Oracle announced today that it has established a new R&D center in Shanghai, called the Oracle Asia Research and Development Center ( OARDC ) Shanghai. This is Oracle's seventh OARDC in the Asia Pacific and Japan region.
Serving as a major research and development ( R&D ) base in East China, OARDC Shanghai plans to focus its development efforts on innovations around ubiquitous computing and Web 2.0 technologies for organizations across industries. It will closely collaborate with the six other OARDCs in the region, strategically located in Beijing ( China ), Gurgaon ( India ), Seoul ( Korea ), Shenzhen ( China ), Singapore, and Tokyo ( Japan ). Together, these seven centers are linked in a unique R&D network focused on the creation of innovative solutions for the local and regional markets in addition to contributing to global product development.
"The establishment of the Shanghai R&D facility is a major milestone in Oracle's investment in China," said Pascal Sero, Vice President, Oracle Asia Research and Development Centers, Oracle Asia Pacific & Japan. "With three centers strategically located in the country now, China in many ways serves as the hub of our R&D network in the Asia Pacific region, bringing real innovations to customers in China as they work to improve efficiencies, competitiveness and profitability."
The OARDCs work closely with Oracle's 13 solution centers, which operate as Centers of Expertise, Centers of Excellence, Competency Centers, or Partner Solution Centers across the region. Oracle's solution centers strive to represent local requirements to the OARDCs and in return showcase new innovations from the development centers. The focus of the solution centers vary in terms of industry and market focus, with many dedicated to country-specific projects of national importance.
"Like the other OARDC establishments in China, OARDC Shanghai will not only carry out software engineering work for Oracle's global products and industry solutions, but also develop emerging technologies and solutions to meet customer needs in China and Asia Pacific," Sero said.
One area of development at the Shanghai center is a project that aims to build Ubiquitous Computing frameworks that can efficiently manage different types of sensor edge servers and attached devices such as sensors, motes, and Radio Frequency Identification ( RFID ) readers. Built on the Oracle Sensor Edge Server, a member of the Oracle Fusion Middleware family, and Oracle Database 11g, the frameworks can conveniently gather device data, generate strategic business data, and dispatch data to different applications via protocols like HTTP and Web Services.
Ubiquitous Computing combines current network technologies with wireless computing, voice recognition, Internet capabilities and artificial intelligence to create an environment where the connectivity of devices is embedded so that the connectivity is unobtrusive and always available.
One such project implemented successfully on the Ubiquitous Computing framework was a ticket authentication system called R-Ticket. Jointly developed by OARDC Shanghai, Hitachi, Ltd. and Hitachi ( China ), Ltd., the R-Ticket system provided a secure platform to authenticate tickets. The R-Ticket was used during a 2006 year-end gala party attended by over 7,000 guests in the Xintiandi area, Luwan District, Shanghai. More than 7,000 official tickets were checked and passed through the system and 3,000 counterfeit tickets were detected and confiscated. The system was built on the Oracle Sensor Edge Server with the Hitachi RFID microchip called "u-Chip".
"This ticket authentication system is just the beginning of the work OARDC is involved in to create 'smart paper' for today and tomorrow. We are looking for more applications of the�-Chip including product authentication, food traceability and item level tracking. In fact, we are planning to set up a testbed of these applications at Shanghai's Knowledge and Innovation Community as part of the digital community. We are also looking for collaborators in these areas to further develop the technology," Sero said.
Oracle Builds R&D Expertise in China
The Oracle Asia Research and Development Centers in Beijing, Shenzhen and Shanghai form Oracle's primary engine for research and development in China. They are leading the market in developing innovative solutions based on technologies from Oracle and strategic partners.
Numerous projects and initiatives have been successfully completed at the OARDCs in China. Some of the current developments include:
* Carrier Grade Framework. The Oracle Carrier Grade Framework ( CGF ) Competency Center based in Shenzen, China, developed a standards-based data management architecture that combines Oracle( r ) Database 10g, Oracle Fusion Middleware and Oracle TimesTen In-Memory Database, on AdvancedTCA ( ATCA )-compliant Intel( r ) servers. ATCA is an industry standard that provides a scalable, reliable platform architecture for carrier-grade ( 99.999% availability ) communications applications. By developing the Carrier Grade Framework, the OARDC drives the adoption of standards-based technology in communications networks worldwide, enabling Communications Service Providers ( CSPs ) and Network Equipment Manufacturers ( NEMs ) to more effectively meet customer demands and speed time to market for innovative services.
* Digital City Lab. This initiative focuses on location-based services, geographic information systems, and e-government solutions based on technologies including Oracle Unified Internet Platform Architecture, Oracle Spatial, Oracle e-Government Applications and Oracle iAS Wireless. A team of engineers is currently working closely with the Beijing IT office to create a blueprint to serve as a technology standard within governments. Sample projects include e-government and e-citizen systems and applications.
* Unbreakable Linux Program. This global support program aims to deliver the highest quality support for Linux in Asia at significantly lower cost. Current projects include Linux Engineering, the backbone of the Oracle Unbreakable Linux program, which focuses on support, sustaining, quality assurance ( QA ) and development to make sure customers on the Oracle Unbreakable Linux program get the best support from a quality product; Oracle Validated Configuration, which focuses on working with local vendors such as Dawning, Huawei and Inspur to validate their hardware stack; and Oracle on Linux, which focuses on product certification of Oracle products on Linux, and solution development.
* Embedded Technology. OARDC is driving the adoption of Oracle technologies into embedded industries ( including telecommunications, home appliances and automobiles ) by enhancing current Oracle technologies and developing solution frameworks. Projects underway include Berkeley DB porting on Nokia S60 platform with Open C plug-in to provide S60 users a fast and yet reliable database management system to manage mega data on smart phones; and customer porting of Oracle Database Lite to the embedded Linux platform.
* Enterprise Blogging. Oracle is taking blogging to the enterprise level, in an R&D environment. In partnership with a leading blogging software provider, OARDC has expanded features such as single sign-on, access control, secured search and archiving. Enterprise blogging has been deployed internally at OARDC and is used by its developers and project teams. OARDC fully leverages the modern Web2.0 metaphor of social networking and collaboration in an R&D environment to achieve full, transparent collaboration and knowledge sharing, and is exploring to share its experience with Oracle customers.