keyword:
Software powerhouse
"I chose to start a business in China, that is, to make china's own disaster recovery software, every line of code must be written by ourselves, and every investment must be our own money."
"Now we have become the industry leader in China, but this is far from successful. Our goal is the top five in the world industry! ”
Dingjia Technology is a company focusing on the research and development of data disaster recovery backup software, and is a leading enterprise in the industry in China. Disaster recovery backup refers to the technical support means to use redundant storage resources or cloud platforms to store high-density data and quickly recover data after distress before encountering disasters, viruses, failures or various data loss risks, which is the last line of defense to protect data security.
In 2021, Dingjia Technology was selected as a national-level specialized new "Little Giant" enterprise, and was identified as a national key "Little Giant" enterprise, which is the only "single seedling" selected in the field of disaster recovery software.
R&D personnel commission the information warehouse.
From "someone else's child" to a tenured professor at a university
On the morning of April 20, Lv Xiaofeng, executive CEO of Guangzhou Dingjia Technology, opened his mailbox as usual, and a thank-you letter from the customer Urumqi Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital came into view. A week ago, the hospital's hyperconverged equipment failed, putting it at risk of losing data at any time, and the technicians recommended that the backup of the virtual machine data on the platform be restored immediately to other virtual platforms. The hospital immediately dialed Dingjia's phone, and within an hour, Dingjia's local technical engineer Master Chen arrived at the scene and began to work. Seeing the tricks and working overtime, Master Chen rebuilt a temporary backup platform and completed the data migration to ensure that the hospital system business was uninterrupted.
Dingjia's choice of disaster preparedness, a "cold door" field that few people in China is involved, is inseparable from the legendary color of the life of the company's founder Wang Zijun.
Prince Jun
Wang Zijun has been naughty since childhood, but he is very intelligent, just like people say "other people's children", usually playing, but the exam is always 100 points. "Once I scored 95 on the test, my mother was very angry." Wang Zijun remembers it vividly.
In 1985, he was admitted to the ideal university of Science and Technology of China with the results of the college entrance examination in Shaoyang City, Hunan Province. After graduating with a master's degree in 1993, he studied abroad and studied for a doctorate at the University of Central Florida in the United States. In 1994, as a student, he devoted himself to the software industry, and after several years of research, he made a set of data backup software. In 1998, his company was acquired by industry giant Veritas for $2 billion. "I designed the software, but I sold it, and that's when I got the idea to start my own business." Wang Zijun said.
In the past few years, Wang Zijun has become the chief architect of Veritas Company, and is well versed in the core technologies of the company's various major software. Subsequently, he resigned resolutely to prepare for entrepreneurship. Due to the non-compete clause in the contract, he could not immediately pursue a career in the relevant industry, so he chose to teach at Clemson University first. Due to his outstanding ability and only a few years, Wang Zijun was hired by the school as a tenured professor.
In 2008, Wang Zijun, who had made all preparations, was ready to officially start a business in the United States. But unexpectedly, a visit to relatives and friends before starting a business changed the trajectory of his life.
In the Wenchuan disaster relief time to determine the direction of returning to China to start a business
On May 12, 2008, Wang Zijun's plane landed at Shanghai Airport. As soon as he got off the plane, Wang Zijun saw the news of the Wenchuan earthquake, and then received a call from a friend in Beijing: "Zijun, I have decided to drive immediately to Sichuan to participate in the disaster relief, do you want to join?" Wang Zijun didn't say a word, and before he left the airport, he bought a ticket to Chengdu.
In the disaster area, a detail completely affected Wang Zijun's idea of starting a business. "A leader of the Housing Authority told me that the residents' deeds were all buried in the ground, and all the information in the bureau was lost." While grieving for the loss of his life, Wang Zijun began to think about the importance of protecting data in Chinese society. "At that moment, I made up my mind to return to China to develop and develop data protection for China." At that time, this field in China was almost a "virgin land", and making this decision meant that Wang Zijun would abandon the foundation laid in the United States and start from scratch.
Dingjia Technology
"I thought it wouldn't be difficult to get started, just change the bugs I've made to the software I've done before. But unexpectedly, the employees recruited at that time could not change my software at all, and they did not advance at all for two months. After that I changed my mind, recruited employees, I taught them again, Taught from scratch, and started writing software again. After a year or two of training, they have become the top talents in the industry. Wang Zijun said.
The problem of talent has been solved, and the problem of funds is even more difficult. Data backup is an industry with large investment, long cycle and slow results, "In the early days, I took the project to raise funds, went to participate in venture capital competitions, and ran into walls everywhere, and most people were only interested in application software that could achieve immediate results." Many people advised me to take the project to develop an APP and easily earn millions of yuan. But Wang Zijun never moved, "If you take over the project, then my team can't concentrate on the research and development of disaster recovery software." This is our cause, and there is no room for detours. ”
Some foreign capital found Wang Zijun willing to provide financing, he was not moved, "I chose to start a business in China, that is, to make a completely new disaster recovery software in China, every line of code must be written by ourselves, and every investment must be our own money." ”
In this way, Wang Zijun persevered in a way that was difficult for ordinary people to understand, and even failed to pay his salary for several months at the most difficult time. "The members of the core team all took the initiative to tell me that I didn't want a salary and that we would stick with it together." Wang Zijun said movingly, "But I can't sit idly by, I have to borrow money, and the shareholders mortgaged the house for this." ”
The information warehouse produced by Dingjia Technology
Defeat IBM in the project competition to establish an industry position
After several years of research and development, polishing and improvement, Dingjia's software products have finally been incubated and completed, and they are also waiting for the investment of China Electronics Group. In 2015, with the establishment of the sales team, Dingjia began to go to the market on a large scale and embarked on a high-speed road of development. In the competition of a project of the State Grid, Dingjia defeated IBM with the first place in the test score, and established the industry position in the first world war. Since then, several major domestic communication operators, banks and a number of provincial and municipal government cloud projects have chosen Dingjia as the preferred backup product.
Since 2020, Dingjia has worked closely with many domestic leading server and storage manufacturers such as Huawei to comprehensively expand China's disaster recovery market. In the past year, Dingjia has won more than half of the country's Xinchuang disaster recovery projects. Last year, it was selected as a national key "little giant" enterprise, which has also become a natural and logical thing.
At present, Dingjia has started the listing work, and a brokerage staff member who came to assist said to Wang Zijun: "I have participated in the listing of more than 50 companies, and you are the first company I have ever seen that has served so many leading enterprises and government units." ”
The staff sorted out the information warehouse and prepared to ship to all parts of the country.
Like other "little giants", Dingjia has grown all the way and is inseparable from the government's help and support. "Since its establishment in 2009, government departments at all levels have provided various support policies, which have provided great help for R&D enterprises such as Dingjia that continue to invest heavily." Lv Xiaofeng is like a number of family treasures: In 2020, he declared the Guangzhou Municipal Fund Project for Promoting the High-quality Development of Industrial and Information Technology Industries and received 2 million yuan of support funds from the Municipal Bureau of Industry and Information Technology; after being identified as a national key "little giant" enterprise last year, it has obtained the first batch of support funds of 1.96 million yuan for the first year.
Wang Zijun said: "Now we have become the industry leader in China, but this is far from success. While expanding the domestic market, Dingjia has also begun to expand abroad. Our goal is the top five in the world industry! ”
Coordinator: Yu Jing, Tang Xinxin, Zhang Hong
Text/Guangzhou Daily, New Flower City Reporter: Huang Qing
Photo/ Guangzhou Daily, New Flower City Reporter: Su Junjie
Video/Guangzhou Daily Xinhuacheng Reporter: Su Junjie, Huang Qing Intern: Lin Xiaoya
Guangzhou Daily New Flower City Editor: Su Wanqian