Breakthrough innovations for an open world

Throughout Europe, the Americas and Asia, Bull’s R&D labs are working hard today on the technologies for building the open, flexible and secure IT infrastructures of tomorrow. Bull has a long history of R&D success, from the first mainframe computers in the 1960s and the invention of smart cards in the 1980s, to today’s new generation of High Performance Computing solutions for mission-critical datacenters, Open Source middleware for service-oriented IT architectures and advanced security solutions.

Dedicated to building groundbreaking, innovative technologies, Bull’s R&D teams are driven by three core values: a commitment to industry standards; a team spirit that capitalizes on close synergies with a wide range of partners and Open Source communities; and a dedication to ultimate reliability and security for mission-critical environments.

At the IT infrastructure level, Bull’s investments in R&D are particularly focused in three key areas:

• Next-generation datacenter computing – Bull leverages industry standards to develop open server and storage infrastructures that provide ultimate power while dynamically adapting and scaling with demand. Developed in close partnership with Intel, Bull’s innovative Fame architecture (Flexible Architecture for Multiple Environments) – implemented in its NovaScale servers – is designed to provide mainframe-class computing using standard building blocks. From this foundation, Bull also develops open HPC solutions that provide ultimate power – such as Tera10 , built by Bull for the French Atomic Energy Authority (CEA), one of the world’s three most powerful supercomputers. Bull is also among the key R&D players in virtualization and grid technologies.
  
  
• SOA-based middleware for open computing – Bull is actively involved in developing Open Source-based architecture, tools, platforms and software for flexible IT infrastructures and services: helping to build virtualized information systems that can adapt in real time to business needs. Bull is the co-founder and one of the major participants in the OW2 consortium, the world’s leading consortium in Open Source middleware, the key software components that will increasingly enable the alignment of IT infrastructures and business logic. Bull is also a strategic partner and contributor to JBoss. Bull leverages OW2 and JBoss solutions though its open Bull SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) platform solutions for public and private sector customers.
  
  
• Advanced security technologies for a trusted world – Bull has a long history in security and strong commitment to the market, including the invention of the smart card and pioneering research in cryptography. Today, Bull carries out advanced R&D in identity and access management, cryptography, public key infrastructure and service management. Through its own developments and its involvement in European programs such as ITEA, it is also a prominent innovator when it comes to building the e-signature and web service security resources needed to develop safe business in a digitalized world.

Beyond its applied R&D in the IT infrastructure arena, Bull also develops dedicated solutions for the sectors it serves, notably the public sector (secure frameworks for e-government, inland revenue intelligence…), telecoms, healthcare, homeland security and defense, and financial services (transaction security,…), among others.

Bull’s own R&D labs are located throughout Europe, America and Asia. Bull has also developed close R&D partnerships with leading-edge partners such as Intel, IBM, Microsoft, Novell, Red Hat, SAP and other corporations, as well as Open Source communities (Linux Foundation, OW2, JBoss…) and European R&D programs (ITEA,…). Dedicated Bull engineers work in these partners’ own R&D centers, enabling them to leverage synergies and accelerate the pace of innovation.

Bull advanced research on new technologies – as well as its collaborative working programs with a wide network of partners and communities worldwide – means its customers benefit from advanced IT solutions that help them grow ahead of their rivals and deliver exceptional performance.