IT Lab by Red Soft Opens at Presidential Academy Vocational School
The 30-seat lab will give students hands-on experience with the same software used in real-world government and corporate projects, helping them build skills that employers already need.
The new lab is equipped for students to study an entire technology stack rather than a single product. It includes Red OS (Red Operating System), the Red Virt (Red Virtualization Platform) virtualization platform, Red Adm (Red IT Infrastructure Management System) for centralized IT infrastructure management, and Red Database (Red Database Management System). All four products are included in Russia’s national software registry, and some are certified by Russia’s Federal Service for Technical and Export Control (FSTEC). For students studying network and systems administration or information systems and programming, the lab offers a chance to gain experience with the tools they are likely to encounter in the job market.
The Software Is Ready. The Workforce Will Follow
The project goes well beyond installing computers and software. The vocational school’s instructors have already completed specialized training on Red Soft products, and several students have completed internships at the company. Rather than simply supplying software, the developer is becoming directly involved in the educational process. That creates a much deeper connection between education and industry. Elena Dedyukhina, director of the vocational school, believes the arrangement matters to both sides:
“Students can enter the profession faster, while companies can get involved early in preparing their future workforce and reduce the time needed to get new hires up to speed. That is where we see the value of a modern partnership between education and the technology industry.”
700 Professionals Every Year
For a single vocational school, 700 students is a substantial number. That is how many students are expected to train in the new lab each year. “The opening of a specialized lab at our vocational school is a natural next step in our partnership with Red Soft. We want to give students access to the most modern, in-demand technologies. I am confident that this space will become a hub for talented young people and help prepare professionals who will be in demand as the economy continues its digital transformation,” said Pavel Klepinin, vice rector of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration.
A New Lab Every Year
The new lab has predecessors. One notable example of a vendor working systematically with an educational institution was the opening of a training space at Sirius University of Science and Technology. Astra Group created it in 2023. This is the model in which a developer does more than sponsor a classroom and instead becomes part of the learning process. During the lab’s first year, more than 120 people became familiar with products across the Astra Linux ecosystem.
In 2024, a similar lab opened at Novosibirsk State Technical University. There, Russian technologies were used to train IT and cybersecurity professionals. In Moscow, Red Soft also launched an educational center at College of Communications No. 54. It is a close counterpart to the current project because it likewise focuses on vocational education.
At the Presidential Academy, the new vocational school lab expands an existing partnership. In 2025, the university’s Moscow campus opened its first lab dedicated to studying Russian software, testing programs, building RPM packages for Red OS, and developing applications.
In 2026, the company opened labs at two leading technical universities, the National Research Nuclear University MEPhI and the National University of Science and Technology MISIS. At MISIS, for example, the lab has 30 workstations built around the same infrastructure stack – Red OS, a virtualization platform, Red Database, and Red Adm.
Software People Can Trust
Russia’s Labor Ministry estimates that more than 430,000 additional employees could be needed for research and development and IT by 2030. At the same time, operators of significant critical information infrastructure are required to move toward predominant use of trusted software and hardware systems by Jan. 1, 2030. That means demand will extend beyond Russian software itself to professionals who can deploy and administer it.
Against that backdrop, the number of IT centers at vocational schools and universities is likely to keep growing. Under the federal Professionalitet project alone, Russia has already established more than 4,000 modern laboratories and involved more than 2,500 companies as industry partners.
Educational labs also offer clear benefits to software developers. The more professionals entering the workforce who are already familiar with a vendor’s products, the easier it becomes for companies to expand adoption of those technologies. It is a long-term investment that may not pay off immediately, but it creates a foundation for the broader growth of the industry – one in which Russian software and Russian-trained professionals are increasingly valuable.
