OREANDA-NEWS. Rostelecom OJSC (MICEX - RTS: RTKM, RTKMP; OTCQX: ROSYY), Russia’s national telecommunications operator, today announces that it has started selling its cloud services (SaaS) for the medium and small business segment which will operate under the “national cloud platform’s” macro-regional branches: the Centre, South, Volga region and Siberia. The SaaS services will be available in the remaining regions of Russia in May 2013.

The “Stock control – My stock” and “Client Relationship Management – CRM” parts of the SaaS platform are already available to our clients, while additional services such as “Microsoft Virtual Office” and “1C: Enterprise” are currently being developed on the cloud platform and will be launched at the end of May 2013. These services facilitate the implementation of state initiatives responsible for “creating effective infrastructure to support medium-sized businesses in the regions”. The intention is for these initiatives to create a favourable environment for the growth and expansion of medium-sized business and eliminate infrastructural constraints.

Rostelecom has provided a single business process through which a client can order a service on the “one window” principle alongside its traditional communications services. Rostelecom’s cloud services software sits on the Company’s own IT infrastructure, which has been built using virtualization technology and is located in specially equipped and geographically dispersed data processing centres across Russia.

Since Rostelecom offers a wide range of telecommunications and cloud services, the Company is planning to launch packages containing the most essential business products for conducting and developing business by the end of 2013, which will make these services even more affordable.

Rostelecom is one of the first providers to roll out SaaS cloud services on the SMB market in the regions. “The Company has focused its attention on providing a full suite of products that cater for all the market’s needs, as well as on the quality and safety of the cloud services it provides,” commented Rostelecom’s COO and Director of the Corporate and State Clients Sales Department, Olga Rumyantseva. “We aim to be the market leader in the SaaS cloud services market for SMBs.

As only a small number of our target clients are currently using cloud solutions, we are faced with the challenge of building this market almost from scratch. We are proud that to be in a position to offer our corporate clients high-tech services, which are capable of significantly improving the efficiency of their business, to supplement the traditional services we provide them with.”

Rostelecom considers its entry into the cloud services business as a strategic step. As part of its long-term strategy, the Company is planning to provide its corporate clients with a wide range of cloud services, which simplifes significantly the task of purchasing, installing and supporting the computer software and IT equipment necessary to help software to function efficiently. This also helps our clients to reduce their capital expenditure. Rostelecom is also planning to launch its IaaS and PaaS cloud services.