After rebirth, I became a great master

Chapter 260 Education is the Long-Term Solution
After it was over, it was really scary.

They're not armed police on guard anymore.

He is a sentry.

Holding a gun really looks impressive.

Zhou Haoran couldn't get in, so Director Dou ran out to meet him. After going through three procedures, he was finally able to enter the office building.

"Go get your credentials first, otherwise you won't be able to get in later."

Director Dou was dressed in a crisp military uniform, looking quite imposing.

"This is really strict." Zhou Haoran looked around and casually asked, "Director Dou, are you in charge here?"

"Deputy."

"A senior colonel or a deputy?"

"Financial engineering is of paramount importance."

Director Dou took him to the personnel department; the relevant documents had already been processed.

Zhou Haoran took it and looked at it.

Ho!
Red background with black lettering!
It is very imposing, and has a bit of a red blood feel to it.

This is no joke.

His grandfather was a veteran of the Fourth Field Army.

It's likely that Director Dou had already conducted a background check on him, tracing his family back three generations; otherwise, he wouldn't have brought him here so easily.

"Would you like to take a look around?"

Director Dou extended a warm invitation.

Zhou Haoran laughed and said, "Aren't you busy as a bureau chief? You're always hanging around me. I'm afraid you're wasting your time."

"My job is to provide meticulous care for the experts."

Director Dou led him on a tour of the building.

The main concern is that he might wander off.

Some rooms are for confidential purposes and should not be entered without permission.

"The former dean?"

Zhou Haoran waved from afar, never expecting to run into Cheng Dechang from the School of Computer Science here.

Dean Cheng was not surprised to see him and said with a smile, "Haoran, you've come?"

Zhou Haoran chuckled and said, "Dean, so you're also a member of the expert group!"

"This is a huge project with a wide scope, and it also involves the development of high-performance computers."

Dean Cheng is an academician whose main research area is high-performance computing.

Hearing this, Zhou Haoran frowned slightly. "Is our financial project a combination of hardware and software?"

"This is the general trend!" Dean Cheng gave him a clear answer, and said in a low voice, "The technology in our current financial system is mainly IBM equipment. From mainframes to mid-range computers, to minicomputers, and IBM systems."

Zhou Haoran said calmly, "IOE, of course!"

"Ok?"

Dean Cheng was slightly taken aback.

Zhou Haoran said, "I stands for IBM, which is IBM's server. O stands for Oracle, which is Oracle's database. E stands for EMC's storage device."

"Really? How did you know?"

Dean Cheng was somewhat surprised and looked at Director Dou.

Director Dou also seemed somewhat flustered, as if he had been exposed for a leak. "Who told you this?"

Zhou Haoran chuckled and said, "Common sense! The financial system must use the best equipment. For computing power, IBM is the best; for database products, Oracle is the strongest; and for storage devices, EMC reigns supreme. The stability of the financial system is paramount, and that's how it's done all over the world!"

Zhou Haoran, who comes from an internet background, knows this system all too well!

Because e-commerce involves transactions.

With transactions come the exchange of funds.

No room for error!

So later, domestic e-commerce platforms basically adopted the IOE architecture, and the money was all made by the Americans... Until Jack Ma, after much painful reflection, made a decisive move to develop his own technology and pushed forward the "de-IOE" strategy with a do-or-die attitude.

That's how Alibaba Cloud came into being.

The landscape of China's internet industry has been rewritten, and the days of working for the United States are over.

Dean Cheng said in a deep voice: "There are still some differences. In previous years, our country had limited foreign exchange reserves, coupled with technological restrictions from the United States. During the honeymoon period between China and Japan, we relied on the help of our Japanese counterparts to purchase a batch of Hitachi M-150 mid-range computers and L-320 minicomputers, which enabled our country's banking system to take the first step in electronic operation."

Zhou Haoran said calmly, "Those are all scraps, too many options to behold... Dean Cheng, there's a lot of junk from Europe, South Korea, and Japan. We can't just throw everything into our laps. You're a high-performance computer expert, so just keep an eye on the US."

"Ah."

Dean Cheng nodded.

“However…” Zhou Haoran gave him a meaningful look, “If we want to achieve a true great power strategy, relying on the three companies IOE will make us easy targets. I bet these three companies have wasted a huge amount of our country’s foreign exchange reserves.”

"These are the expenses of the past year."

Director Dou held up three fingers.

Zhou Haoran said, "300 billion US dollars?"

"3000 billion US dollars!" Director Dou almost choked. "That's the data I know. One mainframe costs 30 million US dollars, and they ordered 100 units!"

"Oh, not bad. I guess this is just the beginning. They're too embarrassed to ask for too much. Once our financial engineering is developed using their equipment, we won't be able to do without them, and that'll be when they start demanding exorbitant prices."

Zhou Haoran had long anticipated this, as the internet industry had experienced similar situations before. The relentless drain on resources by IOE (IBM, Oracle, EMC) as the internet's infrastructure had caused immense suffering for many internet companies. It wasn't until Jack Ma stepped in, rallied support, and called for a shift away from IOE, launching Alibaba Cloud, that the industry landscape was truly reshaped.

Unfortunately, this is just a privately owned internet company.

The national team remains the same.

The crucial financial system has been an appendage of IBM for decades, paying them billions of dollars annually in service fees alone.

To create a train ticket booking website, the first thing to do is to ask IBM for help.

The result was a complete mess.

The system crashed every day, drawing endless criticism from netizens. It wasn't until they switched to Alibaba Cloud that the convenience and advantages of online ticketing were truly realized.

Zhou Haoran is a former internet professional.

He really had a lot to say.

Dean Cheng decisively pulled him back, smiling as he said, "Come on, let me introduce you to some senior figures in the domestic computer industry. You're still young, so don't talk nonsense. Listen more, observe more, and learn more."

Under Dean Cheng's introduction, Zhou Haoran met with several industry experts.

There are four academicians among them.

He is undoubtedly the youngest.

They also have the least say.

Since ancient times, literati have looked down upon each other.

Technology is another example.

Even so, Zhou Haoran successfully joined the expert group, responsible for providing technical support for a major national financial project—the CNAPS payment system.

We are not part of the development team and are not responsible for development.

The development team encountered some difficult problems, summarized them, and asked the expert group for their opinions.

This means that the expert panel members are all on a part-time basis.

The workload is very light.

A meeting once a week is enough to provide some ideas for solutions; a few hours are sufficient.

I spend the rest of my time busy with my own things.

Zhou Haoran was somewhat discouraged.

He is lazy.

But he also had great ambitions; now that he had joined, he was bound to achieve something.

But I feel like I have no use for it.

Dean Cheng walked with him, seemingly noticing something, and asked with a smile, "You have an idea?"

Zhou Haoran said, "The financial systems being developed now are all based on IBM's mainframes, operating systems, and software services, which means that our lifeline is in someone else's hands."

"There's nothing we can do about it. Domestically produced PCs are far from adequate in terms of both performance and stability."

This is Dean Cheng's main focus.

Zhou Haoran sighed, "Open x86 architecture servers are the future. IBM's mainframes (servers) can only be paired with IBM's operating system services. This closed design of integrated hardware and software will inevitably breed strong monopolies. The potential risks in the future are too great."

"Huh?" Dean Cheng couldn't help but chuckle. "You know about high-performance PCs too?"

Zhou Haoran said calmly, "Dean, high performance is actually unnecessary. The current industry direction has been skewed by IBM! Strength in numbers is our guiding principle!"

"You're all set."

Dean Cheng felt that this kid was spouting nonsense again.

Zhou Haoran gave an example: "A strongman can move a ton of stones at once, and his salary is 10,000. A dwarf can move a pound of stones at once, and his salary is 1 yuan. Should we hire the strongman or the dwarf?"

"The more people there are, the more complicated the management becomes." Dean Cheng thought he didn't understand. "Managing one strongman is easy, but managing thousands or tens of thousands of dwarfs is too complicated."

Zhou Haoran said, "So what we lack now is a system to connect and organize the dwarves! That's the most crucial and essential thing. Our country started late and has weak technology, so it's impossible for us to make a high-performance mainframe like IBM's within the next few decades. But does it really mean that domestic mainframes are inferior? Dwarves are actually more cost-effective than Hercules."

Dean Cheng understood what he meant: "You mean that if you connect countless inferior domestic servers in parallel, the computing power provided by a single unit is not as good as IBM's. But when you add them up and calculate the total computing power and total cost, it is better than IBM's."

"Correct."

"Lack of feasibility."

"I have a theory about big data."

The idea Zhou Haoran mentioned is actually based on big data and cloud computing, which connects some low-performance and cheap little people and unleashes amazing power far exceeding that of a strongman!
This was quite beyond Dean Cheng's scope, and he said earnestly, "Haoran, you are a genius, we can all see that. Just now, Lao Zhou and Lao Qiao were saying that you have a profound understanding of computers. But you must understand, that is not your project, and that is not your company."

"Ok?"

"It's not technology that's at play there, it's power. Don't think of it as a technical project."

"Being an expert is meaningless."

Zhou Haoran felt bored.

Dean Cheng laughed and said, "How could that be? You're famous now, don't you know?"

"Ok?"

Zhou Haoran raised his eyebrows.

Dean Cheng said, "You don't need to make a huge contribution to this financial project... On the contrary, if you contribute too much and outshine the other experts, it won't be good. Be humble, learn from others, and build good relationships. When your computer textbook is reviewed by the Ministry of Education, who can compete with you?"

Zhou Haoran chuckled and said, "I'm waiting here!"

Dean Cheng, an educator, calmly stated, "Education is a long-term undertaking, and this is a genuine national strategy. A financial system is nothing; don't listen to Director Dou's nonsense. Writing good textbooks is the most important thing!"

(End of this chapter)