ALL NIPPON AIRWAYS CO., LTD.

Deployment of SD-WAN in North American telecommunications network
Achieving a robust and flexible communication environment
that supports the company’s post-Covid leap forward

Mr. Aramaki explains why ANA committed to a major reform of its WAN: “With the dramatic evolution of digitalization, it became essential for us to strengthen our IT infrastructure to improve the value of the customer experience and to increase operational efficiency. What we needed was a network that was robust enough to support aircraft operations, but flexible enough to adapt to the times.”

Mr. Nakazato also explains why the KDDI SD-Network Platform was selected: “KDDI had been involved in our Japanese and European networks, was well-versed in our business, and had excellent technical proposal capabilities.”

The company’s communication network in the North American area was connected by leased lines to all of its locations, and since it handled both mission-critical systems and Internet-connected data in the same bandwidth, traffic congestion was becoming an issue.

Mr. Nakazato explains: “For example, we had a dilemma where the more we tried to digitally improve operational efficiency, such as the adoption of a system to share information using photos and videos during crew handovers, the worse communication quality got. Network improvement this time made some inter-site communication redundant and Internet breakout became viable, enabling us to achieve a comfortable and convenient communication environment that can further promote digital transformation.”

The KDDI SD-Network Platform (SDNP) has also reduced operating costs.

Mr. Yamada explains: “Previously, we had two leased lines at each location, one of which was used as a hot standby, but this was not cost-efficient and had limited bandwidth. This time, virtualization technology was used to secure bandwidth by combining one leased line with an Internet line and, compared to enhancing our previous network architecture, this reduced operating costs by approximately 40%.” In addition, according to Mr. Yamada, utilizing leased lines, the Internet, and mobile lines enabled the company to open new locations in a shorter period of time and at a lower cost than before.

In addition, network improvement allowed the company to smoothly adapt to changes in work styles instigated by the Covid pandemic.

Mr. Sase explains: “Working from home was also not common in North America prior to Covid, but with KDDI’s SDNP we were able to easily transition to working from home and comfortably use various cloud services such as Google Drive and Google Meet. In terms of operations, KDDI America provides comprehensive support for both WAN and LAN, and their resident engineer, who works closely with KDDI Japan head office, serves as the point of contact for everything.”