OceanBase Helps Sinopec Build a Next‑Gen Intelligent Fuel Card System in a Distributed Architecture
China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec) is the world's largest refining company and China's biggest supplier of refined oil and petrochemical products. A Fortune Global 500 company, Sinopec operates approximately 30,000 gas stations across China — the second-largest fuel station network in the world. The company runs its nationwide fuel card system on OceanBase, having migrated from a fragmented estate of 23 standalone Oracle and Sybase databases.
Challenges
1. Outdated system architecture
The initial fuel card system failed to support the Internet-based marketing service and business model innovation. By leveraging cutting-edge technologies, a next-generation smart gas station is anticipated to be established, enabling Sinopec's transformation into a comprehensive life service provider.
2. Insufficient database capabilities
As a wider range of sectors applies and utilizes various types of data more profoundly, there is an expectation for new features from a database. The original heterogeneous and dispersed database failed to meet the transformation requirements for low systemic risk, easy management and O&M, and business innovation.
Solution
1. Lossless migration from Oracle ensured by high compatibility
OceanBase Database is highly compatible with conventional centralized databases and helps Sinopec migrate its applications from Oracle and Sybase databases without data loss. A transition solution is provided to minimize business interruptions.
2. A large multitenant cluster
The original fuel card system consists of 23 standalone Sybase and Oracle databases, each operated and maintained by respective provincial branches. The solution aggregates those standalone databases into one distributed OceanBase cluster, whose architecture integrates data, platform, and applications.
Benefits
1. Cost reduction
The aggregation of 23 separate databases into one OceanBase cluster results in a significant reduction in software, hardware, and O&M costs, thereby achieving an 8-fold decrease in storage expenses.
2. Efficiency improvement
OceanBase empowers Sinopec to offer the fuel card service for about 30,000 gas stations nationwide. The upload time for transaction records has been significantly reduced from nearly a day to just a few seconds, catering to the daily handovers and reporting requirements. The data query time is shortened from several minutes to several seconds, allowing up to 50,000 business transactions per minute.
3. Reliability
The time required for failure recovery has been significantly reduced from hours to minutes, thereby enhancing business availability up to 99.99%. Additionally, the new solution also meets Level 3 security requirements in MLPS 2.0.
4. Transformation
Users can instantly receive e-coupons and discounts and choose from multiple payment options, which is a significant step in transforming Sinopec into a comprehensive life service provider.
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