December 9 10:05
In 2025, the Russian IT market has noticeably cooled down after the turbulent years of 2023-2024. Having completed urgent replacements of foreign software and hardware, companies are striving to streamline architecture and standardize integrations. At the same time, they increase the operational maturity of the implemented systems and solutions. According to a study by IT holding T1 “IT market in Russia 2025-2026: impulses, energy and potential”, the final market growth in 2025 will be about 3%, and in 2026 it may grow up approximately to 10% year on year due to replicable platform solutions and manageableX serviceov.
After excess demand for IT equipment in 2023-2024, a decline of approximately 10% is expected in 2025. However, already in 2026 a reversal and growth of up to 8% are predicted. The balance of power is shifting towards domestic production, while import supplies are on average stagnant or declining. The demand curve is increasingly influenced by AI: the need for high-density racks, GPU servers, fast networks and high-speed storage systems creates “accelerated demand niches”
The software and IT services segment is one of the main drivers of the IT market. In 2025, the increase is estimated at 4%, and in 2026 it could reach 9%. From 2026, the growth of the segment is predicted to accelerate due to the standardization of implementations, increasing the maturity of existing solutions, the transition to managed cloud services and the “operationalization” of AI. At the same time, the focus of software implementation is shifting: IT companies are moving from simple import substitution to creating additional business value for customers.
Priority among companies that are end users of IT is moving to software, clouds and support: functions in application circuits are being expanded, development and monitoring pipelines are being set up, and the role of data management is growing. Demand is most actively generated by application software (front and back office automation, industry-specific software), architectural security solutions (Zero Trust, monitoring, vulnerability management) and cloud platforms. The latter are also driving the consumption of managed databases, queues and streaming. The company also pays high attention to AI, which is moving beyond the pilot project stage and being implemented into real production processes.
A new trend is the export of Russian technologies. According to T1 research, in 2025, domestic IT companies began to earn real income abroad, primarily in the business applications segment. The most promising regions are the CIS countries and Southeast Asia: Russian business applications are in demand there, which often turn out to be more technologically advanced and more convenient than some Western analogues based on outdated architectures. Entering markets requires investment and experience, but it is companies that are ready to invest in exports that are able to strengthen their positions in Russia – at the expense of external revenue.
“The last two years have been a time of quick decisions, when the main thing was to cover critical needs and ensure continuity of processes. Today, companies rely on sustainable, replicable architectural solutions. We see clients moving from fragmented procurement to long-term IT infrastructure development programs, where platform, managed services, security and production adoption of AI play a key role. There is a demand for a support service model, for standardized methodologies and for real performance indicators. For IT companies, this means a transition from one-off projects to partnership with the customer, where it is important not just to develop a product, but to take responsibility for its entire life cycle: operation, data protection, improving functionality, scaling and export potential,” — noted Dmitry Kharitonov, CEO of T1 IT holding.
