Bull HN Information Systems Inc

Bull Group celebrates turning 80!

Fri, 07 Oct 2011 00:18:37 GMT

Bull Group celebrates turning 80!

In the constantly evolving IT industry, getting to this ripe old age is a real achievement. Fewer than five companies worldwide have successfully steered a path through all the various technological revolutions that have marked the last decades.

This anniversary is a chance for all of us to get to know the Group’s history better, and to take real pride in the numerous innovations that have come out of Bull over the years.

1919-1931: the Group's origins

(Fredrik Rosing Bull)
1882-1925

1919: Norwegian engineer Fredrik Rosing Bull sets himself the challenge of designing a machine that automates the processing of statistics for his employer, insurance company Storebrand. The prototype is unveiled to the Storebrand Board of Directors in August 1921, who approves it. The specialist press gives FR Bull’s machine good publicity. Half a dozen are delivered to various different companies between 1922 and 1925. Its success is due both to the machine’s technical qualities (especially its simplicity) and to the fact that its appearance calls a halt to the rise of IBM’s Hollerith system, which lowers prices and gives customers greater choice.

After Fredrik Rosing’s premature death in 1925, the main instigator of Bull’s European expansion is Émile Genon, a Belgian seller of calculating machines. In 1927, he buys the rights relating to FR Bull’s patents for ten European countries. Then in 1928 he reaches an agreement with Swiss company HW Egli to acquire the manufacturing rights relating to these patents for countries outside Scandianavia; and from 1928 onwards the machines are made in Switzerland.

In December 1929, the first machine manufactured in Zurich is delivered to the laboratories of chemical and pharmaceutical company Sandoz. The search for a strong domestic market capable of supporting industrial-scale production, as well as legislation to protect the patents, leads the company to move to France.

1931: In March 1931, the company known as HW Egli Bull – governed by French law but with a majority Swiss shareholding – is formed in Paris by three partners: HW Egli, the company Bull AG (founded the previous year in Zurich by Genon) and finally ATEIC (the Association Technique d'Études industrielles et Comptables or Technical Association for Industrial and Accounting Studies). The company sells Bull machines in France and is based at Avenue Gambetta in the 20th arrondissement of Paris; today the site is occupied by the rectorate of the Academy of Paris.

1931-1962: a major french company is formed

(T30 tabulating machine)

1931: Bull’s research, led by Knut Andréas Knutsen, leads to the launch of the tabulator T30, which is 25% to 40% cheaper than its rivals and capable of printing 120 lines a minute: a world record, that will only be equaled some 18 years later! This great performance is the birth of Bull’s commercial development.

1933: The Compagnie des Machines Bull or CMB is formed. Born out of the patents for the tabulating machines developed by Frederik Rosing Bull and Knut Andréas Knutsen, it supersedes the Franco-Swiss company Egli-Bull. Two years later, in 1935, it holds 16% of the French market, becoming IBM’s main competitor in France, and also has commercial operations in Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, Argentina and the Scandinavian countries. Its tabulating machine is one of the best on the market, as well as the fastest. CMB never ceases in its technological innovation. It enjoys an excellent reputation for speed and functional richness, and is well suited to European applications. The company is building around three machines a month, and regularly increasing its production capacity.

1935: Innovation requires costly investments, and talks are under way with the government to obtain funding for the development of new research studies. Émile Genon is charged by the Board to look for possible licensing and distribution deals with various firms in the USA. He meets with IBM, who offers him the possibility of a friendly collaboration. But the company prefers to ask for a commitment from the French government, whose decision is slow in coming. So without the Board’s authorization, Genon agrees to sell the majority of the shares in Bull AG (the company which sells the Bull machines, of which he is the Director) to IBM. He sees this as a way to achieve a ‘tacit peace’ between IBM’s and Bull’s patents, and to grow Bull’s international presence with support from the American group. The intractable Georges Vieillard, then Director of CBM, forces Genon to chose between Bull and IBM. After ten years of often decisive and intense activity, Genon leaves Bull. And new players enter the scene: the Callies-Aussedat family.

Stationery company Société des Papeteries Aussedat provides Bull with the tabulating cards used by its machines. Since 1932, it has invested heavily in this area and is represented on the Board of Bull by Jacques Callies. The threat of the company being absorbed into IBM worries Aussedat, because IBM requires its customers to buy their punch cards exclusively from them.

Just as it is vital to prevent General Motors from buying Citroën, it is essential that the Compagnie des Machines Bull doesn’t fall into American hands. And because the State is still not responding, the Callies family decides to increase its financial stake in the company. It takes over the leadership of the company, in the person of former Board member Jacques Callies, who is appointed as Managing Director of Bull in December 1935, and subsequently becomes the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO). This is a role which he holds until his death in November 1948, when he will be succeeded by his brother Joseph, an engineer at the Aussedat stationary company and then at CMB. The team that will animate and ensure the company’s expansion for almost three decades is now in place. As is the family-owned capital structure that will manage the company right through until 1964 (with the Callies holding 55% of the shares), and the spirit that will come to characterize the Group: the belief that every employee is important, social paternalism, the determination to be the best, and intense consideration for customers.

1936: The company now employs 200 people. With the development, in 1938, of the technique of independent cycles – which allows specific processing cycles to be run in a flexible and optimum way, using removable connection panels – Bull’s electromechanical calculators are greatly improved and gradually establish themselves as market leaders. Its various machines enable thousands of data items recorded on punch cards to be read, sorted, used in accounting and printed. These cards will be in use, with the introduction of electronics, right through until the early 1980s. The need to enter data onto the cards spawns a whole new job role, which has since disappeared, that of the keypunch operator (more usually known just as an ‘operator’).

(BS 120 tabulating machine)

1939: The BS120 tabulating machine is designed, featuring independent cycles, which will be one of the main factors in Bull’s expansion over the next 20 years.

From 1947 the export business, which had been interrupted by World War II, takes off again dynamically. Over the next 15 years, Bull’s international network will expand considerably to become one of the company’s greatest strengths. So in 1942 in Belgium, for instance, SOMECA – which had represented Bull AG in 1930 – becomes the Société belge des machines Bull. In Switzerland Endrich AG, which had also been one of Bull’s partners since 1930, becomes a subsidiary under the name Bull Lochkartenmaschinen AG. In 1949, an agreement with Olivetti is concluded to create a distribution company in Italy: known as Olivetti-Bull. Over the next forty years Bull will become well established in the Netherlands, Germany and South America.

1948: Bull overtakes IBM in the French market, with a total installed base of 385 machines: over the course of the next 16 years that figure will be grow ten-fold. This will largely be down to organic growth, thanks to Bull’s efforts in product and sales development. Certain of the company’s sub-contractors will also be absorbed into Bull. This period marks not only the high-point of the market for mechanical tabulation machines, but also a time when Bull, in common with its competitors, will gradually start to convert to electronic systems.

(Gamma 3)

(Typical electronic tubes used in Gamma 3)

1951: The start of an even more intrepid adventure in information technology. At the third SICOB exhibition in Paris (focused on industry and commercial offices) Bull unveils Gamma 3, its first electronic calculator. Linked to automated readers and printing machines, it enables calculations to be performed much faster. A technical and commercial success, Gamma 3 becomes the industry benchmark and heralds the decline of mechanical tabulation and the dawn of the computer age. The computer is programmed with a simple sequence of operations, wired manually using tiny electrical plugs inserted into numbered sockets, to access the machine’s basic functions. It will be followed by Gamma 3 B, featuring a ‘magnetic drum’, which is not only used for business purposes but also for scientific computing; with the drum holding both programs and intermediary data. This creates a fast computing device that can carry out both accounting and scientific operations on behalf of the punch card machine (the BS 120 tabulator) to which it is connected. Capable of 5,800 operations a second, it carries out calculations in the interval between reading two consecutive cards, enabling the machine to run at its rated speed of 150 cards a minute. Its main technical innovation is the intensive use of germanium crystal diodes (a technological first): the Gamma 3 uses no more than 400 electronic tubes compared with the 1,500 found in similar machines, which results in lower manufacturing costs and much better reliability.

1952: The company now employs around 2,200 people.
In 1956, the Soviet market opens up to CMB products, and in 1960 Bull first enters the market in the People’s Republic of China.
In 1957, Bull develops the CMC-7 font (Caractères Magnétiques Codés à 7 bâtonnets) for magnetic ink character recognition still in use today, most notably in the processing of some bank cheques.

(Gamma 60)

1960: Bull launches Gamma 3’s ‘big brother’, Gamma 60: the world’s first multi-tasking computer, featuring a logical architecture that is ten years ahead of its time (it is 20 times faster than Gamma 3 and much more powerful thanks to its multi-tasking capabilities). Data is initially input using 80-column punch cards, at a speed of 300 cards a minute, and subsequently stored on magnetic tapes or drums. The development of Gamma 60 leads Bull to design an embryonic operating system (OS). It marks the emergence of the world of IT specialists, with their large air-conditioned computer suites and new job roles: programmers, analysts... And it foreshadows the massive systems that will gradually become the norm over the next thirty years. Gamma 60 can be seen as the direct ancestor of the Tera 100 supercomputer. Around fifteen Gamma 60s will be sold to prestigious customers including SNCF, EDF, Mitsubishi and the CEA (CEA: the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission).

At the same time, Bull is successfully marketing Gamma 10 – which it has designed as the real successor to Gamma 3 – and Gamma 30, which is sold under OEM license, as Siemens and ICL are also doing at the time. The last Gamma 60 in Europe will be retired from service in 1974.

(Gymnastics relaxation)

In 1960, Bull introduces rest breaks with gymnastic exercises at its keypunch pools; a practice that will spread to Japan.

(Gamma 10)

1962: The Gamma 10 – the real successor to Gamma 3 and the last representative of the mechanical punch card generation – is launched. Designed primarily for business applications, it uses second-generation large-scale computer technologies. In 1962 a commercial agreement is signed with Mitsubishi to become the exclusive distributor of Bull hardware in the Japanese market. The firm also buys a Gamma 60 and then several Gamma 10s.

1962-1982: international alliances

1962: CMB becomes the 17th largest company quoted on the French stock exchange. This performance is due to two major assets: a product range that is well suited to its customers’ needs (in accounting/business management and scientific computing), and the implementation of highly effective training, technical support and maintenance services. These are usually included in the cost of leasing the machine; very few are actually sold to end customers.

1963: By the end of 1963, the company has a presence in 46 countries and exports 60% of its production. Among information processing manufacturers, Bull features in the second division worldwide and the first division in Europe, with a third of the French market and 10% of the European market. This rapid growth requires major investments both in terms of funding locations and researching new products and technologies: the move towards electronics, expanding product ranges, etc. In 1964, the French government authorizes a take-over by the American group General Electric and the company becomes Bull General Electric. The role of the new group is to design and manufacture medium-sized computers and peripherals. From now on, Bull’s history is being written on both sides of the Atlantic. General Electric’s contribution has a determining role on the company’s financial control, management, organization, and on the research teams and commercial strategy. In particular, GE brings in its expertise in high-end systems, especially the multi-processors used for critical applications, including the Gamma 60 in its catalogue. From this year onwards, both General Electric and CMB computers are sold. In July 1969, two Bull-GE computers are used to control the vital organs of Saturn V, which carries the astronauts of Apollo XI to take their first steps on the Moon. In France, the launch of the Plan Calcul (the Computing Plan) in 1966 raises awareness of the issue of sovereignty in IT, leading to the creation of CII (Compagnie Internationale Informatique, the International Computer Company). In 1967, General Electric increases its stake in the company to 66%.

1970: Bull General Electric – whose shareholders are Compagnie des Machines Bull and General Electric – becomes a holding company. But also that year, General Electric decides not to continue its IT activities and sells them to another American company, Honeywell. Bull GE becomes Honeywell-Bull.

(Micral N)

1973: In 1973 R2E, soon to be bought out by Bull, designs the world’s first microcomputer; the Micral-N. Based on a business-oriented microprocessor, the Intel 8008, it heralds the arrival of computers in small businesses and homes. It also marks the start of a collaboration with Intel that is to become a very regular occurrence.

(The Series 60)

(‘Make the change, to creative IT’)

1974: With the Series 60, Honeywell-Bull offers a comprehensive family of computers based on its GCOS operating system, from minis to mainframes. The products are designed and manufactured either in the USA (the 66 in Phoenix, AZ, and the Mini 6 in Boston, MA) or Europe (the 62 in Pregnana, Italy, and the 62 and 64 in Paris). NEC takes a license for the latter, and derives its benchmark range from it. Even though these products are successful, it is nonetheless true that the multitude of research labs in the company holds back the sharing of developments and introduces extra costs. The products themselves are used not only by big companies and government, but also by businesses who at the time are just SMEs. In these situations, particularly, the applications running on them play a decisive role in meeting the customers’ objectives. An ad campaign at the time, which talks about ‘creative IT’, reflects this: and Bull gets its customers, including fashion house Charles Jourdan, furniture company Knoll, electrical retailer SEB and Jacques Borel’s roadside restaurants in France, to talk about why they have chosen Bull. Partnerships with those developing applications, at that time mainly IT services companies, take on significant proportions and require major investment.

1976: The French government decides to bring together Honeywell Bull with CII (the Compagnie Internationale Informatique, which it had set up in 1966). It chooses a tree as the symbol of this new union, because it represents the future and the growth of Bull and of its customers. The tree is a universal symbol of knowledge, growth and vitality.

(DSA)

Once again the majority shareholder of the new company – known as CII Honeywell Bull – is French (CBM holds 53% of the capital). Revenues double in just four years, but the problem of funding growth does not go away and the business suffers from under-capitalization. When it comes to research costs, two new product lines have to be brought into line with the four mentioned earlier. An ambitious program is established to do this; the most significant output being the DSA network architecture.

1979: Saint-Gobain takes a stake in CMB, becoming the biggest shareholder the following year. To speed up technological progress, CII Honeywell Bull sets up a ‘Research Center’ and intensifies its co-operation with the academic world in France and elsewhere.

(CP8 card)

This year sees the first sales of the CP8 card, ‘the first micro-processor card’. This so-called ‘smart card’ (as distinct from simple memory cards like those used in pay telephone kiosks) is designed for payments systems applications, access control, carrying data and more. As well as this card, Bull will gradually offer complete solutions covering everything from payment terminals to secure transactional systems. This flourishing business will eventually be sold 20 years later.

Also in 1979, CII Honeywell Bull launches DSA (Distributed Systems Architecture), its network architecture. The age of computer networks is here.
DSA is a collection of conventions and protocols that allow systems and terminals to connect with each other, via public or private transmission networks. By letting Bull machines start to exchange data with each other from the four corners of the globe, DSA symbolizes the start of a process where the telecommunications and computing worlds increasingly merge. Based on protocols standardized by ISO (the International Standards Organization), this is the forerunner of the world of ‘open architecture’; an area where Bull will go on to develop advanced skills. In May 1981, a team from Bull provides the computerized forecasts for the results of the French presidential election. For the first time, they are able to show a scanned image of the eventual winner François Mitterrand, directly on the screen

1982-1990: operating on a global scale

1982: The French State takes the majority stake in Compagnie des Machines Bull. As a center of excellence in the growth of the French IT industry, the company sees its skills in mini-computing strengthened when CII Honeywell Bull is brought together with SEMS (a subsidiary of the Thomson group), DAP (Thomson’s computer peripherals business) and Transac (the IT and office automation company from the Alcatel group). Building a new group around CMB enables CII Honeywell Bull to recover and grow.
That same year, a new team led by Jacques Stern and Francis Lorentz implements a policy of external growth and significant investments in R&D, manufacturing facilities, quality and the sales force.

1983: The name Bull is chosen. Fifty years of effort and progress have enabled the company to establish the necessary alliances, protect its skill-base, enrich its workforce with many experiences and maintain the vision of developing an autonomous European IT industry capable of succeeding in global markets.

1984: French President François Mitterrand visits Bull on 2 May 1984 to celebrate the 1000th DPS7 coming off the production line. Five years previously the computer – part of the DPS range – had replaced the 64 model from the Series 60 range, with great commercial success. Bull, which had once again become a French company in 1976, is now the European leader in IT and office automation, and in 1985 it implements a three-pronged strategy based around:

A distributed IT offering for users (workstations, departmental servers, access IT systems)
A solutions offering (taking a sector-specific approach in conjunction with IT services companies, openness to the IT world, related services)
Technological and forward-looking co-operation (European research programs, global agreements on hi-tech products).

n 1988, Bull launched its DPS7 offering using CMOS technology two years ahead of its competitors. In 1991, the high-end chip in this range is more dense than the one developed by Intel for its own processors; not until the advent of Itanium would Bull’s chips be surpassed by those of the major manufacturers. But sales volume does not automatically follow; often because of the application offering that is increasingly focused around IBM and Unix architectures. Also, the huge sales of PCs that vendors can deliver for their CPU suppliers ensures an unrivalled funding stream to finance subsequent generations of processors.

1987: Following Honeywell’s decision to withdraw from the IT market, Bull buys back the business activities of its American partner, Honeywell Information Systems. These are now delivered through a new company, Honeywell Bull Inc. headquartered in Minneapolis, MN, and owned jointly by Bull (42.5%), Honeywell (42.5%) and NEC (15%). Bull takes overall control in 1988. The same goes for American PC manufacturer Zenith Data Systems, in 1989. Alongside these acquisitions, Bull is engaged in a policy of intensive co-operation with many businesses, public and private sector institutions (both at a European and global level) focused on products, processes and the development of international standards.
During these years, Bull and Honeywell gradually move away from the manufacture of disk peripherals, then tapes and finally printers. These standardized devices are now bought from specialist suppliers who, little by little, will come to supply the entire IT industry, even including IBM. Bull Belfort closes in 1991.

1990: A co-operation is established with the Videoton group, that takes Bull into the Hungarian and Eastern European markets. Similar collaborations are initiated in India and Brazil, although they do not have a massive impact on revenues.

1991-1997: new shareholders, privatization and fundamental changes to Bull's offerings and organization

1991: Shares in CMB are made available to France Telecom and NEC.
In 1991, Bull starts to review its expansion strategy and lower its ambitions. The market for GCOS systems is starting to decline, because of continued high development costs and the restriction of commercial efforts to the installed base.

‘Open systems’ prove to be a disappointment, as customers now have little or no reason to stay loyal to the same supplier. An attempt to revive a ‘mainframe economy’ based on open systems is tried with the Sagister program, which performs well below expectations.

Bull decides to join forces with a partner in the IT industry for a collaboration based around Unix systems. Having explored all the options (including Intel, Digital Equipment and smaller companies), the final choice is made: IBM, which has more reasons than most to respect Bull’s independence.

1992: Bull needs to choose an architecture for its Unix systems that offers the best possible options in terms of scalability and partnerships. The company adopts the PowerPC architecture (common to IBM and Motorola): a multi-processor destined to be sold by both IBM and Bull, and the subject of a technical co-operation in the software field, based at Grenoble. Under this agreement, IBM takes a 4.5% stake in Bull.

1994: The French government and France Telecom recapitalize Bull, with the aim of achieving a viable recovery that will enable the company to be privatized in the future.

1995: The State reduces its stake in Bull as its shares are made more freely available and a sustainable base of industrial shareholders is established, in line with the Group’s development plans and its business expertise. Shareholders with a stake in Bull now include Motorola (17%), Dai Nippon Printing (DNP 3.3%) and Bull employees (4%). The government retains 37% (compared with 79.6% previously).

1997: The public sector element of Bull’s shareholdings falls below the 50% barrier in February of this year (with the French State now holding 30.5% and France Telecom 18.5%), leaving the majority of capital to be held by private investors, industrial shareholders and staff. This strategy enables Bull to focus its efforts on high added-value sectors where its skills are recognized and in demand, and to work with its partners in the IT industry to offer global solutions to its customers.

Full privatization is complete with the public offering of the company’s shares in April 1997. This step sees the State’s holding reduced to 17.3%, France Telecom, Motorola and NEC take their holdings to 17.7%, DNP holds 5.5%, with floating capital (held by institutional and individual investors and staff) standing at 24%.

In September Guy de Panafieu is appointed as Group Chairman and CEO. Maintaining Bull’s most profitable traditional activities and developing future areas for growth are the priorities expressed in the 2002 Strategic Plan. Bull decides to focus its efforts on security software, systems administration and networks, micro-processor cards and e-commerce. The Group also develops its skills in services, in the systems integration, outsourcing, networked IT, Internet and intranet areas… all fast-growing markets. But the cost of these somewhat delayed adaptations outstrips the Group’s ability to finance them from its own reserves, and the company cannot attain the critical mass it needs to be profitable.

(The NovaScale family of servers)

In terms of its offerings, Bull’s ambitions to be a player in the software industry are gradually and considerably curtailed. Bull recognizes that the Linux operating system and the Internet (in terms of networks) will be unavoidable. At the same time, when it comes to processors Bull gradually scales down the development of its PowerPC offering to move towards Intel. In the entry-level market, its alliance with NEC enables it to sell x86 machines. At the premium end of the market, Bull is preparing Itanium-based machines, developing what is now the NovaScale range. Bull has also developed a series of emulators of its GCOS systems for this product range, to avoid bearing the hardware costs of two remaining proprietary product lines.
The NovaScale range also earns Bull a unique position in Europe, in the highly competitive area of supercomputers (with Tera 10).

All this means Bull has to learn new skills and build new alliances, without leaving its traditional business activities behind. During this period, Bull’s research is refocused around redeploying mid-range and high-end DPS architectures around standard Intel processors. Also at this time, research work leads to the first multi-processor clusters (with up to 16 processors) which form the basis of today’s HPC interconnects, as well as the creation of ‘practices’ targeting certain key customer business activities, thanks to agreements with major software package suppliers

Focus on innovation

Since the early 1990s, the Group has undergone several restructurings, the most recent of them in 2004, driven by the then CEO Pierre Bonelli, which involves a €400 million recapitalization supported by the French government.

By early 1999, Bull employs just over 20,000 people. By the end of 2001, the company’s staff numbers just 10,000.

2000: Always keen to help its customers to take advantage of the opportunities offered by technology, Bull sets out to help them be part of the ‘new economy’. Its ‘Network of confidence’ campaign perfect illustrates its proposed approach: to update IT infrastructures and transform processes to become part of the network and make the most of its potential, whilst also focusing on security. Bull has already understood that trust will be a cornerstone of the still-emerging digital society.

2001: The Group sells its smart-card business to Schlumberger, and it will eventually trade under the name Gemalto. It also sells its European services activities (except in France) to Steria.
In terms of its offerings, Bull confirms its innovative commitment to open technologies, which leads to the establishment of the world’s first consortium dedicated to Open Source infrastructure software – ObjectWeb (now OW2) – and the launch of a new generation of open servers for commercial and scientific applications, NovaScale, in 2003.

2004: Bull wins an order for a supercomputer, from the computer simulation department at CEA/DAM, the Military Applications Directorate at the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Authority.

2005: Emerging triumphant from a complex period of restructuring, the Bull Group becomes aware that its image is not what it should be, and decides to take the stage once again to mark its rebirth. A new logo and a powerful strapline – Architect of an Open World – define the scope of its operations and the gradual restructuring of its offerings around innovative products and solutions: NovaScale, globull, mobull, bullx, bullion, biodatacenter… all strengthen its position as a European leader in mission-critical digital systems.

Video 'Bull - New Logo':

A global services offering is launched, enabling the design, build and operation of critical enterprise applications drawing on all the rich functionality available from Open Source software. The signing of world-class contracts affirms the success of this strategy, as well as the Group’s continued technological and commercial potential.

In March 2005, the French government sells its remaining stake in Bull. France Telecom remains the largest shareholder.

November 2005: Tera 10, CEA/DAM’s supercomputer, is delivered: a cluster of 544 NovaScale processing nodes, each with eight new-generation dual-core Intel® Itanium® 2 processors. The system represents the combined power of 4,532 dual-core processors and 30 Terabytes of central memory. Actual performance, measured using 4,000 processors, is 42.9 Teraflops, demonstrating the extraordinary efficiency of the infrastructure chosen for Tera 10.

2006 is a year of transformation for the Group, featuring some major advances, especially in High-Performance Computing (HPC), telecommunications and services.

Bull’s transformation continues in 2007 with a number of targeted acquisitions – especially the Spanish services company Siconet and, in France, Serviware the leading HPC solutions integrator.

Also in 2007, Bull launches its 7i program: seven initiatives to help organizations capitalize on the potential of an open world. Combining the best in services and open technologies, Bull’s aim is to help businesses ensure that their information systems actually drive the creation of value in a connected world, by facilitating growth, competitiveness and sovereignty.

The Group’s path towards transformation continues in 2008, as it develops its future activities, in particular with the acquisition of Belgian IT services company CSB Consulting and science+computing in Germany, the leader in HPC services and solutions.

Bull now employs around 7,800 people and is once again hiring significant numbers (1,000 in 2008), which brings the total to 8,850 by 2009.

In 2009 Bull confirms its position as a major European player in the digital economy with the launch of a number of major innovations: bullx (voted the world’s best supercomputer), mobull (a revolution in data center provision), and very large-scale projects including the infrastructure for Chorus (the French State financial system), a supercomputer for the Jülich Research Center in Germany, the hosting and operation of the French government’s public services portal mon.service-public.fr and many more. Revenues for 2009 reach €1.1 billion, 52% generated in France.

(Tera 100)

2010 sees Bull take on a whole new dimension, with significant advances – especially the complete overhaul of its ranges of servers for High-Performance Computing, large-scale Windows/Linux systems and mainframes – massive achievements such as the delivery of Tera 100 (Europe’s largest supercomputer), the launch of an innovative HPC-on-demand offering (extreme factory) and the acquisition of Amesys, a European leader in security and critical systems.

November 2010: The Tera 100 supercomputer at the CEA is ranked number 6 in the world delivering 1.05 Petaflops against the Linpack benchmark and theoretical peak performance of 1.25 Petaflops. The very first European computer to break the highly symbolic Petaflops barrier, it consists of 4,370 bullx servers with a total of 17,480 eight-core Intel Xeon 7500 processors (a total of almost 140,000 cores).

The Group records revenues of €1.25 billion, 56.3% of this in France, and now operates in 50 countries, in every continent worldwide, and employs 8,750 people.

The BullWay 2011-2013 strategic plan, launched at the end of 2010 by its new Chairman and CEO Philippe Vannier, aims to position Bull as European leader in mission-critical digital systems within three years, and to establish the Group on the path to sustainable and profitable growth.

Bull and CA Technologies Form a Strategic Alliance

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 21:01:40 GMT

Bull and CA Technologies Form a Strategic Alliance

Companies to Help Large Enterprises Convert Their Heterogeneous IT Infrastructures to Private Clouds

Issy-les-Moulineaux, France and Islandia, N.Y., September 20, 2011 -

Bull and CA Technologies (NASDAQ:CA) today announced a strategic alliance to help large enterprises transform their heterogeneous IT infrastructures into private clouds.

The alliance is based on several technology synergies including a distribution agreement covering CA Technologies Virtualization Management and Service Automation solution portfolio: CA Automation Suite for Data Centers, an integrated solution for automated data center management that supports a variety of computing environments, including Windows®, Linux®, AIX® and other types of UNIX.

By delivering value-added consulting and integration services based upon CA Technologies solutions for service automation and service level agreement (SLA) management, this alliance will allow both companies to help customers to drive efficiencies in their IT infrastructures and streamline architecture silos - whilst automating most of their IT management processes.

Furthermore, Bull and CA Technologies will continue their existing collaboration on contractual service level management - a critical challenge when migrating to cloud services. Bull has a proven track record and years of expertise in the successful deployment of CA Business Service Insight, formerly known as Oblicore Guarantee.

After realizing immediate benefits from server consolidation and silo integration, many enterprises face new issues related to operational complexities, such as virtual sprawl, virtual stall, capacity optimization and increasing operational costs. The combination of CA Technologies solutions and Bull's integration services is essential to make virtualized architectures more flexible and introduce a new dynamic infrastructure within the enterprise in order to improve IT productivity and the way IT resources are used.

Bull Advisory Services provide customers with an infrastructure assessment and analysis to determine opportunities that may be addressed by the cloud model. Following an assessment, Bull provides recommendations ranging from a set of services, to a new reference architecture, and an ROI model for the solution.

The implementation of this reference architecture may include CA Automation Suite for Data Centers, which features the following capabilities: process automation, orchestration, provisioning standardization, configuration management, charge-back/accounting management and resource management, as well as CA Business Service Insight for contractual service level management. Bull's professional services and expertise offer customers the support needed to integrate and leverage new solutions.

This deployment path helps customers to ensure a smooth and controlled transition to private clouds by extending their data center capacities, while fully leveraging existing infrastructures and bringing a full service catalogue to the business.

"CA Technologies is proud to work with Bull as we help customers improve their business agility by taking advantage of data center consolidation and private cloud architectures. With Bull's knowledge and expertise in the deployment of agile datacenters, and our broad-ranging and robust technology, customers can focus energies on winning in the marketplace instead of how to best optimize their IT investment," said Roger Pilc, general manager, Virtualization and Automation, CA Technologies.

"Many Bull customers have already started to streamline their IT infrastructure using virtualization technologies for Windows®, Linux® and AIX®. To improve productivity, they must now deploy service repositories and automate processes on a larger scale," said Philippe Miltin, Executive Vice President, Computing Solutions Business Line at Bull. "Our technical teams selected CA Technologies because it meets the exact management requirements of our largest customers for their critical, heterogeneous datacenters.

As part of the alliance, CA Technologies will provide Bull with the technical, sales and marketing support needed to achieve successful implementation of the solutions. Accordingly, both R&D teams will work closely together and technical experts will take part in training, technical support, pre-sales and other common initiatives.

About CA Technologies

CA Technologies (NASDAQ: CA) is an IT management software and solutions company with expertise across all IT environments - from mainframe and distributed, to virtual and cloud. CA Technologies manages and secures IT environments and enables customers to deliver more flexible IT services. CA Technologies innovative products and services provide the insight and control essential for IT organizations to power business agility. The majority of the Global Fortune 500 relies on CA Technologies to manage evolving IT ecosystems. For additional information, visit CA Technologies at www.ca.com.

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About Bull, Architect of an Open World

Bull is an Information Technology company, dedicated to helping Corporations and Public Sector organizations optimize the architecture, operations and the financial return of their Information Systems and their mission-critical related businesses.

Bull focuses on open and secure systems, and as such is the only European-based company offering expertise in all the key elements of the IT value chain.

For more information visit: http://www.bullservices.com

Bull on Linkedin

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 23:01:20 GMT

Check out our new groups on

http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=4104583&trk=myg_ugrp_ovr

and

http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=4104609&trk=myg_ugrp_ovr

Bull wins the 2012 VMware EMEA Partner of the Year award

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 17:19:00 GMT

Bull wins the 2012 VMware EMEA Partner of the Year award

Bull has just received the VMware " Best EMEA Partner Award". This is the result of business that was multiplied tenfold in the last 2 years between Bull and VMware combined with the successful introduction of novascale bullion, designed by Bull’s experts in collaboration with VMware to virtualize business critical applications. Thanks to this success, Bull is now a member of the VMware Global Alliance Program, the highest level of partnership with VMware.

More information >>

Disaster preparedness

Wed, 15 Jun 2011 16:56:37 GMT

There seems to always be a lot of talk about disaster preparedness after a disaster occurs. The recent floods in the South East, and Tornados in the Midwest are a not to subtle remainder that disaster can strike a business no matter were you are located. The issue is that in a disaster country until after they have issue at a pair of days don't always think the whole process through from beginning to end. Most smaller companies that have a disaster recovery plan where they think they have a disaster recovery plan basis on the back up that they do on their servers nightly and then store them on top of the server in the same cabinet with the server which is great as long as they don't catch on fire with the other components that are in the server area and even those who take me take home what happens when the server is off catches on fire or is flooded out how do you restore the tapes and get the business back business recently I was lucky enough to be part of a seminar put on by MHA consulting the focus is on business continuity and they have a caller business continuity process that has the three steps including crisis management business recovery IT disaster recovery planning.

In the event of data loss, could you be penalized?

Mon, 11 Jul 2011 21:23:53 GMT

In the event of data loss, could you be penalized?

Data retention requirements in certain businesses are vital. There are real statutory requirements, so the preservation of information is especially critical in fields such as medicine, insurance, and even general commercial business.

One could say, yeah, you lose an invoice; well that's your loss, sorry. But in arenas where data is protected, there are some very real requirements for reliability. If you lose data, there’s a risk to your corporation, not just from a perspective of professional responsibility – but potential penalties.

These are the broader-based issues you have to look at as a businessperson. If you don't have a recovery strategy, you can be deemed professionally irresponsible by regulatory agencies.

Have you really thought about the broader risks, not just your revenue stream, but also the potential penalty areas? If you haven’t, it's something you need to contemplate.

When we talk about disaster recovery and data retention in this context, the better and more timely your disaster recovery methodology or that the investment in your methodology is proven, the lower the probability of the risk of data loss. It has real consequences if and when it occurs.

Some companies say, ‘Hey, I'll go back to last week's full‑system backup. I'll restore it. And I'll reprocess all my transactions.’ Well, some companies have completely accessible and acceptable data if they’d retained hard copies of what the transaction initiation sequence is. But in their methodology, they have to validate they have a way of recapturing the data.

So, coming at it from a business responsibility – not from an information management or a technology cost – what do you owe your customers and your regulators? And how do you assure them that you've taken the prudent and professional approach to protecting your company, and your client data?

I think that's an interesting swing on things, from a data availability perspective.

Reasons for wanting or understanding that some recovery assessment is needed.

Mon, 01 Aug 2011 22:08:42 GMT

Reasons for wanting or understanding that some recovery assessment is needed.

The risk assessment is needed to help you figure out, "Do I really want to expend the resources to attack?" or "Are there voids, and do I really want to spend the resources to correct them?" The fundamental questions in a recovery assessment are, "From what? To where?" and "How quickly?"

some people may say nothing. Some people may say, "I can have zero disruption." Well that leads to a different architectural assessment that says, "How are you protecting yourself against that today?" You know, if they've already made the investment in completely redundant and data replication infrastructure, then they're in great shape, period. They don't need DR. They have it. It's inherent to their architecture.

You need to ask yourself the questions "From what?" and "To where?" You know, you've got to understand your starting point. It's really blocking and tackling 101. Do you know what you got? Do you know what you would do if it didn't work? Then you have a specific plan for the myriad of options that can cause it not to work? Is it logical, or is it physical? Is it the system, the hardware platform, the application services, or is it the site?

When everyone thinks about disaster recovery, they think about site. Well, what about from data security? What if you have an irate employee who has access to the database, and goes in, and corrupts it?

Virtualization Lesson #2: The Sorcerer's Apprentice

Fri, 14 Oct 2011 15:00:00 GMT

Virtualization Lesson #2: The Sorcerer's Apprentice

There's a downside to virtualization. It’s easy to look at the great virtualization tool in the cloud and consider it the magic solution for data consolidation, centralization and cost-savings. But, it really provides only one solution: making information easier to manage or provision.

But, just because you’ve consolidated and centralized, the complexity doesn't disappear. In virtualization, every time you cut something in two, it splits in two again. In any situation, it’s difficult to control the management of 60 items.

So, like the Mickey Mouse character in Disney’s The Sorceror’s Apprentice, a lay IT guy who sees an opportunity and figures he can quickly replicate many items and consolidate the work, will most likely succeeded in creating only chaos.

The solution is to put in place a “wizard” who understands virtualization is a complex process. You need an IT pro who understands the components and the steps needed to keep everything under control and running smoothly, someone to manage all the necessary and correct layers of security, software, licenses, and more.

The moral? If you just approach virtualization like a Sorcerer’s Apprentice, things can get out of control quickly. With a wizard in tight control, virtualization can provide an organization with solid cost savings.

What experience have you had with using virtualization? Can you share any tips about keeping it under control?

Virtualization Unmasked: The Ugly, the Bad and the Good

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 21:45:56 GMT

Virtualization Unmasked: The Ugly, the Bad and the Good

Be wary of virtualization. To make it truly cost effective, you must not ignore hidden costs and limitations, masked by the numerous benefits touted by providers.

The Ugly

You’ve probably heard virtualization is the most effective way to produce savings on business IT expenditures. While this maybe true in some cases, you really need to consider all the costs applicable to each virtual machine (VM). Have you thought, for example, that every time you spin up a VM you still must pay licensing fees for all the software layers located on that image? And, not only for the application software, but for vulnerability software, security software, and all the other tools supporting each image.

Bad

It is true that some savings is available by combining services, such as setting up network vulnerability in a single position servicing all of the underlying VMs. But, ultimately, if you're running an active process like a mail exchange environment, it does require its own antiviral protective layer.

Technically, as a capacity provisioning and management tool, virtualization might have some cost savings as well. One or two really knowledgeable techs can now support literally hundreds of virtual images according to most hardware providers’ strategies. They’ll tell you, if you can run 100–200 images on a single box, you have space/power savings. But, is this true if you’re considering all the hidden costs?

Good

Where virtualization pays real dividends is when your business model depends on rapid platform replication, as in the virtual world of SaaS. VMs can be spun up very fast and stopped just as easily.

Everybody wants software as a service (SaaS), which may be more correctly called “solution as a service” since that's what you want. You’re in search of something to solve your problem without having to take on all the other issues like infrastructure, software licensing, and subject matter expertise. Plus, you’re happy because your cost per seat stays low even though the software provider makes no performance commitments, other than making this application available to you the vast majority of the time.

This is where the SaaS guys play, since they only offer limited functionality. When you want to use their product in a better way, they provide forums on how people are using it. Or, they provide access to their certified consultants who, under contract, help you tune and tweak within their framework. All of a sudden, you only buy what you need as you feel you need to change.

What issues have you experienced with virtualization… ugly, bad or good?

Why do you need a recovery strategy in place?

Thu, 23 Jun 2011 14:57:47 GMT

Why do you need a recovery strategy in place?

Everybody talks about disaster recovery, but what really constitutes a disaster to you or your business? Can it be somewhat subjective? I mean a huge overlap from business one to business two to business three. But when you really look at the issues surrounding how long can my systems be down before I'm truly impacting my business? A completely, legitimate DR strategy can just be an assessment and a set of manual procedures in place, pre‑placed that says I thought about it, I thought about how I'd do it, I'd do it this way and if the event occurs and I need to invoke it, I'm not making it up on the fly. That's really what DR is.

But, there are many kinds of disasters or many reasons to need to recover. You have to come to grips, you as a business owner have to come to grips with, what is my motivator to make me invest? Because at some point, you're going to have to invest. You have to invest in your own decision making cycle and then there will be ultimately be a potential investment in time and materials, which is money, which is cost. So the conundrum that we all face... I like the term conundrum because there's no one right answer for every situation. The conundrum is if I had to graph a couple of paradigms and I'd put time scale on the X‑axis of a graph, the costs on the Y‑axis and I graphed two opportunities. First the potential for data loss could be an inverted curve starting at the origin and slightly trailing off.

So the more cost I have spent... I'm sorry, coming downward. The more cost I've spent in technology to minimize the amount of time to recovery, the less probability there is data loss. Then one can say, what's data loss? Well, in‑flight transactions or no data lost, which requires a certain amount of technology redundancy site‑to‑site and replication software and all those other things.

So you have to first make the determination. How long can I be down? If it's zero, then you'd better be thinking about cost. If it's I can be down for some manageable period of time, then I can use a lower technology methodology for my DR recovery or my recovery in general.

So that's the conundrum. Everybody wants to spend zero and everybody wants the zero data loss, but that's an unachievable goal. So it becomes an insurance plan, and it shouldn't only be looked at as insurance, but it always is. That's the tangible cost of conducting business and profitability and all that other happy foo‑foo stuff.