Igniting the beacon of database localization in the digital-intelligent reinvention of the telecom industry

Kindle a beacon, its smoke and fire shooting skyward, bridging the ancient and the modern, and drawing out the spark of wisdom from the history of information and communications.

On September 25, the 2024 PT Expo China opened in Beijing, and GBASE was invited to exhibit. This bellwether event for the ICT industry not only showcased the leaps in communication technology but also lit a beacon of database localization for the telecom sector’s digital-intelligent transformation…

From carrier pigeons to the Internet of Everything—spanning the generation, transmission, and reception of information—every leap in digital communication is vast and profound. Traditional communication networks are being replaced by high-speed, high-bandwidth networks, wired communications are transitioning to wireless, and emerging ICT—5G, cloud computing, big data, AI—are reshaping network architectures. Intelligent computing centers, edge data centers, and edge computing have entered a new phase, making cloud-network convergence the new focus of industry development…

These infrastructure upgrades provide powerful support for daily life, business activities, and technological innovation. Across the entire communications industry, telecom operators are undeniably the main force behind technological evolution and ecosystem building, having built the national communication network from the ground up. Their digital transformation journey is also leading the world.

GBASE’s relationship with the telecom industry dates back to 2005. Just one year after its founding, GBASE was already providing database products and technical services to operators like China Unicom and China Telecom. It can be said that GBASE’s two decades of dedication to database R&D and market promotion are intertwined with the telecom industry. Through nearly twenty years of deep engagement, GBASE has gained profound insight into telecom users’ business scenarios and built extensive technical service expertise. While tackling core technologies hand in hand with clients, GBASE’s full-stack GBase database products have achieved large-scale deployment and application in the telecom sector.

First Call: Surrounded by Giants—A Lone Champion of Homegrown Databases

The hands of the clock turn back to 2014, a time when China’s database market was still monopolized by international giants. That year, China Mobile faced the challenge of upgrading its database systems. Its Business Analysis System was the largest data warehouse among operators at the time. Facing intensifying market competition and a group-wide strategic transformation, the Business Analysis System had to support operations far more efficiently. China Mobile therefore planned to build a centralized Business Analysis System with consolidated data and a unified platform, making data warehouse selection a top priority.

For such a critical system, thorough testing and verification were essential. China Mobile organized several rounds of benchmarks, drawing wide participation from domestic and foreign database vendors. Global software leaders and star products were all on the list: Oracle (Exadata), Microsoft (SQL Server PDW), IBM (DB2, Netezza), Sybase (Sybase IQ), EMC (GreenPlum), HP (Vertica), Teradata (Warehouse Appliance Turbo). And GBASE was the only domestic database vendor participating in the tests. After several rounds, only four vendors, including GBASE, fully passed and met the customer’s requirements!

Behind this achievement, GBASE poured in enormous resources and manpower. To faithfully simulate the business environment, the company purchased over 200 blade servers alone, and its POC, R&D, and commercial teams provided 7×24 support. Investing so heavily at the testing stage seemed almost reckless for any database vendor.

Hard work paid off. GBASE ultimately outperformed a host of international giants and won the bid for China Mobile’s centralized Business Analysis System. This not only proved our technical strength but was also a “zero-to-one” breakthrough for homegrown databases in operators’ critical systems.

In early 2016, key applications went live one after another, gradually evolving into the group-wide deep analytics cloud for China Mobile, enabling efficient data circulation. Today, the project has deployed 2,000+ cluster nodes and manages 20 PB of data.

Resounding: The Largest Share, Vanguard of Joint Innovation

Time moved on, and GBASE’s journey in the telecom industry entered a new chapter. In 2020, with accelerated digital transformation and the deepening of the self-reliance strategy, China Mobile Information Technology Co., Ltd. launched the autonomous and controllable OLTP Database Joint Innovation Project, aiming to build a more secure, efficient, and independently controlled database solution.

OLTP databases are core infrastructure in China Mobile’s IT business support systems, with extensive usage requirements and future application scenarios across the entire group. Joint innovation focusing on core OLTP technologies would strongly promote the internalization of China Mobile’s database capabilities, delivering the dual value of enhancing independent control and improving the efficiency and quality of the group’s IT system construction.

In this battle shaping the future technological ecosystem, GBASE, leveraging comprehensive strengths in technological innovation, product stability, and service support, won the largest share of the OLTP Database Joint Innovation Project’s primary-standby bid package, reaffirming the competitive edge of GBase databases in the telecom industry. Following the deployment of the analytical database in the group’s deep analytics cloud, GBASE’s transactional databases have now been widely adopted by China Mobile, achieving full coverage of both OLAP and OLTP databases. This is not only another endorsement of GBASE’s technical prowess but also the best testament to its long-term dedication to the operator industry and deep understanding of customer needs.

Dancing Together: Co-building and Co-developing as the Customer’s External Consultant

Entering a new era, GBASE has chosen to stand side by side with customers like China Mobile with an even more open approach, jointly driving the independent innovation and industrial upgrading of database technology.

Operators represented by China Mobile have complex business structures, massive customer data, and extremely high disaster recovery requirements. An efficient, secure database capable of handling complex data tasks in real time brings immeasurable value. It can resolve the issues of complex IT infrastructure and the presence of heterogeneous software and hardware in operators’ environments, thereby lowering business integration barriers and reducing O&M costs. To this end, China Mobile officially launched the development of the PanWei database in 2022, pursuing in-house database R&D alongside the procurement of commercial databases.

More than a decade of service and deep cultivation in the telecom industry led China Mobile to select GBASE as the external technical consultant for developing the PanWei database. As an external partner, GBASE brought its professional expertise and technical strength in the database field to bear, providing comprehensive database technical support to China Mobile.

By the end of 2023, PanWei database version 2.0 was officially released. To date, the PanWei database has been deployed in over 1,500 nodes across more than 20 provincial subsidiaries of China Mobile, supporting 170+ business systems and serving hundreds of millions of users. There are representative implementation cases for key features such as distributed architecture, high availability, and resource pooling.

Conclusion

In the telecom industry, GBase databases have been deployed in more than 60 group headquarters and provincial branches of operators including China Mobile, China Unicom, and China Telecom, penetrating deeply into their B domain (Business), O domain (Operations), and M domain (Management) systems, strongly supporting the development of China’s modern mobile communications infrastructure. For China Mobile alone, over 7,000 GBase database nodes are deployed, managing 70 PB of data.

From the first call surrounded by global giants to the resounding joint innovation and to dancing together with users to conquer core database technologies, GBASE’s every step in the telecom industry has been firm and powerful. This long-term, dedicated cultivation has not only made GBASE a trusted partner in the eyes of operators but has also ignited the beacon of database localization in the digital-intelligent restructuring of China’s telecom industry.

Today, China’s database industry is bustling with competition, where the localization of databases is no longer the solitary courage of a few but a concerted march of many. So, how can we go further?

In GBASE’s view, the answer is to return everything to the product itself: to hone the craft, to understand the user, and with long-term focus and practice, rewards will eventually come.

Look at that rising beacon—let us embark on a new journey.