BULL : and the French National Fund for a Digital Society (Fonds national pour la Société Numérique) announce an investment of ?28 million in High-Performance Computing on demand

The 'NumInnov' project aims to set up an independent company, to help develop new usages for HPC and accelerate its widespread adoption

Regulatory News:

Bull (Paris:BULL) has today announced a plan to create a joint venture with Caisse des Dépôts (CDC), with ?28m of equity. The joint company will focus on delivering secured High-Performance Computing (HPC) services, as a Cloud computing service provider. CDC is a public group and a long-term investor serving France's general interest and economic development. It acts as the operator of the 'Fonds National pour la Société Numérique' (the National Fund for a Digital Society), which was established as part of the French government's economic stimulus program. CDC will contribute nearly ?10m in equity to the project.

HPC technologies are a significant driver of competitiveness and innovation, and therefore contribute to greater economic independence. The 'NumInnov' project aims to create an independent service provider specializing in HPC applications, which will operate at a European level, and to which Bull will bring all its core competencies.

"I am delighted at the launch of this project, which will have a tangible impact on the industry and the digital economy in both France and in Europe," said Philippe Vannier, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Bull. "The project will be a very powerful driver to accelerate the adoption of HPC technologies, and will trigger the development of new applications and services by large enterprises as well as SMEs. As a specialist company in critical digital systems, Bull is the only European player capable of delivering expertise in on-demand HPC within the security constraints that are critical to this project."

HPC is already an integral part of numerous processes at the heart of business (development, innovation, knowledge and risk management, regulatory compliance...), and is set to see its applications multiply in many different areas and business functions, both thanks to its own inherent developments and through the opportunities offered by Cloud computing, as well as by expanding its scope to new areas of technology such as Big Data.

The Joint Company will offer IaaS and PaaS services, also aimed at Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) acting under the banner of the 'NumInnov' project. As such, 25 ISVs, most of them SMEs, have declared their interest in the project, one of the key targets of which is to foster the development of an HPC Cloud ecosystem, involving ISVs and business service providers.

In industry and services, NumInnov will enable all players to speed up their innovation processes, for example in automotive and aerospace (modeling physical phenomena and crash simulation, optimizing aerodynamics, designing new materials), the oil and gas industry (geophysical and seismic studies, optimizing reservoir production),smart grids and energy simulation.

In healthcare, 'NumInnov' will ensure that HPC is a powerful tool for medical intelligence, when it comes to developing applications and services for medical analysis, simulating and assisting surgical procedures, creating the 'digital signature' of different diseases, and medical imaging.

In the digital content industry, 'NumInnov' will help to make the most of digital assets and to simulate the creation of multimedia content: enhanced virtual reality, the design of HD and 3D content, video games, image libraries, processing and updating of audio and video archives. 'NumInnov' will also enable the development of a new breed of content providers.

When it comes to homeland security, 'NumInnov' will help to plan for health-related, environmental and food crises, as well as to manage the natural risks relating to climate change. It may also contribute to implementing new-generation applications for video surveillance and homeland security more widely.

About Bull - www.bull.com 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 business processes. 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.

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