturers, and healthcare organizations which are well-known outside of the Turkish market, such as Societe General, Morgan Stanley, HSBC, Aegon, Turkcell, Vodafone, Roche, etc.

“When we met, NGN reminded me of a young CROC in its well-coordinated teamwork, great ambitions, active behavior in the market, and high growth rates. For the last three years, NGN revenue has increased by 80% each year. NGN is focused on further development and interested in the adoption and implementation of new technology. We are much the same, and it's no wonder that CROC specialists feel comfortable collaborating with their NGN colleagues. Almost from the very beginning, we found a common language with NGN and we will start implementing our first joint projects in the Turkish market in the near future,” says Boris Bobrovnikov, Director General, CROC.

First of all, CROC and NGN are planning to implement major computing and data storage projects in Turkey. And the reason is evident: NGN is a recognized leading provider of these solutions in the Turkish market, on the one hand, and CROC's competences are unique even in global terms, on the other. CROC has four employees certified by Uptime Institute as Accredited TIER Designer (ATD). CROC's competence is proven by the fact that its specialists performed two of the three projects certified for TIER III compliance in Russia, including a Data Center for OAO MegaFon in Samara and CROC's Kompressor outsourcing data center. For twenty-one years, CROC has gained an impressive range of expertise, and its technical specialists hold over 3,000 professional certificates, including extremely rare ones not only in Russia but in the global market as well. So partnership opens prospects for both companies.

“The ability to engage highly-skilled professionals from CROC in various lines of business allows us to develop new competences and implement joint projects with the Russian partner on data center construction and engineering infrastructure creation, virtualization, cloud technology and integration solutions. I believe that in the long term our cooperation and development of the new business lines will drive growth and change in the landscape of the entire Turkish IT market,” remarks Inanc Erol, CEO, NGN.

The Turkish IT market totals approximately USD 8 billion, which is four times less than the Russian market (with service share being almost six times less than in Russia); and the Turkish market is very promising. In the coming years, the Turkish IT market will grow by over 10% per year*, and the share of IT services will remain at 16%**.

“According to survey results, we can be positive that the modern Turkish economy has great potential. Today, Turkey occupies the 17th position among the largest global economies and is going to reach the top 10 by 2023 (100-year anniversary of the Republic). The market is very promising, especially for data center construction, as high availability facilities are in deficit. In addition, high quality service maintenance is highly demanded in the enterprise sector,” say experts of HeadWork Analytics.