56 <strong>Ping</strong>! <strong>Zine</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong>
wWhen it comes to talent, some people paint pictures, some people give speeches, and some people entertain audiences. The great ones do it with such skill and grace that they make it look easier than we know it could be. When it comes to high-tech businesses, Serguei Beloussov is one of those people. In the last ten years, Mr. Beloussov has an undeniable track record. Using his management skills, he builds businesses from the ground up, creating enterprises with multi-million dollar profits in very little time. Currently, he’s focusing his talents on virtualization and automation giant SWsoft. Working with businesses on three continents, Mr. Beloussov is almost always headed somewhere. We were fortunate enough to recently interview Mr. Beloussov. He shares his thoughts on family, technology, and business in the following interview: Thank you for joining us, Mr. Beloussov. As chairman and CEO, how would you describe your role at SWsoft? I mean, other than the obvious, to what degree are you able to keep involved with both the development and business sides of things? Every somewhat successful technology company has a leader who can serve in both roles: product development and business development, including sales, marketing and alliances. I’m continuing to be involved in both. Effectively, I serve as CEO and CTO of the company at this point. I don’t believe this is different from many other fast-growth software companies. You must really enjoy both the CTO and CEO sides of things at SWsoft. I like my job. It’s fun and besides, I don’t know what else to do. So far, things have been going well. I enjoy the fact that the work is challenging and it’s been fun that we are able to overcome the challenges we’ve met. Spending one’s days in the board room or in front of a computer can take a toll on anyone. When you have those days that you have to “escape” the worlds of business and technology, where do you go or what do you do to just get away from things? I enjoy nature and going into the mountains in different parts of the world -- whether that is in the Alps or Colorado or Siberia. Or, going out to eat and enjoying some nice red wine. SWsoft is best known for its automation and virtualization products, but what virtualization offerings would you say are of particular interest in the hosting community? Virtualized infrastructure is important for service providers to help increase productivity and reduce costs, so Virtuozzo is most important. How about in terms of automation software? I would encourage hosts to look at our PEM offering, which we are turning into a software-as-a-service automation and delivery platform. We are getting significant traction with a number of Microsoft and non-Microsoft applications running with PEM, such as Hosted Exchange, Hosted Sharepoint, and hosted streaming services. So I take it you are continued expansion by hosts into the area of software-as-a-service? We believe software-as-a-service is a major trend that hosts can benefit from. Plesk is also headed in the direction of softwareas-a-service with our OPEN FUSION initiative. So, that is a third offering that is of particular interest to service providers. SWsoft offers both open and closed source software packages. How would you characterize the current balance between open and closed? We comply with licensing requirements for both open source and proprietary software models. When it makes more sense, we maintain proprietary software such as, for example, our software that runs on Windows or in high-end automation systems. We don’t have a specific affinity to one or the other, except that we started on Linux. Speaking of licensing, in my research I ran across your editorial “Rethinking Software Licensing” on CNet last year. In that, you described the way virtualization is causing more even more blurring in terms of licensing issues. While you offered some alternatives to conventional software licensing, do really you think that it’s even possible that software licensing can survive in an increasingly virtualized environment? Software licensing will adapt. As an example, a large percentage of software used by enterprises comes from Microsoft, which is relatively quick in adapting its licensing to accommodate virtualization. Over time, we’ve seen other paradigm shifts that have had significant impact on how software is delivered and licensed; such as the Internet and the PC. Licensing will adapt. I don’t think that’s a problem and I’m confident that Microsoft, which is always listening to its customers, is not done yet. A lot of people are still baffled by the notion of making money An Interview with Serguei Beloussov f SWsoft [continued] By Rollie Hawk www.pingzine.com 57