Previous issues: Bandwidth is strained due to an increase in web conferences, disrupting business operations and increasing costs

The Sinanen Holdings Group is developing comprehensive service businesses in three areas: energy, housing, and lifestyle, with the aim of supplying environmentally friendly energy. Currently, in preparation for the 100th anniversary of its founding in 2027, the group is striving to continue contributing to decarbonization and comfortable living by making flexible changes under its vision of "evolving into a comprehensive energy and lifestyle creation corporate group that contributes to the realization of a decarbonized society."

The company had previously used a certain vendor's SD-WAN, but the increase in web conferences due to the COVID-19 pandemic led to a sharp increase in communication volume. Bandwidth pressure caused speeds to slow down, and problems such as interrupted audio during web conferences occurred, leading to increased line costs. Yo Shimada, a specialist in the IT Planning Team of the IT Strategy Department, recalls, "the Company had been promoting remote work since 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic, in preparation for the Tokyo Olympics. We had replaced our business PCs with LTE-compatible PCs and connected them to the network via SIM cards. As a result, the shift to working from home was smooth even during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the sudden increase in web conferences caused a sudden increase in SIM communication volume, which led to rising costs."

The slowdown in speed was also noticeable at certain times, such as the morning after a holiday.
"In addition to PCs, our company also distributes iPhones. When employees return to work after the holidays and connect these devices to the company's Wi-Fi, the OS and app updates are all performed at the same time. This resulted in concentrated access, which caused problems such as interruptions in the audio during web conferences and slowed access to file servers, disrupting business operations. As a solution, we encouraged employees to connect using SIM cards instead of Wi-Fi, but this just increased costs," says Shimada.

In addition, the group's network, which is managed by the company's IT Strategy Department, is used by 80% of group companies. The remaining 20% are mostly small business companies that operate their own networks, but most of them do not have a dedicated person in charge and outsource the network to a contracted vendor.
"Because they were operating without a common policy, there were various disparities with the network we managed. However, if we simply integrated them into the group's WAN, IP address conflicts would occur. Installing equipment such as NAT and changing settings would take a lot of time and money, so it was not something we could easily undertake," says Shimada.

Furthermore, while SaaS usage was progressing under the initiative of each department, there was also the problem of not being able to grasp the 20% of SaaS usage outside of their jurisdiction, or when using iPhones connected to carriers (shadow IT). Takashi Tomatsu of the IT Strategy Department's System Management Team said, "However, we cannot resist the trend of cloud computing. So, when we received notice that the data center where our core system was stored would be closing in January 2024, we decided to review our WAN and move our on-premise servers to the cloud."

[Product Selection] Providing all the necessary functions, such as excellent WAN functionality and reliable bandwidth control, as a single service

Until then, the SD-WAN that Sinanen Holdings had been using was a managed service that also included firewall operation, so the company was not allowed to freely change the settings itself.
"When necessary, we would make a request to the vendor and the change would be reflected about half a day later. However, due to business circumstances, there were often times when an immediate response was required from the field, and there were also times when urgent requests would come from management. In those cases, it could be frustrating," says Tomimatsu.

In addition, two proxy servers were previously installed within the company as an exit point to the Internet. At first, the introduction of iPhones was limited to a small number of users, so there was not much of an impact, but as the introduction progressed throughout the company and the number of terminals connected to the Internet increased, the number of sessions ran out. This caused problems such as not being able to punch in attendance management.
"When we discussed these issues with an SIer we had been working with for some time, they introduced us to Cato SASE Cloud," said Tomimatsu.

When reviewing their WAN, the company compared three services, including Cato. The requirements were: 1) improvement of the current unsatisfactory WAN environment, 2) reliable control of bandwidth and Internet exits, and 3) reduction of communication costs. "If you want to do all of these things in one place, it would be ideal to be able to choose from one service, using this and that SASE function. In this respect, all services except Cato were not complete with just one service, but were realized by combining them with other products. This would make operation complicated," said Shimada. "When you have multiple products, you also have multiple management screens, and you cannot get the information you need on one screen. You also need to learn how to operate each one, so it would be difficult for members who are not familiar with it to use it, and it was over-specified in terms of scale for the Company 's usage. On the other hand, Cato allows you to build an environment that connects to SASE just by connecting a socket, so we ultimately decided to adopt it because of its flexibility," said Tomimatsu.

[Effects of implementation] All problems such as delays and sound dropouts have been resolved. Bandwidth is utilized more effectively and costs are reduced.

Sinanen Holdings conducted a PoC in October 2022 with the cooperation of an SIer. After finding no problems, the company officially decided to adopt "Cato" in December. It will first be deployed to the head office in March 2023. It will be expanded to other locations from July, and the work will be completed in September.
"Since introducing Cat o, all delays caused by network congestion and updates have been eliminated. We haven't received any complaints from users," says Shimada.

Even during web conferences, the problem of sound cutting out has been resolved. Previously, the camera had to be turned off to deal with sound cutting out, but this is no longer necessary.
"the Company use Teams for web conferencing, but we often had problems with audio cutting out, so we prepared a separate Zoom license to deal with that problem. Now that we can hold meetings comfortably with Teams, I don't think we'll need Zoom any more," said Shimada.

Another benefit of using Cato is that it has made the WAN visible, giving them a concrete understanding of how the network is being used.
"We found that line usage for web conferencing accounted for 40 to 50 percent of the total. We also found that communications for updates, which had been an issue, were being devised to limit the bandwidth so as not to disrupt business operations, leading to more effective use of the network," says Shimada.

Regarding SIM communications, which had been increasing communication costs, the company has addressed this by asking users to use Cato's agent to access the service via VPN when working from home.
"This has enabled us to reduce communication costs by about one-quarter compared to before. In addition, by using the agent, you can work comfortably and stress-free at the same speed as if you were in the office, which I think will ultimately lead to improved work efficiency." (Tomimatsu)

[Future developments] Consolidate all group networks into Cato. Proceed with integration without being aware of differences in configuration

With the introduction of Cato, the Sinanen Holdings Group has established a high-quality network and an integrated security environment with cloud scale. In the future, the company plans to consolidate the remaining 20% outside of its jurisdiction into Cato. The remaining 20% of networks have different configurations, but Cato allows for flexible configuration. Basically, it is only necessary to install a socket within the telecommunications carrier, and small offices and stores can handle the situation with just an agent. This makes it possible to proceed with integration without being aware of differences in network configuration.
"In the future, we aim to introduce CASB and enhance security by allowing only downloads of data that was previously prohibited by firewall rules. We also want to improve convenience for employees when shifting work to the cloud and promote control of mobile devices, such as iPhones, in anticipation of the use of business apps on those devices," says Shimada.

User Profile