Domestic Substitution: vStack Replaced Jira and Trello with SimpleOne

The developers at vStack were managing their complex cloud virtualization platform using a chaotic mix of Western tools. Different teams used whatever they could grab—some ran tasks in Jira, some dragged cards on Trello boards, and others logged bugs directly in GitLab Issues. When sanctions hit and cut off access to official subscriptions, this fragile ecosystem of cracked accounts and workarounds started to crumble under its own weight.

To keep things from falling apart, management decided to migrate the entire technical department to a single Russian-made platform, SimpleOne SDLC. Instead of trying to reinvent their entire workflow overnight—which is a guaranteed way to make developers mutiny—they broke the transition into two distinct phases. First, they simply forced everyone to dump their tasks into the new database to get a single, unified view of the chaos.

Once all the data was in one place, they structured their backlog into a strict hierarchy of epics, features, tasks, and defects. Now, 100% of the technical staff plans two-week sprints and tracks technical releases in a single environment. The company's CEO, Yevgeny Karpov, noted that while it doesn't offer cosmic performance boosts, it finally stops managers from having to scavenge through three different chats just to find out who broke the build.

For their next trick, the team plans to integrate the system with GitLab commits and branches. This will theoretically allow them to run code reviews directly within the SimpleOne SDLC interface, completely sealing the task-to-release pipeline inside one domestic sandbox.

Replacing standard global infrastructure with local sovereign equivalents is the new reality for sanctioned tech. Whether this forced consolidation actually breeds innovation or just creates a cozy, isolated digital terrarium remains to be seen.