Roman Gromov — software engineer and C++ web systems architect
Engineering as a life’s work
I am a software engineer and architect of web software written in C++. I have worked professionally with the language since 2008, although my interest in it began at school. C++ matched the way I think better than any other tool: it is complex, strict, demands discipline, and at the same time enables flexible polymorphic architectures. I have always been interested not only in making code work, but in building systems where every component has a clear responsibility, follows explicit contracts, and remains predictable as the product grows.
From ElDorado IIMS to Sapphire I.C.D.S.
In 2008 I created my first major C++ product, ElDorado IIMS — a content and website management system with a native server core. It became a long engineering school. Over the years I tested many approaches, made mistakes, found concepts that worked, and learned which architectural decisions could truly survive long-term development.
Cross-server compatibility was one of the central challenges. I wanted the system to remain independent from a single infrastructure provider or narrow runtime environment. Even in the ElDorado generation, I developed approaches that preserved consistent behavior across different server configurations and separated business logic from deployment details.
By early 2025, the experience accumulated since 2008 led to a clear conclusion: the old system should not be patched forever; it had to be rethought from the ground up. That decision became Sapphire I.C.D.S. The primary development cycle has been completed, and I now focus on its active evolution, refinement, and expansion. Sapphire embodies the full engineering and architectural discipline accumulated over the years, reaching a level of modularity and coherence that I could not have imagined during the early ElDorado period.
Authorship and the role of Sapphire Project
I am the founder and chief executive officer of Sapphire Project Sp. z o.o. At the same time, after a series of strategic, engineering, and legal decisions, the Sapphire I.C.D.S. core and its vendor modules remain under my sole authorship and control. The company acts as the official distributor, manages sales, contracts, and customer support, while the intellectual and architectural responsibility for the system remains with its author.
This is not a formality. The model preserves a single technical direction, keeps responsibility clear, and protects the architecture from becoming a collection of short-term corporate compromises.
Technology for civilian purposes only
Because of my principles, worldview, and personal convictions, neither I nor Sapphire Project work or will work with structures connected to military or defense purposes, nor with government institutions. Sapphire I.C.D.S. is designed exclusively for civilian use.
I believe the best engineering achievements should benefit people: helping them create, organize, learn, work, and develop independent projects. Technology should not become a weapon, an instrument of pressure, or a means of abusing power. This principle directly influences the system’s direction and the partners we choose.
A closed core with freedom to extend
I strongly reject the culture of pervasive analytics, hidden surveillance, and the treatment of people as data assets. I do not accept a model where customers merely rent access to their own processes, depend on a permanent SaaS connection, pay for every employee, and simultaneously provide telemetry to the vendor.
At the same time, I do not consider it reasonable to give away the result of many years of engineering work as open source. The Sapphire I.C.D.S. core therefore has been, is, and will remain closed. Users, companies, and independent developers will nevertheless receive a complete SDK and stable interfaces for building their own modules, integrations, and extensions.
I believe in a healthy balance: customer data belongs to the customer, while the author’s intellectual property belongs to the author. I have no reason to collect telemetry, monitor how clients use the system, or turn their infrastructure into an additional source of profit. Software has a price because it contains knowledge, time, and responsibility. But the product being sold should remain the software itself — not the customer’s data, employee count, or right to own their infrastructure.
Why I continue
I work in this field because I genuinely love engineering. Development is not a temporary profession or a race toward the latest trend; it is a way of thinking and a form of creation. I do not believe in utopias and do not claim that one system can change the entire world. But I do believe that good technology, honest architecture, and a sensible relationship between authors, customers, and data can make it at least a little better.