A major European player in today’s digital economy, over a number of years Bull has established itself as a European pioneer in the use of Open Source for critical systems. As ‘Architect of an Open World’, Bull co-founded several of the world’s biggest initiatives in this area, including the OW2 and Qualipso consortiums. The Group has also put Open Source at the center of its high-end innovation strategy, with notable successes: bullx, voted the world’s best supercomputer in 2009; mobull, its ‘plug & boot’ container for mobile Data Centers; NovaForge, the new-generation software forge dedicated to ‘Virtual Shore’ development; and globull, the world’s most secure mobile computing solution… all designed using numerous Open Source components.
Today, Bull is further strengthening this commitment, by making Open Source one of the two key pillars – along with computer simulation – of its approach to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
Open Source: actively contributing to innovation and sustainable development
From on-line service delivery to mobile terminals, from Cloud Computing to the Internet of Things, Open Source software is one of the main channels for disseminating new technologies and promoting the adoption of open standards that encourage competition and innovation. The increasing democratization and widespread availability of Open Source components helps to expand knowledge, supports sustainable economic development, and contributes to the development of more environmentally-friendly technologies.
As part of its CSR strategy and initiatives, Bull is planning to maintain and further extend the role of Open Source and its contributions to it, in order to:
- Bridge the digital divide: In particular, the Group will strengthen its technology transfer initiatives, under the auspices of OW2 in Asia and bilateral co-operation programs such as the one recently signed with Brazil. The aim of this move will be to enhance digital inclusion, break down the barriers to becoming part of the ‘knowledge economy’, and promote increasingly widespread access to new technologies, particularly in emerging economies.
- Create technologies for the benefit of all: Bull will be further strengthening its contributions to various communities, particularly those focused on technologies relating to Data Centers and computing ‘power plants’ (Extreme Computing, Bio Data Center, Cloud Computing…). The aim of this is to contribute to the fundamental development of Open Source code and know-how related to the digital economy.
- Encourage collaborative innovation: In particular, Bull is making NovaForge – its new-generation software forge – available to OW2, as a shared platform for collaborative innovation. The aim of this is to design technologies that will contribute to ‘green’ economic growth and reduce the impact that IT has on the environment.
The aim of this initiative is to cross-fertilize technological, economic and social initiatives in open computing, to accelerate innovation and sustainable development.
Bull: a commitment to critical systems that is unique in Europe
This contribution is in addition to, and further strengthens, Bull’s current commitment to using Open Source in its own major projects, to contribute to building the high-end, open information systems needed for tomorrow’s digital society. These include:
- Computing ‘power plants’ and Cloud Computing for enterprise applications and high-performance computing
- Business applications, implementing collaborative tools and practices from Open Source – using Virtual Shore and Bull’s Open Energy services to accelerate business developments, reduce their costs and enhance their reliability
- Security and mission-critical systems, following the acquisition of Amesys, with sovereign solutions that guarantee security and technological independence.
