Turbolinux, a global provider of Linux-based solutions, today announced the signing of an agreement with the China Ministry of Railways (MOR) under which Turbolinux will provide operating systems and applications designed to centralize package delivery operation and management.

A key highlight of the contract includes the adoption of TurboHA, a high-availability server support application, developed by Turbolinux in China. This proposed implementation of Linux — the first on a massive scale by the MOR — signifies a heightened acceptance of Linux operating systems by government entities in Asia.

The package delivery system in China utilizes the postal service and rail transportation. To modernize the package delivery process, the Ministry of Railways selected Turbolinux to develop a consolidated digital infrastructure. The widely deployed Linux-based system will link package delivery facilities and the Ministry of Railway Systems computer network, and will process 95% of the total freight volume — nearly 200 million parcels annually.

Contract terms include the deployment of 300 copies of Turbolinux's Server product and TurboHA, which will be installed on 160 servers. TurboHA requires two or more servers for fail-over capability; it has dual-server monitoring capabilities and provides an immediate command-line interface in the event of a server malfunction, thereby reducing server downtime to a minimum.

The Turbolinux-designed platform enables full range tracking and package delivery management, expedites internal communication, offers upgraded security measures via password-based authentication, and provides information services to the public in an accurate and timely manner.