The 2021 is approaching, and the pandemic seems looking forward to the new year together with us. Bill Gates said in an interview that the pandemic would fundamentally change the business and working ways - “Remote work becomes the norm, and office space is re-planned”. The trend is there in technology field.
Twitter announced that employees could work from home if the work content is allowed.
Square Enix launched a permanent remote home work program starting from this month;
Fujitsu announced the “Permanent Home Office” plan, and reduce half of the working space in Japan, and combining remote office with traditional office in China.
"New normal, new way, new value". The actions of Fujitsu, an IT company with a history of 85 years, suffice to show that remote office has become an inevitable trend in the context of accelerated global digital transformation. However, behind the seemingly simple remote office, two basic supports are needed-the company's IT system architecture and network architecture are perfected, and adjusted accordingly. These are not overnight efforts, as Lu You said-"The work is in the poem (Remote) outside".
So, what kind of pre-preparation has Fujitsu (China) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Fujitsu (China)"), which plans to combine remote office with traditional office? How did these efforts help Fujitsu (China) to work remotely? With these questions in mind, the reporter recently interviewed DENG Yi, deputy director of the Network Information Department of Fujitsu (China) Co Ltd.
The cornerstone of remote office-reliable IT architecture
For most Chinese companies, including Fujitsu (China), they have implemented remote office as early as the beginning of the year. At that time, they saw that many companies in the market had their normal business interrupted and could only be transferred to the online urgently, due to IT construction could not be improved to support business needs in a short time, some companies have suffered great losses. On the other hand, Fujitsu (China) performed well in the epidemic examination. DENG Yi pointed out that this firstly benefits from Fujitsu (China)'s forward-looking IT infrastructure.
As the world's fourth largest IT service provider and Japan's largest IT manufacturer, Fujitsu's development in China can be traced back to the introduction of Sino-Japanese submarine cables in the 1970s. In 1995, Fujitsu (China) Co., Ltd. was formally established. Since it started earlier than most domestic IT companies, Fujitsu (China) can be said to have fully witnessed and participated in the development process of domestic enterprise informatization and IT construction. DENG Yi, who has been engaged in enterprise IT management for more than 16 years, combined with the development history of Chinese enterprise IT architecture, first introduced the development history of Fujitsu's IT architecture to reporters:
The initial stage of construction. Before 2000, the domestic Internet infrastructure was almost non-existent, the price of software, hardware, and communications were high, and the company does not have strong awareness of IT. Therefore, for most companies, information construction was more similar to the additional functions.
Business Support Stage. Around 2000, domestic enterprises’ investment in network applications increased exponentially. After the Internet bubble burst in 2000, domestic enterprises’ informatization construction turned to rational investment, and enterprises began to generally introduce mail platforms, portals, OA, ERP and other systems, and IT infrastructure has gradually become a necessary business support part. At this stage, in order to support their respective business needs, Fujitsu's many subsidiaries in China independently built their own IT facilities and functions, only to establish a certain degree of interconnection for business connections, and the overall IT architecture is in a state of low coupling.
Specification Establishment Stage. With the improvement of the level and importance of IT construction, the IT infrastructure and management structure of domestic enterprises have shifted from being scattered to centralized. At this stage, Fujitsu (China) promoted corporate network integration, common key business system integration, domain name and portal site unification, and information security strategy unification, etc., achieved the intensification and optimization of each company's resources, the establishment of unified rules, and the improvement of efficiency. Goals such as cost reduction and corporate image standardization. Judging from the performance of telecommuting during the epidemic, this stage is of great significance.
Business promotion stage. In the past, the IT department has always been regarded as the cost department of the enterprise. In recent years, China “Internet Improvement and Fees Cut” Initiative has provided the soil for information application to grow. The success of Internet enterprises has stimulated the transformation of traditional enterprise IT perception. Domestic enterprise IT construction is gradually supported by business Expand to the business-driven level. Fujitsu (China) has also made business promotion as its current main goal, such as using technological means to establish conditions for the diverse business development needs of various companies, or commercializing internal success stories and expanding business.
DENG Yi said that the performance during the epidemic proved that the IT department is playing an increasingly important role in the context of digitalization. The Fujitsu (China) Network Information Department is also taking practical actions to get rid of the solidified image of the cost department and is committed to becoming a powerful company for corporate development engine.
All-in-one ICT service - More than the Internet
Even with a complete IT architecture and without proper network access, remote office still cannot be achieved. Many corporate remote meeting and company system cards are down during the epidemic; The farthest distance in the world is I use the public network at this end, and the system is restricted to intranet access at the other end.
So, what is Fujitsu (China) solution? DENG Yi said that the company's forward-looking network architecture and its partner China Enterprise Communications have played an important role in this process.
In 2017, after Fujitsu China initially completed the integration of the entire regional network infrastructure, there were two major issues of cost and efficiency in the operation process, which need to be resolved urgently:
First, the cost is uneven. Due to historical factors, the infrastructure of Fujitsu China was dispersed among several Chinese and Japanese partners at that time, which caused large price differences in different regions. The cost of some multinational communication lines was much higher than the cost of domestic networks, which restricted the expansion of overseas business.
Second, the issue of efficiency. Different partners have different service specifications, docking methods, and response times. Once a failure occurs, some services will recover quickly, and some will recover slowly. This difference will greatly affect efficiency when multiple parties work together and cause business damage.
After careful selection, China Enterprise ICT Solutions finally won the favor of Fujitsu (China) with its unique resource advantages, lower costs, and customer-oriented services.
According to GAO Liheng, general manager of China Enterprise ICT Solutions Limited (中企通信), the cooperation between the two parties includes: MPLS private networks for enterprises in China, data centers, and cross-regional communication lines. In these three areas, China Enterprise ICT Solutions has a nationwide MPLS dedicated network, a cloud-network convergence data center, and joint partners' network resources covering more than 130 countries and regions around the world, and 30+ data center resources. It is the unique resource advantage that differentiates China Enterprise ICT Solutions Limited from other service providers. It can provide international companies like Fujitsu (China) with one-stop ICT services covering private networks, data centers, information security management and cloud computing.
After a year and a half of implementation, Fujitsu (China) eventually moved the original leased third-party data center to the Chinese enterprise communications data center, the domestic companies after the original network reorganization moved to the China Enterprise ICT Solutions MPLS network, and negotiated with the Japanese side to recalculate the requirements and design redundant topology, the overseas international routes to the Chinese enterprise communications parent company CITIC International Telecom CPC using different sea cable construction of high-reliability international lines.
After the completion of the project, Fujitsu (China)'s problems with efficiency and cost have been immediately improved. The basic IT platform in China has realized a unified management. The unified management platform, management methods and service interfaces provided by China Enterprise Communications have greatly improved efficiency and simplified management costs. The relative cost of the company's bandwidth has dropped, and the bandwidth has doubled. A large-bandwidth link has been achieved with the Japanese side. Overseas business functions such as user video interaction that were once limited by broadband quality have been implemented.
After the completion of the project, Fujitsu (China)'s problems with efficiency and cost have been immediately improved. The basic IT platform in China has realized a unified management. The unified management platform, management methods and service interfaces provided by China Enterprise Communications have greatly improved efficiency and simplified management costs. The relative cost of the company's bandwidth has dropped, and the bandwidth has doubled. A large-bandwidth link has been achieved with the Japanese side. Overseas business functions such as user video interaction that were once limited by broadband quality have been implemented.
DENG Yi praised the 7X24 hours operation and maintenance service provided by China Enterprise ICT Solutions in the interview, and believed that it helped the IT department to break away from endless infrastructure failures and concentrate on business development. He pointed out that as a Party A enterprise, it is difficult for employees to work 7X24 hours. Once a network failure occurs late at night, it often takes the initiative to contact the service provider after work the next day to resolve it, resulting in a long troubleshooting time and affecting business continuity. With the 7X24-hour active service, it is much secured. Once a failure that non-Party A must intervene is detected, it will take the initiative to deal with it immediately. Failures that often occur late at night have returned to normal on the next day of work, ensuring business continuity and customers throughout the process.
IT Guarantee the Remote Office
The previous article introduced how the two foundations of Fujitsu (China) telecommuting were built, so what are their effects during the epidemic? Let us find out.
Different from the current Fujitsu plan to gradually realize the combination of remote office and traditional office, due to the sudden outbreak of the epidemic in the spring of 2020, companies are required to implement remote office in a very short time without any precautions, and there are many difficulties. Take Fujitsu (China) as an example. At that time, the working environment of all employees suddenly changed from the corporate intranet to the external network. The corporate network traffic increased exponentially, most of the data traffic in the topology formed a countercurrent, and the demand for remote access reached the daily average. It can be said that it has a great impact on IT support.
Even so, Fujitsu (China)'s network information department still performed well. Deng Yi recalled that on the second day of the first month just after the outbreak of the epidemic, they judged that normal resumption of work would be affected according to the situation, and immediately adopted a series of measures to ensure remote office: contact with partners and try their best to strengthen remote access Ability; upgrade backbone network bandwidth to support remote access; formulate code of conduct during special periods to guide group employees to use resources in time-sharing to avoid congestion; adjust some information security strategies based on employees' access to public networks.
In this process, China Enterprise ICT Solutions, as a partner, played a very helpful role. After receiving the demand from Fujitsu (China), it quickly provided auxiliary programs including free bandwidth upgrades, data center equipment upgrade applications, and additional remote access capabilities. In the end, with the joint efforts of both parties, the Fujitsu Network Information Department completed the upgrade of the corresponding IT system before the start of remote work for all employees, helping Fujitsu to ensure the continuity of the business.
The epidemic is still continuing around the world. A series of phenomena have shown that the changes caused by the epidemic will not be short-term and phenomenon-level, but will be long-term and transformative. It includes both the external manifestations of remote office and the digitalization of enterprises. Internal changes such as transformation and innovation.
To this end, the Fujitsu Group has made preparations. In addition to launching a permanent home office plan, it also proposed a global strategy for cloud-based key operations. Fujitsu (China) is also considering further strengthening remote access methods, large-scale applications of remote desktop systems, centralized service provision of IT facilities for small businesses, and corresponding network infrastructure changes.
I believe that Fujitsu (China) and China Enterprise ICT Solutions will "shaping tomorrow with you" in the future, and China Enterprise ICT Solutions will also become the partner for more companies with unique advantages in the home office trend of the "post-epidemic era".
