[Cloud deployment / operation maintenance] Corporate site | Niitaka -sama

This time, we spoke with Mr. Fujita of Niitaka Corporation's Information Systems Department about the background to their decision to introduce Beyond's cloud construction, operation and maintenance service, and his impressions after actually using the service

--Please tell us about your company's business

Mr. Fujita : Niitaka is a manufacturer of commercial detergents and solid fuels founded in 1963, and aims to be "a company that supports the 'cleanliness' of the world." When we first started, we dealt in surfactant-related products, but we succeeded in developing solid fuels for hotels and gained the top market share in the industry. We then expanded our commercial detergent business and offer environmentally friendly products such as the highly biodegradable dishwashing detergent "My Soft" and non-hazardous dishwasher cleaners.

Currently, our main business is the chemical business, which accounts for approximately 94% of our sales. We provide products to a wide range of customers, including the restaurant industry, hotels and inns, supermarkets, and food factories. In 2023, we acquired Biobank Co., Ltd., and entered the healthcare business

Our strength lies in being an independent company that handles everything from manufacturing to sales. We leverage this strength to respond quickly and flexibly to market needs and changes in society. We have also built a strong network with community-based dealers across the country, and instead of leaving it up to the dealers, we listen directly to customer needs and make thorough proposals to solve their problems

--Please tell us the background to the introduction of this service

Mr. Fujita : Until now, the company that produced our corporate website had been handling everything from the infrastructure side as well, but there were some aspects of server management that were outside of their area of ​​expertise, making it difficult to deal with. Furthermore, there was talk of scaling back on infrastructure services.

Additionally, since last year, we have been experiencing DDoS attacks from overseas, which have caused our corporate website server to frequently go down, and we were considering how to resolve this. This was around the time we were looking to expand overseas, but at the time the only solution we could offer was to block all access from overseas, and we felt that in order to respond appropriately, we needed to switch to a company that could provide specialized services, so we began to consider this

-How did you find out about Beyond?

Fujita : Our goal this time was to strengthen our security measures and server monitoring. After doing some research, we came across several companies, but we decided to go with Beyond as we felt that their services might be a good fit for our needs. We had been outsourcing some aspects of our work to them up until now, and we weren't in a position to suddenly improve our skills in the future, so we placed a lot of importance on whether we could outsource everything to them.

--What was the deciding factor that ultimately led you to choose Beyond?

Fujita : Most operation services are generally flat-rate services, but what attracted us the most was the wide range of services they could handle. As I mentioned earlier, we wanted to "leave everything to them," so a service that offered a wide range of services, rather than the detailed menus offered by other companies, suited our requirements. We weren't even sure where to start, so we they were a company that could help us raise our security level through consultations , and ultimately decided to hire them.

Furthermore, as access from overseas occurs during the nighttime hours, it is difficult to set up an internal system, so we felt that we needed a company that could monitor the situation 24 hours a day, and we also placed importance on the ability to respond in a timely manner

-What kind of services do you use Beyond's services for?

Mr. Fujita : We have asked Sakura Internet to build, operate and maintain our server for use on our corporate website.

--In what ways is Beyond being useful?

Fujita : I was impressed by how flexible the response was and how quickly they responded. At first, I thought they didn't have much knowledge about Sakura Internet's services, but they quickly picked up on all the information and made suggestions. Currently, thanks to various countermeasures, there have been no attacks, but until the situation settled down, the server would sometimes go down overnight, and they handled those occasions. In the past, I would be busy dealing with issues after coming to work in the morning, but now, if there's anything, I can contact them via chat and they'll say, "This issue occurred, we've dealt with it like this, and there are no problems at the moment," which gives me peace of mind and is very helpful.

Looking at the flow of chat messages, it appears that several people are taking turns responding to each issue, but as a whole, it feels as though they are communicating with a single person, taking over the entire process until the incident is resolved, and I feel that the system is very solid.

--Please tell us your impressions of using the service

Fujita : In parallel with the request for monitoring, we also asked them to take care of several other things, such as migrating the server's OS version. Since we didn't have detailed knowledge, we basically just told them what we wanted to do and proceeded while receiving various suggestions. From our perspective, we feel that requesting their services has made things much easier in many ways.

Even for the parts where other companies were involved, they created groups via chat and managed the project management side of things by communicating effectively, which was a great help to us

I'm very happy that everything I expected and wanted to do was achieved in such a short period of time. It gives me peace of mind that even if a new incident occurs in the future, it will be handled somehow

--What do you expect from us in the future?

Fujita : If you can continue with the current level of service, there will be no problem with the parts we are currently requesting, so I would like to work together to think about what else we could ask you to do, and how we can divide up the responsibilities for dealing with the system parts that we have.

As corporate websites become more interactive, it is expected that the number of targets for attack will increase. In that case, we would appreciate any information such as "This type of attack method is popular, so we should take measures against it," or advice or suggestions such as "This part should also be protected" when the site is updated and new content is added

-Please tell us about your future business development plans

Fujita : Until now, we have mainly provided services to restaurants, but as a new business, we have begun efforts to deliver products to customers through different channels, such as providing cleaning agents for the agricultural and dental industries. In the process, we believe that in addition to direct sales, sales of products using web services will also increase. For this reason, we hope to move forward with the help of outside parties, such as Beyond, in areas that cannot be handled in-house alone.

--Thank you for your valuable insights today!