Asahi-Ryokuken reduced server costs by migrating its Bugyo series operating environment from on-premises to AWS in two months.

Asahi-Ryokuken was founded in 1997 in Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan, with the aim of "helping as many people as possible to improve their health". Since then, we have been selling health foods, mainly aojiru (green juice), under the mission "We create full of energy.” In the 25 years since its establishment, the company has sold more than 2.5 billion cups of aojiru products and has held the No. 1 position in aojiru sales for 17 consecutive years from 2006 to 2022 (*August 2022, according to Tokyo Shoko Research).

The financial accounting system that serves as the foundation of the company's management is based on the "Account Bugyo i10" of Bugyo Series and has been operated in an on-premises environment by a data center operator, but when the server hardware was due for replacement, the company considered moving to the cloud.

"When we estimated the cost of rebuilding the on-premises environment, we found that it would be more expensive than we expected. Therefore, we decided to migrate to the cloud in consideration of future hardware replacement and operating costs," said Mr. Tomoshi Toyama, Analysis Team Leader, Digital Marketing Section, Sales Group 2.

After considering moving all of its other on-premises business systems to the cloud, the decision was made to move to the cloud. However, due to line contracts and other reasons, the decision was made to move Account Bugyo i10, which requires an Internet connection, to the cloud first.

"Previously, when accountants and accounting staff from affiliated companies and outsourced accountants accessed the system from outside the company, they had to use a VPN to access the internal network, which posed a security challenge. In order to avoid this, it made sense to move Account Bugyo to a cloud environment using an Internet connection," said Mr. Toyama.

Asahi-Ryokuken began seriously considering for migrating its accounts to the cloud around spring in 2019, and chose AWS because of its proven track record within the company.

The company of AWS first adopting year was around 2016, when it used the Amazon S3 storage service to store images and videos for its e-commerce site. Subsequently, in 2019, the E-commerce site will be migrated from an on-premises environment to AWS, creating an environment that can flexibly adapt to new policies.

“The high security and cost benefits that we have experienced with AWS over the years. So when we migrated to AWS, we discussed which vendor's offering we wanted to adopt," said Toyama.

In September 2021, we began selecting an implementation partner and selected TOKAI Communications which was introduced by AWS. We decided to migrate by using "Bugyo for AWS," a service that builds the Bugyo series on AWS. "Bugyo for AWS" is a service that leverages TOKAI Communications' technological capabilities cultivated as an AWS Advanced Tier Service Partner with a wealth of experience in AWS construction projects. Since the on-premises Bugyo series is migrated as it is, it can be used in the cloud environment with the same operation as before. TOKAI Communications provides one-stop support from requirements definition to post-deployment operation, and users can flexibly choose from a "Small Plan" that provides minimal monitoring services and operational tools, to a fully managed "Omakase Plan".

"The AWS recommendation was one of the deciding factors in our selection of TOKAI Communications, but what really sealed the deal was the sincere personality of the sales representative and the friendly suggestions made by the company's dedicated AWS team. Instead of making intrusive sales proposals, they respected Asahi-Ryokuken and kept their distance from us. We also appreciated the plenty of the service offering, as the company proposed a menu that allowed us to flexibly select the scope of support we would provide and the scope of support TOKAI Communications would handle, rather than just going with the full menu," said Mr. Toyama.

The project to migrate to AWS began in late November 2021 and it had completed in early February 2022. The development period would be a only 2 months in effect. Immediately after the launch, there were some glitches in some operations, but they were quickly resolved and transitioned to stable operations.

Mr. Junichi Iishi, Head of the Online Shopping Management Team, Business Support Section, Sales Group 1, said the following about TOKAI Communications' contribution. "When we implemented the system, we were able to delegate everything from setting up the AWS account, to setting up the AWS environment, to setting up the Bugyo environment, to migrating the data (rehearsal and production), so there was no big burden on our part. Even when a problem arose immediately after the system was put into operation, they worked hard to determine the cause by checking the system's operation from early in the morning.”

By migrating to AWS, Asahi-Ryokuken was able to move away from an on-premises environment and also eliminate desktop virtualization servers used to connect to the company's subsidiaries and other locations. Switching from an internal network connection to an Internet connection eliminated the need for accountants and accounting staff from affiliated companies to access the internal network, as well as security concerns.

In terms of server costs, the use of pay-as-you-go on-demand instances on an hourly basis has kept costs down.

“Due to the nature of accounting and bookkeeping operations, the time frame for using Account Bogyo is limited to weekday mornings and evenings. As a result, the server is currently down 8 hours on weeknights from 10:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. and all hours on weekends and holidays. This has allowed us to keep usage fees low and realize the benefits of the cloud," said Mr. Iishi.

The accounting department and its staff at the head office and affiliated companies, external accountants, and other Kanjo Bugyo users are pleased with the fact that the way they work has remained the same after migrating to AWS.

The best thing for users is that nothing changes, and in this regard we have received comments of appreciation from the field," said Mr. Toyama.

Now that Kanjo Bugyo's migration to the cloud is complete, three issues remain: the migration of on-premises business systems to AWS, which was postponed this time; the reconstruction of existing network lines; and the construction of backup lines. TOKAI Communications' expertise in both AWS and networking is expected to help with these issues as well.

As for using other AWS services, we are drawing up a blueprint for future use of BI tools such as Amazon QuickSight to analyze sales of green juice products and implement data-driven marketing.

We are also interested in AWS analytics services to expand sales of Aojiru products, so we will continue to receive a variety of information as we work toward this goal," said Mr. Toyama. Asahi-Ryokuken will continue to deliver more Aojiru products to its customers by taking advantage of the mobility of IT.