IT Park in Kazan Will Help Expand Russia’s Research and Development Potential.

KAZAN, Republic of Tatarstan, Russia, One of the largest information technology (IT) parks in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) was opened in Kazan, the capital of the republic of Tatarstan and one of Russia’s largest cities. Built by the IT solutions and services provider I-Synergo, the park’s networking and communications infrastructure is based on Cisco technology.

The IT park is intended to function as a business incubator and will help consolidate the region’s IT potential. Its main objective is to support innovative start-ups at the initial stages of development by providing them with a high-tech work environment, equipment, consultancy and data. The 32,000-square-meter central complex is designed as an intelligent building, using the Cisco® Smart+Connected Real Estate concept. http://www.cisco.com/web/strategy/trec/index.html
Highlights / Key Facts:

* Investments in the IT park, including federal budget allocations, amount to 2.9 billion rubles. Plans are for the park to house about 80 companies by 2012, which are expected to create about 10,000 new jobs in IT and other businesses.
* In addition to the office facilities, the IT park includes a convention center, a press center, training and demonstration facilities, and two hotels. The park also established a center for certification and licensing to help resident companies obtain patents, licenses and certificates valid for Russia and abroad, as well as for providing companies with legal and compliance support in a number of areas.
* The park’s information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure is based on Cisco solutions. This includes a local area network (LAN) and wireless coverage with more than 60 access points. Cisco Unified Communications has been implemented with more than a thousand Cisco Unified IP Phones, two clusters of Cisco Unified Communications Manager and a Cisco Unified Contact Center.
* Users have access to the Cisco Unified Personal Communicator, a powerful desktop computer application that integrates the most frequently used communications applications and services. It provides easy access to voice, video, instant messaging, Web conferencing, voicemail and presence information from a single multimedia interface on the user’s computer.
* The park’s Cisco Unified Contact Center, the largest in the republic, can process incoming calls for tenants as well as any other company, enabling the IT park to offer outsourced contact center services. The resilient contact center based on the Cisco Unified Contact Center Enterprise edition is an efficient means of interaction for resident companies and their customers supporting various tasks, including call administration, telemarketing, product maintenance, technical support and so on.
* At the heart of the IT park’s infrastructure is a flexible and scalable data center, with up to 8,000 servers. It is designed for uninterrupted operations and provides high-speed data processing, high levels of security and reliability of storage.

Supporting Quotes:

* Arsen Khusnutdinov, chief executive officer, I-Synergo:

"Our vision of a highly efficient information society starts with developing real solutions using state-of-the-art technologies. Innovative projects like the IT park in Kazan will help develop an information society and stimulate small and medium-sized businesses"

* Alexander Lavrushko, enterprise account manager, Cisco Russia:

"The IT park is the first project in Tatarstan to use a broad range of integrated Cisco solutions. Cisco offered the most innovative solutions for routing, switching, unified communications, data security, wireless technologies and data center"