Source: http://www.dt.co.kr/contents.html?article_no=2015022302100960718001 (Digital Times, 2015/02/22)

Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) Selects a Korean Database Solution as Its Next Generation MDMS

n  KEPCO Chooses TmaxSoft’s Tibero over Oracle - Greater Adoption of Korean Software Expected in the Private Sector

n  Supports up to 500,000 concurrent users and real-time processing of up to 30 TB of data

Posted at: 2015-02-22 18:55

[Article on Pg. 9 of February 23rd, 2015 edition]

KEPCO, Korea's largest government-owned company with revenues of $48.5 billion and assets of $139.5 billion (as per Dec 2013), selected TmaxSoft’s Tibero DB for its next-generation meter data management system (MDMS). Until recently, database solutions used by public institutions have been dominated by those of multinational software firms. However, with KEPCO’s selection of Tibero over its foreign rivals, it is expected that the presence of Korean database solutions will increase in the Korean market. Tibero's ability to fulfill KEPCO's requirement of processing massive amounts of data in real time is expected to bolster Tibero's future sales in other business sectors.

According to industry experts, on February 22, KEPCO selected Nuri Telecom as its business partner for the “Meter Data Management System Infrastructure” project. Unlike competing bidders, Nuri Telecom submitted a bid that utilized Tibero DB instead of Oracle DB for the 5.6 billion won (~$5 million) project. This is the first time Nuri Telecom has selected Tibero as its MDMS DB of choice.

A spokesperson for Nuri Telecom said, “Until now, we have used Oracle DB, but we have determined that Tibero DB was a viable choice for this project. However, we have yet to determine that Tibero DB will be used for future projects.”

KEPCO's MDMS collects both high voltage AMI (Advanced Metering Infrastructure) and low voltage AMI data in its 14 regional branches. The maximum number of concurrent users is 500,000, and the maximum amount of data that can be processed is 30 terabytes.

KEPCO's MDMS system is its largest in terms of both data and scale. This system demands the real-time processing of massive amounts of data, and it will soon be migrated from its original Oracle DB configuration to Tibero.

While Oracle Korea and TmaxSoft did not comment on their official positions concerning the bidding on the KEPCO MDMS project; that a Korean DB was chosen over a foreign DB in a public sector long occupied by foreign vendors is widely considered a landmark event.

A local software expert stated, “The Ministry of Science, ICT, and Future Planning’s recent support for the adoption of Korean software and the improved performance of Korean software have resulted in a change of attitude. The adoption of Korean software by the public sector, long known for conservative business practices, may also lead the private sector to do the same.”

TmaxSoft's Tibero was also selected for Seoul National University of Science and Technology's bachelor degree administrative system in November of last year. With KEPCO’s adoption of Tibero, it is expected that TmaxSoft will enjoy a sizable increase in its presence in Korea’s public and education markets.

However, according to Korea Database Agent’s database market report in 2014, foreign vendors control 90% of Korea's 12.18 trillion won (~$11 billion) database market; illustrating the extraordinarily high dependence on foreign databases.

 
Hyun Geun Lee  bass007@dt.co.kr