The Electronics Times                                                                                                                                                 Monday, February 9 2015 Page 10

               TmaxSoft Expands into China with DBMS

Through a joint venture with China’s Inspur, TmaxSoft’s DBMS will be installed on Inspur servers sold in China starting this year.

TmaxSoft expects increased sales and hiring as a result of the Chinese government’s “De-IOE” (IBM, Oracle, EMC) campaign.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             [Source: Industry Sources]

The Korean DBMS sector received a big boost in its drive to expand into the Chinese market. The Chinese government’s “De-IOE” campaign, which reflects its desire to decrease Chinese firms’ dependence on foreign software (particularly the US), has opened doors for Korean software firms to expand into the Chinese market. This is expected to increase revenue and hiring of Korean DBMS firms.

On January 8^th, according to industry sources, TmaxSoft (CEO In Soo Chang) and Inspur Information signed an agreement to establish a joint venture in China. TmaxSoft’s Tibero will supply the DBMS that will run the server and storage IT infrastructure supplied in the Chinese market.

According to the agreement, the Korean DBMS will be equipped in the servers sold by Inspur Information beginning this year. Inspur Information posted revenues of 4.9 billion yuan (approximately 785 million USD) for 2014.

TmaxSoft will supply at least 60 billion won (approximately 54.7 million USD) worth of DBMS this year through the joint venture. As TmaxSoft’s brand awareness increases over time through the verification of its DBMS performance, TmaxSoft’s revenue is set to increase rapidly.

The Chinese government has set out a plan to replace its IT infrastructure of its financial, defense, and public institutions from foreign vendors to Chinese vendors. Localization of the IT infrastructure is viewed to be strategically important for national security and has resulted in the government pulling the plug on foreign IT vendors such as IBM, Oracle, and EMC.

Inspur Group is the first company to take advantage of the Chinese government’s initiative. Inspur Group’s subsidiary, Inspur Information is ranked number 1 in sales of servers, and 5^th overall worldwide. Its product line includes servers, storage, network equipment, OS, and cloud computing solutions. However, it has been unable to find a Chinese company that can supply a DBMS that can utilize its products - enter TmaxSoft.

Since last year, TmaxSoft has focused on performance evaluations, such as benchmark testing (BMT), as well as promotions and sales in order to expand into the Chinese DBMS market. The agreement with Inspur is viewed as a result of Inspur’s desire to take advantage of the “De-IOE” campaign and TmaxSoft’s desire to expand into the overseas market.

An industry expert remarked that Inspur has pursued an aggressive business strategy to break the oligopoly of foreign IT vendors such as Oracle and IBM, and that Inspur selected a strategic partnership with TmaxSoft to create synergy between Inspur's hardware with TmaxSoft's core software. It is also widely regarded that this agreement has positively impacted the academic relationship between Korea and China, such as in database-related associations, as well the commercial relationship between the two nations.

TmaxSoft is expected to increase its investment in R&D and personnel in order to bolster its presence in China and other overseas markets. According to industry experts, TmaxSoft is expected to hire 80 to 100 employees for overseas sales and technical support.

The joint venture between TmaxSoft and Inspur is also a stepping stone for expansion into the global server market. It is forecasted that the competitive landscape of the server market previously dominated by IOE will be reshaped. An industry expert commented that with Inspur’s entry into the global server market, the competitive structure of the market will change and result in price competition. This also marks a golden opportunity for TmaxSoft, which supplies the DBMS for Inspur’s servers.

Dong Joon Kwon, djkwon@etnews.com