Plan B, Force Majeure and New Cluster. How GIGAGROUP Companies Prepared for the War and What Went Wrong

18/ 04/ 2022

All the Ukrainian businesses are in the same position now. However, each company already has its own story of how it faced the trial of war. Following the month of the tragic events, GIGAGROUP recalls what it was like for us and what helped us keep working. “What if they start bombing Kyiv?” How We Made Plan B. GIGAGROUP is made of four companies: the cloud operator called GigaCloud, the telecommunication provider called GigaTrans, the data centre called GigaCenter, and the cybersecurity agency called GigaSafe. At the end of last year, we started to develop our Business Continuity Plan, the document that described how to act in emergencies. That was Plan B. The company considered the possibility of the full-scale war and prepared for force-majeure processes. The preparation was started by the Chief Information Security Officer GIGAGROUP, who studied the measures to be taken to maintain operations of the company in detail. The following matters were elaborated: how to protect the perimeter of the data centre; whether we needed spare fuel, and if we did, how much and where; whether we had sufficient fire extinguishing facilities; whether we needed radios and satellite telephones; whether additional equipment had to be ordered for the data centres; how to expand the cluster in Lviv; what to do in case of fire in the data centre in Kyiv; where to carry the equipment if they started bombing Kyiv. Some of the plans were not implemented, but we managed to do a lot from the list. That is why GigaCloud: has a cluster working in Lviv; continues operations of its data centre in Kyiv; was able to carry hardware between the data centres and pick it up at the warehouses despite some difficulties. The company was 70% ready. 30% was the force majeure caused by lack of control over the situation. GigaTrans started preparing to develop the powerful telecommunication hub in Lviv before the full-scale war. Therefore, when the invasion started, all we had to do was to end the process faster: the professionals of GigaTrans performed the tasks scheduled for three months of the peaceful time in a week. They relocated a part of the production and backup infrastructure into Lviv, organised local interaction with the other telecommunication operators, traffic exchange points and main providers, deployed the full-scale network traffic cleaning and DDoS attack protection centre, and increased the number of technical staff. In Kyiv, GigaCentre works in a scheduled mode, the same as before the war, as a critical infrastructure facility. The only difference is that the security of the perimeter has been considerably enhanced and militarised. The crisis management did not burst the companies owing to Plan B. Everyone keeps working as usual. All the services are operational. All the teams work no matter where their members are. The business has not only avoided downtime, but also received new projects. Some of the matters had to be adjusted in progress. Pass modes, staff reservation to prevent them from being drafted for military service, relocation of the equipment with the convoy, additional security guards for the data centres – all the issues were elaborated during the war. Yet, the important thing is that the decision-making speed now is times higher than it used to be in the routine mode. Where there is a task, there is a solution. Almost Half of the Staff Stay in Kyiv. There was a team of the technical specialists assembling the new cluster in Lviv before the war. Their numbers are growing now. The colleagues who are in other Ukrainian cities now are involved to the uttermost: support, operation, architecture. Everyone communicates very efficiently. As the work was perfectly aligned before the war, the teams have retained efficient interaction. About 20 employees of different GIGAGROUP companies moved to Lviv at their own discretion. Half of the employees who cannot be relocated keep performing their tasks in Kyiv since their work is linked to the ground infrastructure. The other employees have moved to different regions of the country by their own effort or with the assistance of the HR Department that helps find accommodation. More than Half of Customers Fail to Pay, Only One Leaves for a Foreign Cloud. Although GigaCloud operates in a routine mode, more than half of our customers do not pay for the company’s services. Only one of the customers has left for a foreign cloud for the war period and intends to return. Less than 3% of the customers have suspended the service. Many customers, especially the ones from the financial industry, including banks, state-owned companies and insurance companies, have started to move to Lviv and migrate to the public cloud. They include the businesses that have not worked with GigaCloud before, but have considered cloud services. The companies contacted the provider after the invasion. GigaCloud initiated 13 new major projects after the war had started. There are more than 50 new projects in the SMB segment. The customers wish to enter the cloud in Lviv or Poland. GigaTrans has suspended some of the current projects either because of the inability to operate safely or the customers’ withdrawal from the services, especially in the regions with active hostilities. The customers from the leisure industry, some retail and service companies are also on a pause. These companies do not refuse from the services, but they minimise the scope. We are concurrently increasing the number of new orders across the entire range of telecommunication operator’s services both in Lviv, which has turned into the business centre, and all over Western Ukraine. The number of orders in various segments, from the bank and retail sector to different governmental authorities, is growing. The level of actual payment for the services of GigaTrans has reduced, but we managed to gain about 60% of the planned proceeds for three weeks of March. The customers of GigaCentre are more active payers: the indicators are close to the ones of pre-war February. They withdraw from our services to a lesser extent owing to the nature of their business. On Helping the Armed Forces of Ukraine and Volunteers. Some of the employees have joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the Territorial Defence Forces. Many are volunteers who are actively helping the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Territorial Defence Forces and ordinary people. They provide equipment to checkpoints, but medicines for hospitals, organise delivery of humanitarian aid, rescue abandoned pets and do other charity as much as they can. A team roll-call looks like that now. “In my free time, I unload carriages with the humanitarian cargo. I perform the work delegated by Kyrylo Naumenko. My son has joined the army.” Anatolii “Now I’m an officer of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. I was drafted for military service a few days ago.” Heorhii “During the first days of the war, I collected donations to the card and purchased medical products for the territorial defence forces and hospitals in Brovary. I managed to buy medicines for 130,000 hryvnias during six days.” Mariia “I finally escaped from Kozarovychy, where I had spent almost a week drinking water from the well and charging my phone from the car battery, with the Russian tanks passing by.” Dmytro “I’m a company medical worker at command or in the field all the time. There are 130 people I have to treat at home or at the combat sites.” Anton “I’m helping the volunteer organisation in my free time. We’ve received more than 50 requests to rescue the pets closed in the apartments. They were abandoned by their owners during the evacuation. I need to find new home for four dogs. I also have my own four dogs. And 19 cats. First we took them away from Brovary, and now we’ll try to get them to Ternopil because the situation is pretty bad.” Inna

“What if they start bombing Kyiv?” How We Made Plan B

GIGAGROUP is made of four companies: the cloud operator called GigaCloud, the telecommunication provider called GigaTrans, the data centre called GigaCenter, and the cybersecurity agency called GigaSafe. At the end of last year, we started to develop our Business Continuity Plan, the document that described how to act in emergencies. That was Plan B. The company considered the possibility of the full-scale war and prepared for force-majeure processes.

The preparation was started by the Chief Information Security Officer GIGAGROUP, who studied the measures to be taken to maintain operations of the company in detail. The following matters were elaborated:

how to protect the perimeter of the data centre;
whether we needed spare fuel, and if we did, how much and where;
whether we had sufficient fire extinguishing facilities;
whether we needed radios and satellite telephones;
whether additional equipment had to be ordered for the data centres;
how to expand the cluster in Lviv;
what to do in case of fire in the data centre in Kyiv;
where to carry the equipment if they started bombing Kyiv.

Some of the plans were not implemented, but we managed to do a lot from the list. That is why GigaCloud:

has a cluster working in Lviv;
continues operations of its data centre in Kyiv;
was able to carry hardware between the data centres and pick it up at the warehouses despite some difficulties.

The company was 70% ready. 30% was the force majeure caused by lack of control over the situation.

GigaTrans started preparing to develop the powerful telecommunication hub in Lviv before the full-scale war. Therefore, when the invasion started, all we had to do was to end the process faster: the professionals of GigaTrans performed the tasks scheduled for three months of the peaceful time in a week. They relocated a part of the production and backup infrastructure into Lviv, organised local interaction with the other telecommunication operators, traffic exchange points and main providers, deployed the full-scale network traffic cleaning and DDoS attack protection centre, and increased the number of technical staff.

In Kyiv, GigaCentre works in a scheduled mode, the same as before the war, as a critical infrastructure facility. The only difference is that the security of the perimeter has been considerably enhanced and militarised.

The crisis management did not burst the companies owing to Plan B. Everyone keeps working as usual. All the services are operational. All the teams work no matter where their members are. The business has not only avoided downtime, but also received new projects.

Some of the matters had to be adjusted in progress. Pass modes, staff reservation to prevent them from being drafted for military service, relocation of the equipment with the convoy, additional security guards for the data centres – all the issues were elaborated during the war. Yet, the important thing is that the decision-making speed now is times higher than it used to be in the routine mode. Where there is a task, there is a solution.

Almost Half of the Staff Stay in Kyiv

There was a team of the technical specialists assembling the new cluster in Lviv before the war. Their numbers are growing now. The colleagues who are in other Ukrainian cities now are involved to the uttermost: support, operation, architecture. Everyone communicates very efficiently. As the work was perfectly aligned before the war, the teams have retained efficient interaction.

About 20 employees of different GIGAGROUP companies moved to Lviv at their own discretion.

Half of the employees who cannot be relocated keep performing their tasks in Kyiv since their work is linked to the ground infrastructure.

The other employees have moved to different regions of the country by their own effort or with the assistance of the HR Department that helps find accommodation.

More than Half of Customers Fail to Pay, Only One Leaves for a Foreign Cloud

Although GigaCloud operates in a routine mode, more than half of our customers do not pay for the company’s services. Only one of the customers has left for a foreign cloud for the war period and intends to return. Less than 3% of the customers have suspended the service.

Many customers, especially the ones from the financial industry, including banks, state-owned companies and insurance companies, have started to move to Lviv and migrate to the public cloud. They include the businesses that have not worked with GigaCloud before, but have considered cloud services. The companies contacted the provider after the invasion.

GigaCloud initiated 13 new major projects after the war had started. There are more than 50 new projects in the SMB segment. The customers wish to enter the cloud in Lviv or Poland.

GigaTrans has suspended some of the current projects either because of the inability to operate safely or the customers’ withdrawal from the services, especially in the regions with active hostilities. The customers from the leisure industry, some retail and service companies are also on a pause. These companies do not refuse from the services, but they minimise the scope.

We are concurrently increasing the number of new orders across the entire range of telecommunication operator’s services both in Lviv, which has turned into the business centre, and all over Western Ukraine. The number of orders in various segments, from the bank and retail sector to different governmental authorities, is growing.

The level of actual payment for the services of GigaTrans has reduced, but we managed to gain about 60% of the planned proceeds for three weeks of March. The customers of GigaCentre are more active payers: the indicators are close to the ones of pre-war February. They withdraw from our services to a lesser extent owing to the nature of their business.

On Helping the Armed Forces of Ukraine and Volunteers

Some of the employees have joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the Territorial Defence Forces. Many are volunteers who are actively helping the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Territorial Defence Forces and ordinary people. They provide equipment to checkpoints, but medicines for hospitals, organise delivery of humanitarian aid, rescue abandoned pets and do other charity as much as they can. A team roll-call looks like that now.

“In my free time, I unload carriages with the humanitarian cargo. I perform the work delegated by Kyrylo Naumenko. My son has joined the army.”

Anatolii

“Now I’m an officer of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. I was drafted for military service a few days ago.”

Heorhii

“During the first days of the war, I collected donations to the card and purchased medical products for the territorial defence forces and hospitals in Brovary. I managed to buy medicines for 130,000 hryvnias during six days.”

Mariia

“I finally escaped from Kozarovychy, where I had spent almost a week drinking water from the well and charging my phone from the car battery, with the Russian tanks passing by.”

Dmytro

“I’m a company medical worker at command or in the field all the time. There are 130 people I have to treat at home or at the combat sites.”

Anton

“I’m helping the volunteer organisation in my free time. We’ve received more than 50 requests to rescue the pets closed in the apartments. They were abandoned by their owners during the evacuation. I need to find new home for four dogs. I also have my own four dogs. And 19 cats. First we took them away from Brovary, and now we’ll try to get them to Ternopil because the situation is pretty bad.”

Inna