Feature #2 — a Podcast about entrepreneurs and the current trends of the it ecosystem

Hello! We decided to prepare a transcript of a rather interesting issue with one of our podcasts specially for readers of Habra.

/ > In this edition of the show "Feature" — a show about entrepreneurs and the current trends of the development of local and global it ecosystem — [from the creators of the show "Metric" and show "Traffic"] you will discuss of "remote" work with Stanislav Protasov (pictured left), co-founder and senior Vice President for design and development of the company Acronis.

In addition to the transcript we have cited, and links to audio of the interview with Stanislav.

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a Transcript of the podcast:

Dmitry Kabanov: In preparation for this release, I could not fail to notice the fact that your interviews, everything you say, are mainly focused on the answers to the questions that you ask periodically about technology, startups, investment, and today I decided to try to discuss some new topic, which centered around remote work and the technologies that support it. I think it is very interesting [topic] as for employers and for the employees themselves, who are now looking for new opportunities to work both inside the country and abroad. First of all I would like to start all the same with places, goals and objectives Acronis to date as of the company. I think it would be right and most interesting.

Stanislav Protasov: Acronis is now continuing to develop those technologies that has always formed the basis of its value – backup technology. We improve, in some sense, Polish what we have. In addition, Acronis is quite interesting and promising new direction, which we call Acronis Access is a mobile data access, which is becoming more and more relevant today. [Why?] Because, well, [for example], last year, as I recall, the first time in history, the supply of personal computers and laptops declined in comparison with 2012. The amount of supply of tablets have, in fact, surpassed shipments of laptops, and less obviously, the number of mobile devices will only increase and [they will become] the main means of access to information in the world. So the question is, how from these devices to dostupatsya to information that may be confidential, secret, very, shall we say, delicate for the companies employers in the last couple of years arose very sharply. Acronis Access – it's one of those solutions that cope with this problem. Acronis is now moving in two directions: our traditional technology, we combine with what we call Any Data Technology, i.e., technology access any data from any device and added products enabling secure remote access from mobile devices.

Dmitry: it seems to Me [that] this is a very interesting direction, certainly. But it turns out to invest major efforts in this direction, you should feel, can be more lightweight by the company to help revive the team and to invest your energy in a new direction.

Stanislav: Well, I don't really understand how you can revive the team without resorting to some special tools. But generally speaking, Yes. [Recently,] the company returned Serguei Beloussov, one of the founders, he returned as Executive Director. The company had some problems caused by, shall we say, not the optimal rate of the previous top management, respectively, Sergey now is restructuring the company's strategy to rebuild the company's marketing, product line and even the organization of the company, i.e. now we are building the company around four business units: konsumenckie products – products intended for end users who want to protect their data, corporate products for companies what is called small & medium business cloud direction, we call it cloud of course (...) and here is the last business unit is just Acronis Access or mobility business unit.
Dmitry: I just read interview Serguei Beloussov, where he commented on one of the initiatives set by the Minister of communications Nikolai Nikiforov, in which the goal was formulated and referred to provision capacity to support remote operation. I think this is an important task for regions, and here we are faced with the fact that all over the world – in the United States, and we, in the West – a growing number of remote employees. For example, in the U.S. for 6 years from 2005-2011, the number was of the order of three million people write about the various independent companies, such as "37 signals" (Basecamp): they released the whole a book dedicated to working remotely. And now we must anticipate the challenges that might face both employers and newcomers and staff that have just come in this industry. Maybe there are some principal risks associated with data security, as we have noted previously, given the new technologies?

Stanislav: of Course. First, I want to say that the initiative in question, is an initiative of the Internet connection the most distant corners of our country, which, according to various estimates, will bring broadband Internet an additional thirty millions of our fellow citizens. In General, the scale and effect, it's probably safe to compare with the construction of highways or Railways across the country, we can say that [a] plan BAM our time.

Dmitry: Well, this engine of the economy.

Stanislav: It is really the engine of the economy because it allows people who are sitting somewhere in Russia to do business or to work for some companies that have otherwise in no way would be able neither to notice nor to hire, and [in this sense], is, of course, a very good initiative. Of course there are risks, and risks both technological and related to the level of education of the people and the ability of people to work remotely. Generally, it is a very difficult question – remote work employees. First, employees who work in the same office, one way or another have to communicate: at least in the Smoking room, not to mention any meetings, conversations over coffee, etc., etc. When a person is deprived of this, it loses quite a large amount of information. This is the first problem, i.e., the remote employee is less involved in the work of the company, it has less information, and information allows us to make the right decisions. The second problem is that the remote work also requires a certain level of human development, if you want. I mean: when I need to do something, and I'm sitting at home on the computer where I have distractions, [for example], children and TV, to make myself is much harder than in the office where work does not interfere. I'm not talking about things that [the efficient operation], the person needs some space, which many people in our country are not able to afford to provide. We all know that we have not a very high number of square meters of housing per person. That is the problem purely organizational and human fields, a huge amount. But other than that, there are the technical aspects because if say, a person works in the office of a medium size company, I don't even take any big company, the security issues antivirus scan, issues broken equipment usually solves IT Department where I work, especially in our country, professional system administrators, able to diagnose and fix problems. When a person is sitting at home for a few hundred or thousands of kilometers away [from the office] and he's got something not working with the computer or the screen gets the message, "enter your phone number and went there for free, otherwise we'll this screen will not open" then it usually is not able to cope with such a problem.


Dmitry: it Turns out that this creates a number of new tasks for the company.

Stanislav: of Course. Worse than that, usually any company with any IT Department provides security on the perimeter, i.e. [fighting] c antivirus threats, hacking threats, etc., etc. With computers of the remote users it's a lot worse because there may be some rootkits (rootkit) viruses that simply transmit data to an unknown server in an unknown country.

Dmitry: of course, physically much easier everything is, roughly speaking, be placed in one building, fence fencing, supply security, etc.

Stanislav: absolutely, absolutely. In General, the safest computer is locked in a room without Internet connections, and sits at the entrance of the gunner. It is known from the beginning of development of the industry, and, accordingly, the issue of access and confidentiality of information plays a huge role. Well, obviously if I'm, say, a lawyer who works remotely for a company from Moscow, but [I am], relatively speaking, in Khabarovsk, and developing a contract between his company and some other large organization, then the terms in this agreement, the [prescribed], my employer can be very sensitive, ie, if they get to the Internet, the transaction simply does not take place.

Dmitry: the Whole business can be jeopardized.

Stanislav: fortunately, such things do not happen very often, but Yes, it would happen]

Dmitry: Just the fact of compromise can jeopardize the trust [to the company].

Stanislav: sure, Sure, I can [tell you about the case I] I read 15 years ago, when Fax machines were in Vogue. There was a story that employees of Oracle Corporation sent a quota is not the client, just made a mistake, dialed the wrong number on the Fax, and the Fax with the offer went to another company, and there was some fantastic discount well over 50 percent. This information got into public access, and Oracle was quite serious, so to say, at least reputational costs because they had to explain to the customers "why should I pay for a full price list when you some people here give a quota with a discount of 70 percent".

Dmitry: Yes, even if you look from the perspective of an ordinary employee who is trying to solve any problem, working as a freelancer or remote employee, can recall the case with Dropbox at the beginning of this year, when there a lot of rumors about the alleged safety was compromised by some group of anonymous hackers. In the future, the company denied this information, [saying] that just [was carried out] technical work this period of time, and [therefore] have the opportunity to do an information reset. Everyone who found out about it one way or another thought about what they store on Dropbox or analogues iCloud, cloud storages, how they approach these issues, because even any typical scientist, the layman and people, in principle, already now holds a substantial and significant information for itself in cloud storage – it could be documents, scans of passports, personal pictures, etc., i.e., quite sensitive information, reputational and economic literally. Maybe from your point of view [is] to repeat, the risks to household man, Everyman, working with cloud storage. I think we have no problem scaring some horror stories, but still there are some risks associated with it.

Stanislav: No, but [of course], it is important to understand that Dropbox is simply a cloud-based file sharing is, in General, not the store, i.e. I don't remember Dropbox somewhere promised that the information that you put there, there always will be. No, it's really a convenient external storage, but the privacy of your information, it in no way guarantees. This is one of the most convenient ways to share information with some of my partners, friends, or someone else, but security at Dropbox, since it is by nature intended not as a cloud storage for corporations, in General, designed for end users. For example, [consider] a simple fact that you can put on Dropbox any file, which for some time may dostupatsya anyone in the world. But imagine that this is the draft order of the President of any country [in this case] not a very sensible way of storing information. And I think from this point of view, in terms of cloud data stores and cloud backups, of course, Dropbox will gradually [displace] such decisions, as, for instance, our cloud-version of Acronis backup, because it, firstly, allows you to have multiple backups, i.e. you can take not only a particular document, but also any revision. Second, depending on the provider, this data can be encrypted, and thirdly, access is quite tightly controlled.
Dmitry: That is already there warranty.

Stanislav: of Course, the same with Acronis Access. Why he is for many companies a very attractive solution? Because on your servers internally, and the client device information is encrypted, and you control what programs are using what applications and which users can this information to see. From this point of view, I think [it is inappropriate] to call Dropbox online file storage, this is file sharing. 10 or 15 years ago, when they began to appear network technology is probably [still] 20 years ago, almost any organization stood a novell netware server, which consisted of a sharing organization – different people from different departments were put [to] their documents and they can edit, watch, fix, etc., etc., in Dropbox a plan – a new cloud novell newtware.

Dmitry: it Turns out that even ordinary people in the course of their work faced by devices, smartphones, cameras, camcorders, with a lot of tasks when he needs to ensure the safety of information, [such as], for example, a family photo album or video of a special trip. Always really do not want to lose such valuable things, and usually it all ends with the fact that people are fleeing with your hard drive in various handicraft services, where they propose to make any repair action worth 30-40-50 thousand rubles. It would seem that if the use of simple mechanisms, simple tools that already [exist], you can obtain these guarantees and to preserve something valuable that you have and what you do not want to lose.

Stanislav: I would rather have shared confidential information and information that you want to keep, because experience shows that for most people a set of photographs is, in some ways, the question of a certain fetish, rather than confidential information.

Dmitry: Now Yes.

Stanislav: People enjoy [them] to share. Even if it has some slightly compromising photos. But this does not mean that the user is not needed, this does not mean that people are keeping this information plays no role. Of course, the development of digital technologies and the development of the Internet has dramatically increased the number of photos that have a standard user. I've seen such a good demotivator, [where] was [depicted] an American astronaut and the girl, relieving himself in the bathroom, and the caption: "an American astronaut flew to the moon – did 3 pictures in the morning went to the bathroom – made 84 photos". Indeed, the number of photos, videos and other materials has increased dramatically, and for the people they represent great value and people are willing to pay money for the restoration of that information, so services such as secure storage of this information somewhere in the cloud, will be in demand, and they now appear. Indeed, they now offer many people, technology is gradually improving. I'm thinking that Acronis for these purposes today probably...

Dmitry: There are solutions and answers?

Stanislav: not Even the fact that there is a solution, perhaps there's a better world because, in essence, with the topic of making backup user data, we started 15 years ago and 15 years it improved. Cloud [technology] is quite a new thing. That's where you do a backup, it's [something] deleted, does not belong to you and provided to you as a service, but the principle of keeping data really has not changed much.

Dmitry: But I think here [there is] a very important advantage – the possibility of a clear understanding of the devices used for this feature, because many people like just copying to do manually backups to some external small storage of the same family, children's photo albums.
Stanislav: I'm sure this is simply from a lack of user-friendly apps. First, watching an average user, it is easy to notice that he doesn't want to copy anything anywhere, he wants his data was protected, and if he manually some specific files or folders copy, it's just because he doesn't know how else you can save them. It's uncomfortable here, for example, if you have 5000 photos, [then] to copy them manually [time consuming process].

Dmitry: Each time to check for updates...

Stanislav: firstly, each time to watch, understand in which folder you have a new photo appeared. Secondly, you started to copy, 3 thousand copied, and then it was no longer copied – what to do? To start all over again? To calculate where you left off? Or what? Therefore, the decisions that this part of the work will take, i.e. will determine the difference between the data that you have already been saved and new data, copy [to] some external, not necessarily even cloud [storage], maybe just for some extra hard drive or flash drive just then, what has changed, of course will be in demand. Because it's just much easier.

Dmitry: Well, Yes, just we could to solve these problems manually 7 years ago, when we had on average 100 photos per month, but no more. Now this figure [the average person] may exceed dozens of times [figures of the period], considering all that...

Stanislav: - Yes, and bigger. Not even in the tens and hundreds. I'm not a photographer, my wife is also a photographer, but she had the last time I did the sync, it was 7 thousand photos. I don't know [whether they have accumulated] in the year three, but nonetheless.

Dmitry: I think you can throw a couple of horror stories. I looked hatchet Unitrends, and they write that there are several reasons of data loss: 40% of the blame hardware failure, 29% were due to human error and 13% of crashes, theft, viruses and other things together account for about 18%. Thus, it appears that DLP suffer [about] 25% of users of personal computers. During our discussion we touched upon [some] part of the aspects associated with it, but there are still technological myths. So, very often people think about the types of hard disks they use are drives with HDD, SSD, etc. is There any may be sober decisions and reasoning that will allow you to quickly understand these myths: whether it is necessary to pay attention to the type of your hard disk or on all this is, roughly speaking, to spit and just use a reliable service provider to save your data?

Stanislav: There is a common belief that SSD drives because they have no moving parts, reliable. Indeed, if you look at the statistics returned [manufacturer] disks due to the fact that there were some flaws, the SSD rate return [discs] below, but we must understand that it does not really matter. Assume that SSD drives are a hundred times safer than conventional harddisk. But it'll be a relief, if just in my case the SSD dies? No way. Any media is dying, and [understand that] SSD – not panacea. I don't remember the numbers now, what is the number of overwriting can withstand one cell of the SSD 5 thousand or 100 million, it's not very important. It is important that at some point, after rewriting, they cease to retain information. In addition, it is still flash memory, and it is exposed to cosmic rays, some rays, etc., etc., so the most reliable carriers does not happen. SSD drives die too, and, accordingly, if the data is really so important that losing them there is no way, it's better to have a backup, better to have a backup, better to keep the data somewhere else.

Dmitry: Yes, but it may raise the price of the equipment. Take, for example, the average computer with SSD drive, which probably is slightly more expensive than [others]. Some hope that by paying the extra $ 100, they will protect themselves.
Stanislav: Well, for me as a relatively technical person, the main value of SSD drives is don't even the reliability, speed, responsiveness, etc., etc., so I, of course, an adherent of the SSD drives and all of them will recommend, but the questions of security for your data, unfortunately, they do not solve.

Dmitry: Well, it's a myth just [is].

Stanislav: course, where it grows, [from the fact] that there are no rotating parts, but most people now laptops. If the laptop is dropped, unfortunately, that there is a SSD drive, with the big share of probability will not help to save the information, then very often it does not recover well, or very hard to recover.

Dmitry: But [that] if you try to get back to the point of view of the employer, to the point of view of companies that provide remote access for your employees? I studied this subject and came across the blog of Gaidar Magdanurov, refer again at Unitrends who say that about 93% of companies that experience disruptions in the security of such work, risk their reputation and actually ruined in the course of the year. Was even and examples: in 2009, the platform JournalSpacethat provided a platform for the creation and maintenance of blogs, just collapsed due to the malicious actions of an employee who lacked proper backup of the server on which rested the entire framework.

Stanislav: Well, I think there is not malicious actions, but rather ordinary human negligence. Right now, for example, in Japan, went bankrupt bitcoin exchange, and people found that they did not have a normal development environment – they wrote their system directly into a running system, i.e. in terms of development processes, their level of development [about the same] as the start-up of three programmers. It's also, in General, is simple negligence – what is called "until the fried rooster pecked". So I don't think there was a deliberate sabotage, most likely, the person just did, but didn't check or didn't think, or something like that. Well, it is a standard problem if data is lost, the company may have to risk all their business, especially if its business is servicing a large number of clients. [For example], the company lost client credentials, lost credit cards and they can now "biliti", or these credit cards, even worse, stole, and half of hacker Internet sells them etc. of Course, safety and security data for the company today are a very important aspect of the survival of their business.

Dmitry: Well, I think it is very important to understand that the higher the position, the more rights, the higher the level of access to company confidential data, such as time records, which can store credit card numbers, in fact, all customer records. We know there are many cases when companies with good reputation have lost the following data: hotels.com lost data of about 240 thousand [their] customers, and with Ernst&Young been such cases, and Starbucks repeatedly lost data. They lost data on their employees, not just customers.

Stanislav: Yes, that's a couple of years ago Linked in has lost almost a quarter of a password database of its customers, i.e. [all] passwords and logins. Yes, it happens.

Dmitry: it Turns out that the company was supposed to take care of employees more than customers, but the negligent or malicious actions put the company's reputation and, consequently, the whole business at risk. Maybe there is an example on the Russian market? Because we have heard about such high-profile stories with LinkedIn, Starbucks, (...).

Stanislav: Probably have, just a memory comes, of course, the companies are trying, such things are not to advertise, maximum [exercise] that is called damage control, [to write] what sort of PR history, as in the case of Dropbox, I don't know [for sure] whether Dropbox is opened, or really, [spent] some work, but General considerations, the option of opening possible. In Russia it is, of course, also happens, and happens very often. It is clear that in order for this story became public, you need several components: first, it must be noted, secondly, the company's business should be large and noticeable, and it is clear that any company, especially a successful company, just paranoid relates to confidential information concerning its customers and its employees. Let's say there's this American company Amazon, a few years ago I talked to their engineers and have a simple question, "what are you most afraid of?" they answered :"we always fear to be hacked, tampered with, because it is [spoiled] reputation, this is the problem, is the loss of sensitive information." Why the loss or leakage of information about employees can also be very painful? Well, if, say, leaked information that allows staff to dostupatsya to the company for a long time under the guise of the employee you can go to some people with evil intentions. I still believe in people and most companies and corporations security policy is based on the fact that employees can be trusted.
Dmitry: That is, there is a certain culture?

Stanislav: of Course. I think most people, settling somewhere, not satisfied with to your employer to steal something and to do something useful. Accordingly, even if there are some fantastically well-designed security policy and any actions by staff are logged, [and] performed an internal audit on the movement and transfer of information, still, even in these circumstances, if the external person has received some confidential information about the employee, especially a senior, he can inflict a lot of damage, just shaking this information, pretending to be another person.

Dmitry: It is very difficult to track.

Stanislav: It is possible to keep track of because there is such a thing as suspicious activity, i.e. if we talk about some of the financial industry, the suspicious activity may be the request credit card numbers of all customers. Even if I'm the President or Vice-President of this company, it's abnormal for me activity. Approximately trace [suspicious activity] good IT departments when something strange starts to happen in the network. So you begin to understand that under the name of the employee logged hacker. But there are certainly other ways, it is clear that if I company Gazprom, and to me the logs under the name of the Vice-President a member from Indonesia, is in itself suspicious.

Dmitry: Well, Yes, maybe you have some basic tips to companies and employees who work remotely were able to still look critically and support their culture of working with data and culture data storage?

Stanislav: My [core tip]: don't underestimate the need for a backup. Because the information is lost. [Here you say 25%...], I don't know whether this is true or not, but generally speaking, I have not met a single person who at least once in your life don't lost important information. Whether it's mail or any documents, no matter [for some reason they were lost] – computer crash, stolen computer, or someone has dropped almost all of us have experienced this. Fortunately, in most cases, we all were, shall we say, limited it, [is] not full disaster, and there...

Dmitry: But it's still very much an effort, if you lose any records, documents, is to redo [start] all over again...

Stanislav: Imagine I'm a remote employee, freelancer who does work for a corporate customer, [I] work for a few months and boom! – all my data is lost, and I, in General, losing a few months of his life. I'm not even talking about the reputation, because this market for all that is narrow enough, the best experts on it all know. And if the person is not fulfilling its obligations, it returns to him of unpleasant surprises and the reluctance of other customers to work with him. So, to make a backup of your data should be a useful habit. And, of course, it is better to find a solution that allows it to do without any extra activity on your part. Man is so constituted that it is always forgetting something. [Take, for example, me], very neat person, [who] used to do a backup. If within a period of time, [may] minor – a few days in a row, I can't do for a variety of reasons, [for example], a friend came army, and I was with him drink for all the missed years, is starting to become a habit: once did not, two did, three did, and after a year I got shot. Therefore, the solution should be such that is doesn't require you any effort and always works. Does this kind of software installed on your external drive, you can very to the cloud, it is of course a question of your personal preference, though [copy] in the cloud, of course, easier and probably more reliable.
Dmitry: Thank you, I think, we have a very interesting conversation, an interview, I think sometime we will meet again and talk about what the next challenges will be waiting for us in the future, when we will photograph tens of thousands of photos daily using...

Stanislav: I think [it will happen] soon enough, [including] all of these technologies of augmented reality, we all will be just a constant stream of data. Even if you just look at those glasses, well, relatively stupid today – Google Glass, which allow you to record on the camera, then throw away useful information by object. I don't know how they will evolve over time, but it is clear that the potential of this type of technology is huge, and it means that we all life will be accompanied by some kind of data stream and this data stream will represent for us a certain value, and it is clear that the amount of data...well, that we see even now, the amount of data that generates the average person increases exponentially every few years.

Dmitry: Yes, starting with smart glasses, ending with bracelets that collect information about health, the human condition etc.

Stanislav: of Course!

Dmitry: Well, thank you very much.

Stanislav: thank You!

[Approx.] Would love to hear your suggestions for the format of the podcast and will try to answer your questions my friends :)

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