Empowering Global IT Infrastructure with AWS Migration
Date Published：06 MAR 2024
- Each overseas group company had its own IT infrastructure and operations, leading to:
- Inefficiencies in global governance for common services and security measures
- Duplication of infrastructure functions and operational management tasks
- Unified the group’s infrastructure into AWS, managed by a global IT infrastructure team
- Created security guidelines and managed appropriate permissions with AWS Organizations
- Analyzed costs quarterly to optimize instance sizes and volume types
The mission of Suntory System Technology Co., Ltd. (SST), as the IT Strategy company of the Suntory Group, is to provide IT services to over 300 group companies domestically and internationally. SST is leading the project to migrate the Suntory Group’s global IT infrastructure to AWS.
Since August 2019, when the Suntory Group began its AWS migration in Japan, Classmethod has participated as a technical partner. We offer global services including AWS migration support, technical support for AWS utilization, cost optimization, and security enhancement.
We spoke with Mr. Kato, who leads the project as the Managing Director of the Infrastructure Services Department, and Mr. Koyama and Mr. Nishimura from the Global Services Group, to learn more about their initiatives and future prospects.
Global Technical Support Evaluation and Comprehensive Technical Assistance
The Suntory Group, which engages in a diverse range of businesses from alcoholic beverages like beer and whiskey to soft drinks and food products, operates globally in regions such as Japan, Asia, Oceania, America, and Europe. In 2014, the company acquired the American company Beam,Inc. through M&A, and is continuously pursuing overseas expansion.
Given the varying IT infrastructures and operational organizations across overseas companies, there were opportunities for enhancement. To expand business under the “ONE SUNTORY” vision, the “Suntory Island2 (SI2)” project was launched in April 2018 to integrate global IT infrastructure into a unified cloud service and establish a common global IT operating organization.
AWS was selected as the unifying cloud service since it had already been used for BtoC systems domestically since 2015, accumulating the company’s technical know-how in this area. The existing on-premises environment was migrated with a “lift and shift” approach, starting with the Japanese environment to solidify the method before global deployment.
SST’s domestic IT infrastructure migration project started in April 2019. After a three-month preparation period, the project gained momentum in July of the same year, completing the migration of nearly all systems, including over 1,000 servers, by July 2020.
Classmethod joined the SI2 project in August 2019, as the domestic IT infrastructure AWS migration accelerated, by SST signing a contract for our AWS Total Support Service called “Classmethod Members.”
The main deciding factor in choosing Classmethod was their AWS expertise. It was essential for us to address technical challenges and keep up with latest technologies while considering Suntory’s style of architecture and migration methods in AWS, and based on their track record with us, we see them as a reliable partner. Additionally, Classmethod was focusing on overseas business expansion. The SI2 Project was to be led by our Japan team, and Classmethod was the only company that could offer us a solution covering everything from operations to technical support, even tackling overseas,” said Mr. Kato.
Providing AWS Information through Technical Advisors
Since August 2019, Classmethod has been supporting SST with three key initiatives.
Regular technical support is provided through monthly meetings and daily QA via Backlog.
“During the regular meetings, we receive timely AWS version updates. With AWS continuously releasing new services, it’s challenging to keep up on our own. Classmethod, well-versed in our IT environment and design philosophy, provides us with precise and timely information such as ‘Why not try this managed service?’ This support is invaluable. We also appreciate their unbiased introductions of services from other vendors and third-party SaaS solutions,” said Mr. Koyama.
The technical support extends beyond domestic projects to overseas projects. The global rollout encounters similar challenges as domestic projects, allowing feedback from domestic experiences to overseas projects and addressing various Q&A on-site as needed.
“An example of this is when we had a project to introduce Amazon WorkSpaces, a VDI solution, to our overseas sites. Classmethod supported us technically and communicated directly with our overseas group companies, easing our burden and enabling swift implementation,” said Mr. Nishimura.
Establishing Security Guidelines and Centralized Account Management
After completing the AWS migration of the domestic environment in 2020, the first security guidelines were created. In the first half of FY 2022, when the deployment to overseas sites had progressed, the security guidelines were updated to reflect the latest AWS security services and to apply them commonly both domestically and internationally. Checklists for database encryption, root privilege assignment, and more were created.
From the second half of FY 2022, centralized account management using AWS Organizations, defense with guardrails using SCP, and security detection with AWS Security Hub were implemented. The security checklist is regularly updated and compliance is verified to maintain strengthened security measures.
Currently, we have approximately 100 AWS accounts in Japan and about 20 accounts overseas, and we expect the number of accounts to continue to grow, especially in Japan.By January 2023, we plan to implement AWS Organizations features for some AWS accounts and extend the AWS account security implementation to other accounts using AWS Organizations. We aim to establish an operational structure to continuously apply updated security features,” said Mr. Nishimura.
Regular Infrastructure Costs Review
Since migrating our domestic IT infrastructure to AWS in July 2020, we have been regularly reviewing our overall infrastructure costs and changing instance types and disk types through AWS’ Cost Optimization Support Program (CFM Program).
Based on Classmethod’s advice, we changed instance types for Amazon EC2 and Amazon RDS, and volume types for Amazon EBS and Amazon S3. Additionally, we optimized costs by further refining the purchase of Reserved Instances and Savings Plans.
The cost optimization efforts are also being rolled out to overseas regions, ensuring unified measures globally.
Ongoing Support in Various Areas
In addition to these initiatives, Classmethod has provided support such as licensing SaaS monitoring services and offering AWS training. SST values the expected technical capabilities provided by Classmethod since 2019, contributing to the acceleration of their business.
Looking ahead, SST plans to collaborate with Classmethod on domestic projects to build data lake infrastructure, transition to cloud-native modern applications, and internalize development.
The SI2 project to integrate global IT infrastructure came to an end at the end of FY2022. For the Suntory Group as a whole, there are still issues that remain to be tackled. Looking towards the future, Mr. Kato shared his thoughts
“We aim to respond quickly to the needs of overseas group companies and further pursue global integration.
Classmethod, specializing in cloud technology consulting, development, and operations centered around AWS, will strive to live up to SST’s expectations.
This case study uses AWS Global Utilization Support.
For global companies that face challenges due to differences in IT infrastructure environments between countries and regions, we provide total support for efficient and consistent IT infrastructure operations, including multilingual technical support, cost optimization, compliance measures, and local staff training.
