Your Next Software Development Destination: Why Armenia?

The modern world is going digital and high-quality software development is one of the most required phenomena. If you are also in search of the right software development destinations, I recommend you on choosing Armenia. Wonder why Armenia? Come on!

IT Development Trends in Armenia

Informational technologies are considered to be one of the most successful and rapidly growing industries in Armenia. Armenia was once the Silicon Valley of the former Soviet Union. The fact that IT is a leading sector in Armenia is not surprising. Even back in the Soviet years, Armenia was considered to be an innovative center.

According to the New York magazine “The Times”, 40% of the mainframe computers designed for the military were designed and manufactured in Armenia. Even before starting their online publication in 1996, “The Times” printed an article related to business technology. In this article, “Aragats B” a computer software company founded by four Armenian brothers is discussed. Although the printed article was archived, you may get familiar with the digitized version here.

Over the past decade, the IT sector in Armenia has not been passive either. In the Armenian IT calendar, the date of June 6, 2016, was marked in red. The company “Technology and Science Dynamics” presented the ArmPhone - the first Armenian smartphone, and the ArmTab - the first Armenian tablet. And the most interesting fact is that these technological innovations were the result of 2 years of work of the Armenian young specialists.

2018 was no less noticeable in the Armenian IT reality. The famous magazine “The Economist” declared Armenia as the “Country of The Year 2018”. According to the criteria of this magazine, they take into account the fact of how a specific country highlights the idea of progress and promotion. And if there is progress then at least one Armenian is involved in the process. As for the advance in the IT sector, Armenians could not stand by when the modern world is in the center of the technological revolution.

Currently, the IT sphere is even more developed in Armenia and it continues growing. The prerequisites of the IT sector development are great in Armenia. It is the guarantee of a reliable workforce in the sphere. Let’s find out whether Armenia really fits the current technological era and what are the development trends that make this country a trusty center of the IT-sphere.

№1 WCIT

On 6-9 October in 2019, the WCIT (World Congress of Information Technology) took place in Yerevan, Armenia. This is the signature event of the (WITSA) World Information Technology and Services Alliance, a conference of ICT associations from 83 countries, representing 90% of the industry. So many brilliant minds came up together to discuss a single future for all of us. The purpose was to create a world where technologies, no matter how advanced, are focused on meeting people’s needs. WCIT 2019 announced 6 winners - startups that reshape our present and define future.

1. Krisp offers AI technology that gives you a chance to mute all kinds of noises in your background.
2. ForgeFiction is a community-driven platform that transfers universe creation and story writing from individuals to the community.
3. Embry Tech is here to support people to overcome 2 challenges: sedentary existence and overweight epidemic. And all of this, due to smart shoes.
4. Vicinity provides an easy to use infrastructure software that helps industrial organizations to run reliable and secure applications on-premise.
5. GeBe Cert is a unique digital certificate system that cannot be copied. It gives people protection and confidence to buy original products.
6. Virtlo offers an easy and fast way to explore the surroundings in Augmented Reality. This is a technology that transforms how we see places around us.

№2 Education

Education for the future works in Armenia. Every year, about 2,000 students graduated from the University, specialized in any field of IT. This makes 10% of the total number of graduated students. Here we should also highlight the importance of language learning. Almost every student is fully proficient in English at high school. And we know that English is considered to be the language of the modern technological world.

№3 Technological Centers

IT development is aimed at economic growth. In recent years, the priority of the economic growth in Armenia is given to the stimulation of the sphere of IT. This is the final goal of the increasing number of technological centers on a charitable base as well as with government funding. Such centers offer knowledge that is not provided in a standard school curriculum. In this system, students start the educational process at an early age. Currently, the “Armath” engineering laboratory and the “TUMO” center of creative technologies are the most famous of the existing educational programs in the field of IT.

- “Armath” Engineering Laboratory

The “Armath” engineering laboratories operate in Armenia on the initiative of UATE (Union of Advanced Technology Enterprises). In total, this educational program spreads over 250 engineering laboratories. More than 6500 children aged 10-18 years, get free technological education at Armath. Such kind of education includes interactive extracurricular courses, interesting competitions, innovative camps, through which the children are introduced to the science, technologies, engineering, and maths. At the same time, children get full knowledge of Three-Dimension (3D) Modeling, Robotics, and Web Design. Becoming more specialized in the field, the “Armath” students are involved in the field of IT. The majority goes ahead, founding Startups.

- “TUMO” Center of Creative Technologies

The “TUMO” center for creative technologies is no less popular. Due to this center, thousands of young people aged 12-18 years are specialized in the sphere of digital media. Four main directions are applied in TUMO: Animation, Creation of Games, Website Development, Film Creation. Certain knowledge is provided related to graphic design, photography, music, and so on.

№4 Technological Growth

Startups and IT companies are steadily growing in Armenia. IT students tend to establish startups that lead to the creation of new companies. Currently, more than 10,000 programmers and engineers work in more than 450 companies. The number of IT companies and startups is growing every year. They believe that by 2025, the number of software developers is estimated to reach 30,000 in Armenia.

“PicsArt” is one of the most successful Armenian startups. This is a popular photo editing app both for iOS and Android operating systems. This application is accepted worldwide. According to the statistics of October 2019, the app has more than 100 million monthly active users and more than 500 million installs.

Conclusion

Summarizing everything, it will be effective to emphasize the most important things:

• The number of talented specialists in different fields of IT is growing in Armenia.
• An Armenian Startup ecosystem has been established that serves as a cooperation channel between different IT companies. This is an Armenian tech ecosystem widely supported by the European Union.
• There is the Mergelyan Institute - a pioneer of the IT and software industry in Armenia. It's the home of a number of IT companies.

You see, Armenia has all the prerequisites for the development of the future. And the future largely depends on the sphere of Information Technologies. So, choose Armenia - your next software development destination.