Hybrid IT Infrastructure Comes to the District Heating Sector
TEC SPb JSC and RTC-DC JSC have completed a project to build a hybrid IT infrastructure for a district heating company. It is one of the successful examples of Russia’s energy sector moving from traditional in-house servers to a model that combines the advantages of a conventional approach with the flexibility of cloud solutions.
The project’s key feature is that the company’s IT infrastructure now operates across two environments. TEC SPb JSC’s own equipment is housed in isolated racks at a Tier III data center. Its defining feature is the ability to organize critical systems so that all services remain operational if individual components fail or undergo scheduled maintenance. These data centers must also meet stringent requirements for autonomy, cooling systems, security and equipment access.
The second portion of the computing capacity is hosted in a secure IaaS cloud. All of the company’s remote sites are connected through high-speed communications channels, with traffic encrypted according to GOST (national) standards. Hardware-based cryptographic protection secures data transmission.
Compared with a conventional on-premises infrastructure, the hybrid model eliminates the need for continuous capital spending on equipment purchases, maintenance and upgrades. Part of the computing capacity is rented from the cloud and can be scaled up easily when needed, without buying new servers. At the same time, the model meets information-security requirements for companies in sensitive sectors such as energy, transportation and banking, where an exclusively cloud-based approach is not acceptable.
The migration of TEC SPb’s IT infrastructure was carried out without disrupting production processes. This is particularly important in the energy sector: the customer is responsible for heating a significant share of St. Petersburg’s residential buildings, so any problems during the transition could have seriously affected the uninterrupted operation of the entire system.
Trend Toward Hybrid Models: From Projects to Industry Standard
The successful experience of TEC SPb could soon be replicated in other regions and adopted by major energy companies. Hybrid models have become increasingly sought after by critical-infrastructure operators. The approach combines a high level of corporate-data protection with economic efficiency.
This shift to hybrid models will also drive growth in the IT sector. Hybrid deployments will create strong demand for infrastructure services, since managing two environments requires different approaches, skills and operating processes. Customers will also need import-independent virtualization platforms, management systems, cloud consoles, software interfaces and monitoring tools. Within a few years, hybrid models are expected to become an industry standard for companies in the fuel and energy sector.
How the Market Moved Toward Hybrid Models
The transition to hybrid IT infrastructure became a mass-market trend after 2022, following the departure of global cloud providers from Russia. Western companies typically adopted cloud services first and later moved toward hybrid models. In Russia, by contrast, businesses began moving directly from in-house servers to combinations of on-premises infrastructure and cloud services. Leading Russian providers responded to growing demand by introducing platforms developed domestically. Cloud.ru and Yandex, for example, offer such products.
Hybrid Infrastructure as a Foundation for Digital Resilience
The TEC SPb and RTC-DC project is a notable example of how hybrid IT infrastructure is becoming an effective tool for managing district heating operations. Similar projects are expected to be adopted actively over the coming years in energy, industry, transportation, banking and the public sector – areas where combining advanced digital technologies with very high levels of reliability and security is particularly important.
In effect, the hybrid-solutions market is still at an early stage. According to a Termidesk survey, 82% of companies currently use an on-premises model, 7% use a cloud model and 11% use a hybrid one. Over time, platform solutions proven under challenging conditions in Russia could become one avenue for exporting IT services to friendly countries with similar critical-infrastructure requirements.
