Societe Generale sponsors the opening of the biggest archive of source code ever built

Software Heritage, a project to build a single, universal repository of source code initiated in 2015 by Inria* (French Institute for Research in Computer Science and Automation), makes its archive available to everyone today during a ceremony organised by UNESCO, partner of the project. Societe Generale is sponsoring this project of world software archive, which reflects the Group’s ambitious open source strategy, as it is a powerful driver of innovation and agility to enhance customer service.

The Software Heritage Project launched by INRIA* has reached a new milestone in the construction of a global software library by opening the doors to the largest archive ever constructed to make tens of millions of software publicly available in source code form.

Software Heritage aims to collect, preserve, and share all software that is publicly available in source code form worldwide. With more than 4.5 billion source files collected in one year, the search platform of the archive, available in several languages on the SoftwareHeritage.org website, provides a global Computer Science research tool, an essential infrastructure serving society, science and industry.

For Societe Generale, a partner of Software Heritage since its launch and the only bank sponsoring this project, this initiative is fully in line with the Bank’s open innovation and digital strategy outlined in its 2020 strategic plan, “Transform to grow”. The Group is convinced that the success of digital transformation hinges on the ability of all its business lines and functions to seize the opportunity of new technologies working in proximity with customers to offer them new services contributing to the enhancement of the customer experience.

Open Source First

As the embodiment of collective intelligence, open source development is an important driver of innovation for Societe Generale's information systems.

Societe Generale’s open source approach leverages on an ambitious programme with first results already visible, notably on data bases. This programme has three main aspects:

• emphasising open source technologies in the Group’s information systems;
• highlighting the natural community dimension of open source by contributing to existing projects and communities and opening in-house projects to contribution;
• offering an attractive and innovative technological environment to developers and technical leaders.

“IT businesses are at the heart of our Group’s transformation. We are conducting a fundamental rethink of the way we consume technologies to better serve our clients. Open source is a powerful driver of innovation, accelerating our digital transformation and attracting talent. By 2020, 30% of our databases will be in open source”, says Alain Voiment, Deputy Head of Infrastructure at Societe Generale Group.

*Inria, the French Institute for Research in Computer Science and Automation, promotes “scientific excellence for technology transfer and society”. Graduates from the world’s top universities, Inria's 2,400 researchers rise to the challenges of digital sciences. With its open, agile model, Inria is able to explore original approaches with its partners in industry and academia and provide an efficient response to the multidisciplinary and application challenges of the digital transformation.
https://www.inria.fr/en/institute/inria-in-brief

To know more about Software Heritage project

Press contact:
Astrid Fould Bacquart - +33 1 56 37 67 95– astrid.fould-bacquart@socgen.com -  @SG_presse