Helping to take a bite out of crime, BEA Systems Thursday said announced today that Polizei Niedersachsen in Lower Saxony, Germany, has selected the company’s WebLogic Platform 8.1 to run communications among officers in the region.
According to company officials, the German police will use a new Java-specific component of the technology to give officers real-time access to information that can assist them in collaborative crime initiatives.
“We’ll be handling all of their mission critical data,” BEA spokesperson Patrick O’Rourke told internetnews.com. “[The German police] are using our high-tech solution to more effectively tackle crime.”
As O’Rourke explained, the move marks the second major victory for the BEA WebLogic Platform 8.1 this fall. In September, the San Jose, Calif.-based company announced an entirely separate development partnership with Salesforce.com through which the firms will work to build an enhanced, “software-as-a-service” version of the platform.
The Polizei Niedersachsen effort, set to begin by the end of the year, will run BEA WebLogic JRockit, a component of the platform specifically optimized for the Intel-based servers. This component is designed to enable Java applications to run with reliability and performance on lower-cost, standards-based platforms. At Polizei Niedersachsen, the effort will support a Red Hat Linux operating system, and will power Lower Saxony’s enterprise-class Java applications.
The effort also is designed to enable single sign-on and enhanced security using lightweight directory access protocol (LDAP) services. BEA Systems integration partner Mummert Consulting worked with the Lower Saxony police force to devise a security approach that would enable rapid deployment with minimum complexity, ensuring compatibility with federal regulations from the German FBI, known as BKA.
“This system provides proof of a complete integrated [platform] designed to satisfy all customer requirements,” noted Flath. “Design can be extended to provide further enhancements in volume, functionality and change of IT-platform.”
The deal between BEA and the German cops was a long time in the making. After a long RFP procedure, Lower Saxony selected BEA WebLogic Platform 8.1 to integrate NIVADIS, a central database that stores all the mission-critical data needed to support the work of more than 18,000 officers across the region. Previously, the police force stored information on local servers, which were not integrated and were technically complex, resulting in an exorbitant total cost of ownership.
For these two reasons alone, Polizei Niedersachsen officials said they selected BEA. In a prepared release, police director Axel Koehler touted the flexibility and cost-effectiveness of the WebLogic platform as a whole, and the WebLogic Jrockit feature specifically.
“With [all of our] officers accessing the system, we required a statewide solution that was easier to use and offered high performance, scalability and rapid response times,” Koehler said. “The ability to integrate officers across all of Lower Saxony, 24 hours a day, can make the fight against crime more efficient.”
