IT park of the Astrakhan period
More than once the topic of where it works better and lives better has been raised on Habré. After an article about Ulyanovsk, I decided to write about my hometown and the local IT market. So, this article is about the sunny, multinational, rich in fish, watermelons and black caviar city of Astrakhan and the first private technology park in Russia.
For those interested, welcome under the cat, where there is a considerable number of photos.
Astrakhan is a small town in the Volga delta with a population of just over 500,000 people, not far from the Caspian Sea, between Kalmykia and Kazakhstan. Remember the phrase from the film classics: “I took Astrakhan, took Kazan, did not take Shpak”? Our city is a paradise for fishermen and hunters; in the season they flock here from all over Russia to indulge in their favorite hobbies and reduce minerals: fish, fruits, vegetables and combustible drinks. Well, perhaps, that few people have not heard about Astrakhan watermelons, which are sold here in the summer at a price of 3-4 rubles per kilogram.
Because of its geographical position, Astrakhan has always played the role of a transit point between Europe and Asia, somewhere along the Silk Road, and now gas and oil pipelines, and goods and minerals from all over the world pass nearby. It takes only 2 hours to fly from Moscow to Astrakhan, 3 hours from St. Petersburg. As for climate, there is almost no winter and spring, from April to October lasts a hot summer, in July the temperature sometimes reaches +40 in the shade, so local residents in the summer occupy the coast and enjoy a beach holiday.
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Now about the situation in the IT-sphere. The city has two universities, producing a sufficient number of good specialists, who either settle in a few local IT companies or go looking for happiness in megalopolises and abroad, in other matters, just like in any other provincial city.
If we talk about the salaries of programmers, then juniors in serious companies receive from 25 thousand rubles, and the average salary of quite good programmers is in the region of 40-50 thousand rubles. As for the prices of residential and non-residential buildings, they are much lower than in Moscow and St. Petersburg. For example, office premises in good business centers in the city center can be found for rent at a price of 500 rubles per square meter. Renting a well-kept 2-room apartment in near-central areas (it takes no more than half an hour to get to the center from the outskirts) costs 15,000 rubles.
Several large IT companies (developing their own solutions) work in the region: Agent Plus, a mobile application developer for business, Pilot Group of Companies, Displair, the best technology startup in recent years, Webmechanic Internet Agency. In total, according to my calculations, 138 IT companies work in the city.
Due to favorable conditions for life and business, companies from Moscow began to enter our region a couple of years ago, opening R & D offices here. For example, the company "Megatek" (software developer for the travel industry) almost completely transferred its development office here (now it employs 25 programmers).
As for the infrastructure, everything is also pretty good here. A year and a half ago, a project to create a unified platform began in Astrakhan, which united IT companies on its territory, became a place for forming a professional community and a point of attraction for job candidates. In several regions, the state began to create such sites (Kazan IT-park, Ingria Technopark in St. Petersburg, Akademgorodok in Novosibirsk and others), in Astrakhan this initiative was taken by business. This site was the IT-park “Fabrika” - the Pilot group of companies became the initiator and main investor of which. This is the first and currently the only private technopark in Russia.
Astrakhan IT-park is located in the 4-storey building of the former Bolonev factory (actually the name was born here - “Fabrika”). It is literally five minutes drive from the very center of the city (the center of the city in Astrakhan is the place where the Kremlin is located. The total area of the whole building is 3,300 sq. M., Of which 2,400 square meters are now put into operation, the rest of the premises undergoing renovation. The IT-park already has all the conditions for comfortable work: office space in the style of Open Space, meeting rooms, a gym, a solarium, and kitchens.
In April, a business incubator opened on the 1st floor and part-time the co-working center “LIFT” (I still plan to talk about it in the following posts). Coworking is already working, although the official opening is planned only in June, and the workplace in it costs from 3,000 rubles per month.
The facade, the stairways and no good parking have not been repaired yet, but plans to solve these issues by September (yes, the picture of the facade above is photoshop). Here are a few photos with views of the devastation:
At the same time, everything inside looks very cool. So, for example, offices, negotiations and other renovated premises look like:
Now in the open spaces of “Fabriki” 25 residents are working. The IT-park regularly hosts interesting and significant events of both professional and entertaining nature. The site hosts regional and federal forums and competitions for start-ups, educational events, trainings and seminars. Outside working hours, residents and their friends scatter in circles, sports sections, organize trips to cultural and non-cultural institutions, go to the countryside.
If I move to Astrakhan from Moscow or St. Petersburg, then from the minuses I see a weak transport infrastructure (there are regular flights only to Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sochi, Aktau and Kazan, by train to Volgograd closest to us - 8 hours), sometimes too hot weather (although I like it), but the benefits are in bulk. Friends and colleagues from other regions who visited me, liked the city. So welcome.
The article turned out somewhat voluminous and crumpled, but, I hope, somehow shed light on the situation in our city. In the plans, I want to publish new articles on what is happening here and how the IT-park project is developing; talk a little bit about coworking and the LIFT accelerator: where it came from, how it lives and share the experience of its discovery, since, by a strange coincidence, I head it.
PS: The article used photos of Vladimir Tyukayev and Vlad Sharov.
For those interested, welcome under the cat, where there is a considerable number of photos.
Astrakhan is a small town in the Volga delta with a population of just over 500,000 people, not far from the Caspian Sea, between Kalmykia and Kazakhstan. Remember the phrase from the film classics: “I took Astrakhan, took Kazan, did not take Shpak”? Our city is a paradise for fishermen and hunters; in the season they flock here from all over Russia to indulge in their favorite hobbies and reduce minerals: fish, fruits, vegetables and combustible drinks. Well, perhaps, that few people have not heard about Astrakhan watermelons, which are sold here in the summer at a price of 3-4 rubles per kilogram.
Because of its geographical position, Astrakhan has always played the role of a transit point between Europe and Asia, somewhere along the Silk Road, and now gas and oil pipelines, and goods and minerals from all over the world pass nearby. It takes only 2 hours to fly from Moscow to Astrakhan, 3 hours from St. Petersburg. As for climate, there is almost no winter and spring, from April to October lasts a hot summer, in July the temperature sometimes reaches +40 in the shade, so local residents in the summer occupy the coast and enjoy a beach holiday.
')
Now about the situation in the IT-sphere. The city has two universities, producing a sufficient number of good specialists, who either settle in a few local IT companies or go looking for happiness in megalopolises and abroad, in other matters, just like in any other provincial city.
If we talk about the salaries of programmers, then juniors in serious companies receive from 25 thousand rubles, and the average salary of quite good programmers is in the region of 40-50 thousand rubles. As for the prices of residential and non-residential buildings, they are much lower than in Moscow and St. Petersburg. For example, office premises in good business centers in the city center can be found for rent at a price of 500 rubles per square meter. Renting a well-kept 2-room apartment in near-central areas (it takes no more than half an hour to get to the center from the outskirts) costs 15,000 rubles.
Several large IT companies (developing their own solutions) work in the region: Agent Plus, a mobile application developer for business, Pilot Group of Companies, Displair, the best technology startup in recent years, Webmechanic Internet Agency. In total, according to my calculations, 138 IT companies work in the city.
Due to favorable conditions for life and business, companies from Moscow began to enter our region a couple of years ago, opening R & D offices here. For example, the company "Megatek" (software developer for the travel industry) almost completely transferred its development office here (now it employs 25 programmers).
As for the infrastructure, everything is also pretty good here. A year and a half ago, a project to create a unified platform began in Astrakhan, which united IT companies on its territory, became a place for forming a professional community and a point of attraction for job candidates. In several regions, the state began to create such sites (Kazan IT-park, Ingria Technopark in St. Petersburg, Akademgorodok in Novosibirsk and others), in Astrakhan this initiative was taken by business. This site was the IT-park “Fabrika” - the Pilot group of companies became the initiator and main investor of which. This is the first and currently the only private technopark in Russia.
Astrakhan IT-park is located in the 4-storey building of the former Bolonev factory (actually the name was born here - “Fabrika”). It is literally five minutes drive from the very center of the city (the center of the city in Astrakhan is the place where the Kremlin is located. The total area of the whole building is 3,300 sq. M., Of which 2,400 square meters are now put into operation, the rest of the premises undergoing renovation. The IT-park already has all the conditions for comfortable work: office space in the style of Open Space, meeting rooms, a gym, a solarium, and kitchens.
In April, a business incubator opened on the 1st floor and part-time the co-working center “LIFT” (I still plan to talk about it in the following posts). Coworking is already working, although the official opening is planned only in June, and the workplace in it costs from 3,000 rubles per month.
The facade, the stairways and no good parking have not been repaired yet, but plans to solve these issues by September (yes, the picture of the facade above is photoshop). Here are a few photos with views of the devastation:
At the same time, everything inside looks very cool. So, for example, offices, negotiations and other renovated premises look like:
Now in the open spaces of “Fabriki” 25 residents are working. The IT-park regularly hosts interesting and significant events of both professional and entertaining nature. The site hosts regional and federal forums and competitions for start-ups, educational events, trainings and seminars. Outside working hours, residents and their friends scatter in circles, sports sections, organize trips to cultural and non-cultural institutions, go to the countryside.
If I move to Astrakhan from Moscow or St. Petersburg, then from the minuses I see a weak transport infrastructure (there are regular flights only to Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sochi, Aktau and Kazan, by train to Volgograd closest to us - 8 hours), sometimes too hot weather (although I like it), but the benefits are in bulk. Friends and colleagues from other regions who visited me, liked the city. So welcome.
The article turned out somewhat voluminous and crumpled, but, I hope, somehow shed light on the situation in our city. In the plans, I want to publish new articles on what is happening here and how the IT-park project is developing; talk a little bit about coworking and the LIFT accelerator: where it came from, how it lives and share the experience of its discovery, since, by a strange coincidence, I head it.
PS: The article used photos of Vladimir Tyukayev and Vlad Sharov.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/180291/
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