Breaking News - Operating Systems
& Middleware:
Oracle And Red Flag Form Linux
Alliance In China
Oracle China, a subsidiary of Oracle Corporation, and Red Flag Software
Co.,
Ltd, a leading Chinese software company focusing on the Linux operating system
and applications, jointly announced the establishment of a strategic alliance
to deliver Linux-based solutions in China. Now enterprise customers in China
will be able to deploy an Oracle Unbreakable infrastructure on the Red Flag
Linux platform and receive full technical support. This key alliance between
the two major Linux providers in China is expected to bring unprecedented
benefits to customers by helping them dramatically reduce the cost of
enterprise computing while enabling the highest levels of performance,
reliability and security.
So far, the Oracle China Development Center and Red Flag have completed
certification of Oracle9i Database on the Red Flag Linux operating system, and
now are working together on certification of the remainder of Oracle's
complete product line on the new Red Flag Data Center Linux operating system,
including Oracle9i Application Server, Oracle Collaboration Suite and Oracle
E-business Suite. The alliance is also expected to allow customers to get fast
and integrated engineering support from a joint support lab scheduled to be
opened in Beijing in the near future by Oracle Software Research and
Development Center (Beijing) Co., Ltd. and Red Flag. The Oracle China
Development Center in Beijing will play a critical role in product
development, certification, R&D and support as Oracle and Red Flag drive Linux
initiatives aggressively in China.
"Oracle is the only company that provides all your enterprise software and
full technical support on Linux. The combination of Oracle and Red Flag
provides Chinese customers with a world-class Linux operating system tailored
to Chinese requirements with full enterprise support for Oracle9i features
including database clustering," said Kevin Walsh, vice president, Internet
Technology at Oracle. "Together, Oracle and Red Flag will enable customers in
China to exploit the cost savings, power, and reliability of Linux in their
most demanding business applications." Oracle and Red Flag have jointly
identified government, transportation, utility and energy as some of the major
sectors where Linux sales and marketing campaigns will be launched to
encourage the adoption of Linux. Both parties have also begun to recruit
application providers.
"The strategic partnership between Oracle and Red Flag for the China market
underscores Oracle's strong commitment to helping China's software industry to
grow," said Andrew Hu, managing director, Oracle China. "The Chinese
government is encouraging organizations and enterprises to adopt Linux because
of its cost effectiveness and superior performance. Our goal is to work with
Red Flag and local application providers to come up with world-class Linux
products, applications and services that fit the needs of customers in
China."
Linux is the fastest growing platform in the world, and according to IDC,
(in
Report 27289 entitled "Worldwide Relational and Object-Relational Database
Management Systems Software Forecast and Analysis, 2002-2006), the Linux
relational database market is projected to grow to US$5.1 billion by 2006.
Numerous other industry and financial analyst reports have found that Linux
server growth is over 50 percent and a survey of CIOs by Goldman Sachs in
November 2002 showed that 39 percent of IT departments have already deployed
Linux solutions. The Evans Data Chinese Development Survey Vol. 2 2002 also
found that 65 percent of Chinese developers expect to write Linux applications
in 2003.
"The establishment of our alliance comes at no better time than this --
Linux
is being adopted at a fast pace in China and enterprise-class products are
mature and ready. So it is a big milestone not only in the history of Red Flag
and Oracle but also in the history of Linux development in China," said Liu
Bo, president and chief executive officer of Red Flag Software. "Red Flag
Software knows the market well and fully understands customer needs. So,
allying with such a top solution provider as Oracle, we are confident that
jointly we will provide the best Linux products for Chinese customers."
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