Case Study on Borderless Network System Introduction
SOFTBANK TELECOM Corporation
Adopts Cisco ISR G2 across the board for new managed CPE service
Provides seamless domestic and international networks for the cloud era
Installation Background and Challenges
• SOFTBANK TELECOM has offered managed
CPE to support network connections between
branches since 2001. Due to the increasing use of
cloud computing in enterprise systems, however,
it had become impossible to respond using
conventional services alone.
For over 20 years, SOFTBANK TELECOM Corp. has responded to an array of
business challenges through stable, high-quality data communication services.
Since March 2012, the company has provided a new managed CPE service called
“Managed CPE-S,” which responds to the demands of the cloud era. To realize
this service, they adopted Cisco Borderless Network Architecture products across
• In addition to high reliability and high quality,
managed CPE service in the cloud era must be
optimally priced and have the flexibility to respond
to diverse customer requirements. And because
business has become global, it is critical to
provide seamless service whether domestically or
internationally.
the board, including Cisco Integrated Services Routers Generation 2. In so doing,
• To respond to these demands, SOFTBANK
TELECOM has adopted Cisco ISR G2 across the
board as the network equipment to be installed
at customer sites. It was adopted because its
success in terms of the global marketplace,
reliability, operability, the flexibility to extend
functionality by installation of SRE (Services Ready
Engine) modules, as well as enhancements in
remote control functionality, have received high
marks.
strength and growth of their customers by further expanding their services and
Installation Solution
• Cisco Integrated Services Routers Generation 2
(ISR G2) Series
Benefits of Installation
• By adopting high-quality equipment with a high
level of functionality suited to the cloud era,
SOFTBANK TELECOM was able to improve the
quality, reliability and flexibility of services.
• By using the same series of products worldwide,
they reduced the level of complexity in design and
operation. And they also reduced the time required
for operator education.
• Using the Configuration Rollback function, they are
now able to prevent communication failures caused
by mistakes in setup. As a result, they have realized
full remote operation and made it easy to achieve
both high-quality and low-cost operation.
• Adopting equipment that has produced excellent
results has also reduced the time required for
function verification for service implementation.
• Furthermore, functionality can be easily extended
using SRE (Services Ready Engine) modules.
SOFTBANK TELECOM expects to extend their
services in the future by taking full advantage of
this capability. They also aim to expand to LAN
and wireless LAN services within customer sites
and to establish end-to-end service.
they have achieved high quality and great flexibility at an optimal price, and are able
to provide global services across 220 countries worldwide, seamlessly and with
one-stop delivery. In the future they aim to contribute to the increased competitive
providing end-to-end networks.
The CPE service that achieves the “four S's”
to satisfy the demands of the cloud era
How do you build a network to connect branches? This has once again become a major challenge
in business management. The background to it involves the progression in the use of cloud
computing in enterprise systems. A cloud system requires high-quality network connections
between the data center and the branches where users work. But high-quality communication
alone is not enough. The applications used in clouds are becoming increasingly diverse,
meaning that detailed setup is required according to purpose. The pressure on cost control is
also increasing. How to satisfy all of these demands is the problem facing current inter-branch
networks.
To respond to these diverse challenges, SOFTBANK TELECOM Corp. started offering managed
CPE-S service in March 2012. CPE is an abbreviation for “Customer Premises Equipment,”
meaning equipment installed by carriers at subscriber sites for communication between branches.
SOFTBANK TELECOM has been responding to the needs of enterprise communications between
branches since 2001 by providing managed CPE service. Managed CPE-S represents a major
overhaul of this service that was developed to respond to new customer requirements.
“The ‘S’ added to the name has four meanings,” explains Makoto Takahashi, Development Group
Manager, Department of Operations Planning Management, Service Operations First Management
Division, Business Development Headquarters, SOFTBANK TELECOM Corp. They are (1) Seamless
(between domestic and international), (2) Stable (reliability and stability suitable for enterprise use),
(3) Smart (high level of functionality) and (4) Suitably priced (optimal cost). “To provide high-quality,
flexible services to meet the needs of the cloud era. That is the goal of this service.”
“We have increased service possibilities
Serviceofferingscanbebroadlyclassifiedintothreepillars.
dramatically by adopting a highly convenient
ThefirstisprovidingnetworkequipmentinaformatbundledwithSOFTBANKTELECOM’snetwork
router suited to the cloud era.”
services.Networkequipmentfrommultiplevendorswasusedinthepast,butwithManaged
SOFTBANK TELECOM Corp.
Sales Development Division
Service Operation
Management Department 1
Service Operation Planning &
Administration Department
Development Section,
Manager
Makoto Takahashi
CPE-S,theCiscoIntegratedServicesRoutersGeneration2(CiscoISRG2)isthestandard.
Thesecondisone-stopmaintenanceandsupport.Whenaproblemoccurs,thecompany
receivesaninquiryattheCustomerServiceCenter,wheretheyworktodeterminetheproblem.
Theyhavealsocreatedasystemtoflexiblyaccommodateavarietyofdesignrequirements.
Thethirdisprovidingpingmonitoringandsimpleperformancereportsfornetworkequipment.
By“visualizing”theentirenetworksystem,itispossibletoforeseeandsolveproblemsbefore
theyoccur.Thisisofferedasastandardbasicservice.
Anotheraspectofthisserviceisthelargecoveragearea.NotonlyJapan,but220countriesand
regionsoverseasarecovered.Theserviceoffersaone-stopsolutiontothedemandsofglobal
businesses.
ManagedCPE-Sserviceofferings
Providing
network equipment
Ping monitoring and
simple performance reports(*)
come standard
One-stop maintenance
and support
Customer
Customer
Inquiry
regarding failure
SOFTBANK TELECOM
network
Failure/
recovery
contact
Simple performance
(*)
reports
Line termination
equipment
Fault isolation
Network
equipment
Ping
monitoring
SOFTBANK
TELECOM network
Customer
service center
Customer site
Customer service
center
Customer site
SOFTBANK
TELECOM network
Line termination
equipment
Network equipment
Network equipment
(*)
The above services are provided, including ping monitoring and simple performance reports .
* This function reports traffic, CPU utilization and ping response time via a Web interface.
Customer site network equipment uses Cisco ISR G2 as the standard
Rated as being the most suited to globalization and cloud computing
SOFTBANKTELECOMbeganinvestigatingthepossibilityofofferingthisserviceinJune2011.
Whatbecamethegreatestfocuswas“choosingthenetworkequipment,”Takahashirecalls.The
networkequipmentofnumerousvendorswasupfordiscussion,andwascomparedindetail
overthecourseofaroundthreemonths.InDecember2011,SOFTBANKTELECOMdecidedto
adoptCiscoISRG2acrosstheboard.SOFTBANKTELECOMcompletelychangeditsdirection
fromtheconventionalmanagedCPEinwhichequipmentfrommultiplevendorswasused.
Howdidtheyreachthatdecision?“Thebiggestfactoristhatthesameequipmentcanbeused
inJapanandoverseas,”explainsAkihiroKurakazuofthefirstDevelopmentGroup,Department
ofOperationsPlanningManagement,ServiceOperationsFirstManagementDivision,Business
DevelopmentHeadquarters,SOFTBANKTELECOMCorp.Ifnumeroustypesofnetwork
equipmentfrommultiplevendorsareadopted,theknowledgerequiredfortechnicalpersonnel
increases,anddesignandoperationmanagement
becomecomplex.Usingstandardizedequipment
ThreefeaturesofManagedCPE-S
worldwideisanecessarysteptowardproviding
highqualityandhighflexibilityatanoptimalprice.
Optimal
price
“Torealizeworldwideseamlessservice,aconstant
levelofsupportmustbeavailableanywhereinthe
world.Ciscoalreadyhasagreatdealofexperience
inmeetingsuchrequirements.”
Thiswasnottheonlypointthatwasevaluated,
however.Ciscoproductsalsomeettheneedfor
High
quality
Flexible
design
“With the Cisco ISR G2, we can offer high-
highquality,Kurakazupointsout.Thisisbecausethereisfullfunctionalityforincreasingreliability
quality, flexible services throughout the world,
andcommunicationqualitywithalowfailurerate.“CiscoISRG2hasthefunctionalitytovisualize
with seamless, low-cost operation.”
performance,throughputandsoforth,andQoScanbesetupingreatdetail,makingitpossible
SOFTBANK TELECOM Corp.
Sales Development Division
Service Operation
Management Department 1
Service Operation Planning &
Administration Department
Development Section
Akihiro Kurakazu
tominimizedelayevenwhenaudioandvideotraffi
cisintermingled.Anotherbigadvantageis
ConfigurationRollback.”
Thisisafunctionthatautomaticallyreturnsthesystemtoitsoriginalsettings,ifsettingsare
changedremotelyandleftforacertaintimewithoutanycommitment.Thus,ifanoperatormakes
amistakeinsetupanddisruptscommunication,itbecomesimpossibletocommitthechangeat
thepointwhencommunicationisdisabled,andafterashortwait,thesystemreturnstoastate
inwhichcommunicationisenabled.“Remoteoperationisalsoanimportantelementoflow-cost
operation.Wehadthatcapabilitybefore,butthesituationwefearedthemostwasadisruption
incommunication.Thisisbecauseifthereisadisruption,workisrequiredonsite.Butwiththe
CiscoISRG2,wehavenosuchworry.Thispreventsdecreasedreliabilityandincreasedcost
duetohumanerror,”saysKurakazu.
AnotherfactoristhatinstallationofSRE(ServicesReadyEngine)modulesishighlyvalued.This
isarouterbladethatcanrunCiscoandthirdpartyapplicationsaswellascustomapplications.
Deployingapplicationsremotelymakesitpossibletoquicklyrespondtobusinessneeds.
“WithCiscoISRG2,wecanofferhigh-quality,flexibleservicesthroughouttheworld,with
seamless,low-costoperation,”statesKurakazu.“Iwouldsayit'sthenetworkproductmost
suitedtoglobalizationandcloudcomputing.”
High-quality service provided at the optimal price
Customizable to suit the customer's needs
SoonafterdecidingtoadoptCiscoproductsacrosstheboard,SOFTBANKTELECOMbegan
preparationsforprovidingservices.Afterapreparationperiodofaroundthreemonths,they
launchedservicesinMarch2012.
“Duringthesethreemonthswecarriedoutavarietyofverificationsforintroducingservices,
andtheywentmoresmoothlythanexpected.Therewerenocriticalfailuresatall,andwegot
arealsenseofthehighlevelofqualityofCiscoproducts.Othergreatadvantageswerethat
supportwasexcellent,anditwaseasytoobtaintechnicalinformationfrommanualsandwithin
thecommunity,”heexplained.“Wetrainedouroperatorsinashorttime.Manyofournetwork
engineerswereexperiencedwithCiscoCLI.ByhavingCiscoproductsasthestandard,we
reducedtheamountoftimerequireduntilserviceintroduction.”
TheextensiveproductlineisalsoanadvantageofCiscoISRG2.Theoptimalmodelcan
beselectedforbusinesseswithanythingfromasmalltoalargenumberofbranches.With
ManagedCPE-S,atotalofsevenmodelsareavailable,dependingonscale.
Asofnow(June2012)ithasbeenonlythreemonthssincetheservicewasreleased,but“we
havealreadyhadinquiriesfromnumerouscustomers,”saysTakahashi.Hesaysthatthenumber
ofcustomershasrisentodoubledigits,amongwhichtherearelarge-scaleuserswithseveral
hundredbranches.
LineofroutersofferedinManagedCPE-S
Performance
Cisco3925E
Offering the best models for the
customer's usage configuration
and branch scale
Cisco3925
Cisco2901
Cisco2911
Cisco1921
Cisco892J
Cisco881
Small
Medium
Scale of a branch
Large
What is most highly valued by customers is that a high-quality service is offered with a
SOFTBANK TELECOM Corporation
reasonable price structure. Setup of DHCP, NAT, QoS, ACL and so forth are offered as standard
services, and routing settings conform to a variety of protocols. Network monitoring and traffic
reports are also standard. The system can respond to a wide range of needs, even without using
individual menus. The clear and transparent price list is also appreciated.
On the other hand, Kurakazu points out that it can be customized to meet a customer's needs,
and this is why they can get many inquiries. “For example, with this service, four types of
network service can be used, including IP-VPN, wide Ethernet, managed Ethernet and global
IP-VPN. Not only one of these can be selected, but they can be used for different purposes by
connection to multiple lines. In addition, QoS and access control can be set up in detail.”
Recently, Takahashi says, the challenge of “customers wanting to piggyback video conferencing
and unified communication traffic” has been on the rise. To respond to this need, control of jitter
(time deviations or inconsistencies) is of the utmost importance. In addition, depending on the
Address
country, it can be difficult to sustain bandwidth. For this reason there are expected to be cases
1-9-1, Higashi Shimbashi, Minato-ku, Tokyo,
where Cisco Wide Area Application Services (WAAS) software is required. Cisco ISR G2 can
Japan
flexibly respond to such requirements as well.
Established
October 1984
Capital
100 million yen
Number of Employees
Approximately 4500 (as of March 31, 2011)
Operating revenue
388.3 billion yen (as of March 31, 2011)
Future expansion of services even in a LAN environment
Increasing value by end-to-end service
In the future, the plan is to further increase the level of services. Special effort is being put into
enriching reporting capabilities. It is currently possible to display and download data such as
WAN traffic, router CPU utilization and ping response time via a customer-facing portal, but
Established as Japan Telecom Co.,
Ltd. in October 1984. In July 2004,
it moved under the umbrella of
SOFTBANK Group, and the company
name was changed to SOFTBANK
TELECOM in October 2006. With
a business vision of providing “the
business solution chosen most often
by customers,” the company provides
a diversity of data communication
services for both corporations and
individuals. To make people happy in
the information revolution, the entire
company is joining together, aiming
to be the number one mobile Internet
and Asian Internet provider.
the possibility of increasing the amount of information provided is being examined. “By taking
advantage of Flexible NetFlow, which is standard in Cisco products, we can provide reports on
each flow attribute,” says Kurakazu. He says that by also taking advantage of IP SLA, they will
be able to measure round-trip time and jitter for each application by “active monitoring,” which
actually generates data packets for measurement.
Not only is inter-branch connection possible, but expansion of services to LAN environments
within customer sites is also in view. As the first step toward this, they added the Cisco Catalyst
3560-X to the line-up of equipment they offer. In the future, they will look into providing
equipment for mobile communications and within LANs. SRE modules that Cisco ISR G2
supports are also expected to play a significant role in expanding these functions.
“We have increased service possibilities dramatically by adopting a highly convenient router
suited to the cloud era,” Takahashi says. SOFTBANK TELECOM hopes, in the future, they will
offer a network environment most suited to use of applications, such as Google Apps, offered
by the company, together with end-to-end support for the entire network. “BYOD needs have
recently increased, and we expect it will be easy to find synergies within the entire SOFTBANK
Group. As a result of this, we would like to contribute to the realization of even higher-value
services and the increased competitive strength and growth of our customers.”
© 2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.
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The data described herein is current as of June 2012.
The specifications described herein are subject to change without notice.
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http://www.cisco.com/jp
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