- Ukraine is a major technology hub, and tech companies have continued on despite Russia’s invasion.
- N-iX, an IT firm with a big presence in Lviv, described how it’d managed amid the latest attacks.
- “We always have this bright picture when it comes to the long term,” N-iX’s COO told Insider.
Lviv, the largest city in western Ukraine and located just 50 miles from the Polish border, had until this week become something of a haven for Ukrainians trying to escape the war with Russia.
The fact that the city had largely been spared from direct attacks since Russia invaded led many employees of N-iX, a prominent Ukrainian IT and software-development services company, to relocate to the firm’s two offices in Lviv. The company even recently opened a new office in the city of Ivano-Frankivsk — a roughly two-hour drive from Lviv — to support additional workers fleeing to the area.
But conditions changed Monday morning when the Russian military unleashed its most severe missile attack on Ukraine in months, targeting civilian infrastructure in Kyiv, Lviv, and several other cities and regions far from the war’s frontlines. The attacks led to widespread power failures across Lviv, affecting internet connectivity and access to water.
But like many Ukrainian companies, N-iX was prepared with a contingency plan that allowed it to continue servicing clients in the attack’s aftermath. N-iX’s chief operating officer, Pavlo Deshchynskyy, told Insider the company’s rate of delivery to clients on Monday was 60% to 80%, disrupted only because of the air-raid alarms and need to stay in bomb shelters for three or so hours.
“It started in the morning,” Deshchynskyy told Insider. “Most people stayed at home, except just a small number were on the way to the office. But after lunchtime, offices were quite crowded. I would say unusually crowded, because people didn’t have electricity at home.”
The goal of its planning was to make sure the company could keep working even with a total loss of power. Ahead of Russia’s full-scale invasion N-iX prepared backup generators, SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service, and even fiber-optic cables to directly connect the company’s largest office to an internet service provider in Poland. The company also turned its offices into 24/7 help centers for employees and their families and provided temporary housing and necessities.
Following the power failures, which were caused by damage to four of the region’s electricity substations, Mayor Andriy Sadovyi of Lviv urged Ukrainians to brace for hard times and resort to “old-time methods,” such as stocking up on firewood. For tech workers, this means balancing living in a “virtual bubble world,” as Deshchynskyy put it, and the wartime reality around them.
But pausing isn’t an option, N-iX’s executives say, as Ukrainians view the country’s technology industry as one of their greatest assets in the fight for freedom.
“The Ukrainian tech industry is one of the main contributors to the country’s GDP, so the sector is banding together not only to help the victims of Russia’s invasion but also to support the Ukrainian IT industry and the country’s economy,” N-iX’s founder and CEO, Andrew Pavliv, told Insider.
How booming business is fueling the fight for freedom
According to the National Bank of Ukraine, the export volume of computer services for the first half of 2022 reached $3.74 billion. That was 23% more than the same period in 2021 and was a significant source of tax revenue.
Ukrainian tech workers and companies have rallied to help the war effort, including by joining the “IT army” and providing tech services for the military. N-iX has offered more than $1.27 million in relief funds and facilitated the distribution of resources including 30 cars, 200 computer-equipment units, and more than 50 Starlink terminals to cities in Ukraine, the company says.
The company also raised more than $240,000 via a YouTube live benefit for Ukraine’s Come Back Alive foundation. And just two weeks ago, N-iX was the main partner at the annual IT Arena tech conference, which was held in Lviv.
“I believe that those kind of events or steps, they show to the community some sort of stability that regardless of war, we have our biggest tech conference in western Ukraine,” Deshchynskyy said. This year in particular, the conference championed resilience and focused on military tech, modern cyberwarfare tactics, and how tech companies can aid the war effort.
Deshchynskyy told Insider he’s driven by long-term, medium-term, and short-term goals — everything from keeping employees safe, to aiding military members in the company’s network, to continuing to grow the company.
N-iX, which reached its 20th anniversary this year, has nine offices across Europe and the US and also counts Fortune 500 firms among its clients.
“We always have this bright picture when it comes to the long term,” he told Insider. “We really want to build a unicorn. And we really want to double, triple in size and get new services to the market.”
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