Du Guowang of GBase: A New Paradigm for Data Management to Unlock Data Asset Value

As the digital wave sweeps in, fully unlocking the value of data and bringing it to life has become the starting point for government digital transformation. Today, the forward-looking nature of data applications, the urgency of data sharing, and the necessity of building data standards pose core requirements for government data governance. Meanwhile, data security protection and the regulation of data usage also face new situations and challenges. How governments can leverage data as a key factor and safeguard the "security valve" of data management has become a crucial step in enhancing their digital service capabilities.

Recently, Information and Software Service Network had the privilege of interviewing Du Guowang, Vice President of GBase, to explore challenging issues in government digital transformation such as data management, data analytics, data ownership, and data usage security, with the hope that this conversation can provide valuable references for government digital transformation.

Information and Software Service Network: The new infrastructure initiative is set to focus on the technology side, with next-generation technologies such as big data, AI, and 5G being deeply applied. What are your thoughts on the current state and challenges of digital government transformation under this new infrastructure wave? What trends do you see for the future?

Du Guowang of GBase: Amid the big data wave, the value of digital assets is becoming increasingly important, and the government's approach to data governance is becoming clearer. With the advent of new infrastructure, the innovative application of new-generation technologies such as big data, AI, and 5G is expanding the boundaries of data collection and providing better tools for government governance. Data resources hold enormous potential and power, but problems still exist—data sharing, data exchange, and data usage rights. Governments must not only address these issues but also place great emphasis on data security.

Data security in government digital transformation differs from traditional security. Its focus has shifted from the traditional 4A security model to aspects such as data ownership, data trading, and data usage models. Attributing data ownership is difficult; it essentially means clarifying who owns the data. Data trading, simply put, is the exchange and use of data value. Regarding data usage models, let me illustrate with an example. At first glance, a company's electricity consumption offers little insight into its data value. However, once this data is made public, related information about the company—such as production capacity, water usage, and freight dynamics—can also be mined. Deep data analytics unleashes even greater value.

In my view, the future of government digital transformation should fully leverage data-driven decision-making—letting data speak and using data to decide—thereby enhancing the scientific nature of government decision-making.

Information and Software Service Network: As a leading Chinese database company, how will GBase contribute to government digital transformation and enhance the modernization of government governance?

Du Guowang of GBase: GBase focuses on the database field, providing database products for data storage. To put it simply, we play the role of shelves in a supermarket—providing the shelf for data.

GBase database products deliver service capabilities in the following areas: First, data scenarios. Driven by new infrastructure, the spatiotemporal characteristics of data are becoming more pronounced—data is influenced by time and space, leading to different data collection results. Our China-developed database products can meet the data collection needs of various scenario-specific models by addressing these spatiotemporal characteristics. Second, data analytics. The purpose of data analytics is essentially to concentrate, extract, and refine information from large volumes of disordered data in order to uncover inherent patterns in the objects under study. GBase 8s can perform diverse data analytics based on both relational and non-relational databases. Third, data ownership. In the big data era, the conflict between data ownership and usage rights has become intense. Since data has no physical form, the party that holds the right to use data often ends up owning it. GBase's database products effectively resolve the data ownership issue by moving beyond traditional ownership disputes. Through algorithms, they analyze raw data and provide clients with only the needed algorithmic results. Fourth, in-database computing—performing computations within the database as requested and then delivering the required data. This not only reduces repeated data interactions but also improves data performance.

In one sentence, GBase is a Chinese database vendor that provides customers with data management and data analytics computing capabilities.

Information and Software Service Network: What are some application cases of GBase in the Chinese database field?

Du Guowang of GBase: Take GBase 8s for example. Its high-value customer base covers core business systems across various industries, with wide application in key sectors such as finance, telecommunications, energy, transportation, government, and security. On the government side, China's Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, National Development and Reform Commission, and General Administration of Customs all use GBase database products to address data analytics and management challenges.

Information and Software Service Network: What market demands does GBase see in the process of building digital government?

Du Guowang of GBase: I believe the market demand for digital government can be summarized in stages. The first stage is IT Application Innovation (Xinchuang). The background to the Xinchuang initiative is that for many years, China's underlying IT standards, architectures, products, and ecosystems were largely controlled by external parties, posing numerous security risks and the threat of being "choked off." To prevent problems before they occur, we had to consider replacing existing scenarios. But this replacement is by no means a simple swap; it is innovation built on proprietary products. The second stage is new infrastructure development. The national new infrastructure drive has created many new opportunities, and in this context, the value of data becomes especially prominent. The third stage is data-driven decision-making and operations. In the future, data lakes, data trading centers, and data operation decision centers will see tremendous growth opportunities.

In my view, the market demand for digital government building falls into these three stages overall, but they do not develop in isolation—they are interconnected and mutually reinforcing.

Whether in the government or commercial sectors, data analytics powered by big data technology always provides decision support for industries, and data sharing and circulation are key avenues for releasing data value. As the saying goes, “To do a good job, one must first sharpen one's tools.” In today's era of massive data, GBase has already delivered its answer on how to fully leverage data resources as a fundamental resource and innovation engine for the future.