[IDCF Cloud Construction, Operation and Maintenance] Daily Sports Online / Kobe Shimbun NEXT | Kobe Shimbun

This time, we spoke with Mr. Nakajima of Kobe Shimbun Co., Ltd. about his usage and impressions of our cloud construction, operation and maintenance services

Tell us about your business

Nakajima : As a newspaper company, our mission is to deliver information to society through articles and photographs, in other words, the power of "words." However, as times change, it has become somewhat difficult to have a sufficient presence in society through the pages of a newspaper alone. This is why, at Kobe Shimbun, we believe that even as a local newspaper, we must reach out nationwide. We see the challenge of strengthening our online reach, and have established the Digital Promotion Bureau in order to focus on the web as well as the print version.

The main job of the digital department is to post content such as articles, photos, and videos on the websites we operate, "Daily Sports Online" and "Kobe Shimbun NEXT." In addition to that, we provide information to major portal sites so that the information reaches more people

The newspaper industry is often referred to as a "declining industry" or "old media," but I believe it still has a lot to do for society

At Kobe Shimbun, we value the role of journalism in resolving local issues and revitalizing local communities. With Daily Sports, we aim to deliver entertaining information to people all over the country, and with Daily Sports online, in addition to delivering messages to people all over Japan, we have recently been approaching people in English-speaking countries to see if we can do something for them

Tomoyuki Nakajima, Deputy Director of Web Engineering, Digital Promotion Department, Kobe Shimbun Co., Ltd

Please tell us the background to the introduction of this service

Nakajima : Our previous company decided to withdraw from server operation and maintenance, and it was difficult for us to handle 24/7 operation and maintenance on our own. We were looking for a new company that could handle operation and maintenance, and that's how we found out about Beyond through an introduction.

Of course, the company's policy was to get competitive quotes, so we considered comparing with another company

We were looking for a company that could not only handle operation and maintenance after a major failure has taken our website down, but also have a system in place to prevent problems before they actually occur. We were attracted to Beyond because they are not only available for contact 24 hours a day, but also able to detect and respond to abnormalities before they develop into major problems

What was the deciding factor that ultimately led you to choose our company?

Nakajima : When comparing with other companies, we used criteria such as "technical knowledge of servers," "speed of response when problems occur," "ability to resolve problems," and "whether or not they match our company culture."

Ultimately, the biggest deciding factor in choosing Beyond was their speed of response . This was something we considered extremely important, and they met our expectations, making us feel they were trustworthy.

We are also pleased that they "match our company culture." This is something we didn't know until we actually worked together, but perhaps because they are both based in Osaka, in the Kansai region, we are geographically close, which makes communication easy and helps

Another thing we like about Beyond is that , as their catchphrase states, "Leave all your server needs to us," you can leave everything to them . This may seem like an exaggeration to us, as we lack knowledge of servers, but we were very impressed by this statement. We feel that this phrase is a sign of Beyond's confidence and is proof that they have the system in place to make this a reality. When our company members saw this catchphrase, we came to the conclusion that "if they can say it so confidently, let's ask them for help."

Tell us about the services you use

Nakajima : We currently use them for 24-hour server operation and maintenance. At the time, the support period for CentOS was about to expire, so we asked them to help us with the design and construction of the server, including replacing the OS.

Additionally, the company that had previously handled maintenance had made various settings on the server side, which had resulted in a fairly black boxed and extremely complicated system

Because of this, we had Beyond take a considerable amount of time to deal with the transition. There were many more black-boxed aspects than we had expected, so it took a considerable amount of time to unravel and deal with them, but in the end we were able to complete the transition smoothly, which was a great help

What specifically is it that is helpful to you?

Nakajima : Maintenance is the biggest help. What worries me about maintenance is that we have few means to deal with sudden increases in access.

However, we are now able to promptly take pre-determined measures, such as blocking IP addresses in the event of unauthorized access and increasing server capacity depending on the access situation

It's difficult for us to be on-hand 24 hours a day, so this is a great help. To be honest, nighttime support tends to be a secondary priority, but we take pride in being a newspaper company, and we believe it's only natural to keep our website available 24 hours a day

In terms of national recognition, I think "Daily Sports Online" is a big factor. It has grown into a site that generates approximately 200 million to 300 million page views per month. In addition, by implementing CDN, we have been able to maintain smooth browsing even during peak traffic

"Kobe Shimbun NEXT" operates a flat-rate membership site. Monthly page views reach approximately 50 million at its peak, averaging 10 to 20 million, which I believe is a respectable number for a local newspaper that has shifted to a subscription-based approach. While there are likely to be technical challenges, I hope to work together with you to see to what extent we can utilize the technology we have cultivated at "Daily Sports Online" for "Kobe Shimbun NEXT."

Please let me know if there are any points you would like to make

Nakajima : We have a fair number of technical personnel, which is unusual for a local newspaper, but we currently have few specialists in server-related and infrastructure-related matters. Of course, we are studying infrastructure, but the reality is that there are some areas where we cannot keep up with just that.

In that respect, I believe Beyond is a group of specialists in that field, so I think it was a great decision to ask them for help as we were able to receive a variety of advice as we worked together

We Beyond not just as a subcontractor, but as a partner company that works with us . It's reassuring to know that when a problem arises, they can work with us to find a solution.

They are flexible in responding to even minor concerns and questions that are probably not important enough to be discussed as part of work, which creates an atmosphere where we feel comfortable discussing various things with them. Personally, I think this is why they fit in with our organizational culture

Please tell us your impressions of using our service

Nakajima : I've been using their services for about five years, the feeling that we're "doing it together ." I personally have the desire to "work together, sweat together, and achieve things," and I feel like Beyond is doing just that.

Of course, the most important thing about maintaining a server is that it operates stably without any issues, so we discussed how we should design it and worked together to create it, which has allowed us to achieve stable operation recently

What can be expected of us in the future?

Nakajima : The world of technology is constantly evolving, and as engineers, we are constantly learning. However, the evolution of AI has been particularly remarkable in recent years, with new services appearing every three months, making it difficult to keep up. In that respect, I think Beyond is well-positioned to keep up with the latest information.

Additionally, there has been a lot of news recently about ransomware and other security issues. While we are also focusing on security measures, Beyond is a group of specialists with even higher levels of expertise than we are, and we feel that we have no choice but to rely on them in this area

As for my hopes for the future, as technology advances and new services and technologies emerge one after another, I believe there will be areas that we are unable to fully utilize. I would be delighted if Beyond could incorporate these new technologies and feed them back into the projects we are working on, leading to the creation of even better products and making them even better. I hope that we can continue to move forward together in this way as technical partners

Please tell us about your future business development plans

Nakajima : We will continue to deliver a lot of information to everyone, but we think we need to create a new revenue model other than the current Daily Sports advertising model and the Kobe Shimbun subscription model. We are currently working on various initiatives, such as e-commerce, and we plan to continue to develop various other initiatives in the future.

Additionally, as a newspaper company, we believe that strengthening content and local communities are essential, so we are considering creating communities and producing something specific to those communities. We believe that businesses targeting seniors have a high affinity with newspapers, but we would like to go beyond that and consider new initiatives that utilize digital technology for all generations

-Thank you for your valuable story!

Kobe Port as seen from the Kobe Shimbun building