Cultural and Media Industry Enters the Digital Era: H3C’s Advanced ICT Products Help KADOKAWA Group Overcome the “Network Wall”

With the development of global digitization, traditional industries such as culture, film and television, publishing, manufacturing and finance began to turn to digital transformation, but new common problems arise: digital transformation depends largely on the advanced and availability of infrastructure, especially the network environment, which is the key to ensuring fast information transfer and low latency. Therefore, building a solid network infrastructure is an inescapable barrier in the process of digital transformation. KADOKAWA Group, one of the leading representative enterprises in Japan's cultural industry, has cooperated with H3C to complete the comprehensive upgrade of the data center network, successfully creating a high-quality, high-performance, highly stable network base, greatly simplifying a series of work such as network practice in the cultural industry.

The Biggest Challenge for Digital Transformation of the Largest Japanese Cultural Industry: Ageing Network Infrastructure

The KADOKAWA Group, a comprehensive entertainment company with numerous businesses in publishing, video, web services, games and education，renowned in Japan and around the world, has played a key role in promoting the development of Japan's modern literature, film and ACGN industries.

In line with changing times and technological innovations, the KADOKAWA Group is seeking to digital transformation its operations while continuing to expand its business areas. In recent years, KADOKAWA has renewed the Group's basic strategy, further enhancing its own IP library through content production and user-generated content (UGC) in various fields, as well as building a "platform for global development", using state-of-the-art digital technology to distribute content worldwide and further expanding content and service formats to provide consumers with a greater variety of digital entertainment content.

However, new challenges arose. Business digital transformation is placing even greater demands on ICT infrastructure, including networks. The KADOKAWA Group's business network has to constantly handle a large load due to the wide variety of data exchanged. There is a risk of a poor user experience due to slow network operation. In addition, the KADOKAWA Group's existing data center network facilities have been in operation for many years, some of which have become obsolete and related products are about to be discontinued. It therefore became imperative for the KADOKAWA Group to find a reliable new high-quality network of suppliers.    

H3C Supports the Network Optimization of the KADOKAWA Group

In order to achieve the network renovation as soon as possible, KADOKAWA Connected, the subsidiary responsible for the IT and information technology operations of the KADOKAWA Group, conducted a public tender and after several rounds of selection, H3C, based in China and a leader in the ICT field, was selected for its many years of accumulated experience in the digital transformation field and its top-class software and hardware performance, H3C‘s localization team was responsive throughout the entire process, quickly carrying out research, planning, briefing, testing and going live, and delivering the development requirements for new functions three months earlier than its competitors.

With regard to the specific construction of the network system, H3C selected its flagship product, the S9850-32H. This product is a switch specifically developed for data center and cloud computing networks, with superior hardware forwarding capabilities, rich data center features and up to 32*100G ports to ensure high speed, high bandwidth and high quality video communications, This is ideal for the KADOKAWA Group's vision of building a global media platform that provides smooth, high-definition streaming services while accommodating high volumes of user access.

In addition, H3C also offers a dedicated development system for hardware facilities. With it, the KADOKAWA Group can add, remove or change functions according to its own operational adjustments, or create new automated tools to promote smarter development and operational maintenance of the network, further facilitate the work of developers. This allows the KADOKAWA Group to create a safer, more convenient and more efficient network environment and lay a solid foundation for long-term digital transformation for the entire group.

A Full-course Response with Local Teams and Overseas Technical Support Working Together, Sets an Example for Digital Transformation in the Industry.

Notably, H3C's local team provided active support at all stages of verification, design, construction and operation, and in order to reduce the impact on KADOKAWA Group operations and ensure a smooth and seamless system migration, the test department in mainland China also simultaneously established a mirror test environment to replicate a series of network architecture verifications to meet customer needs.

H3C's efforts were highly praised by KADOKAWA Connected. Indeed, H3C continues to make inroads not only in the cultural industry, but also in the Japanese education, healthcare, corporate and ISP industries, creating a number of exemplary cases in digital transformation deals that meet the different needs of various industries.

This is due to H3C's 'China-based, serving the world' strategy, industry-leading digital transformation implementation capabilities, and end-to-end capabilities in market development, delivery and service provision that it has built up over the years. To date, H3C has established 17 overseas branches in Asia, Europe, Africa and Latin America, serving 174 countries and territories with a total of 1359 authorized channels, providing timely and efficient localized sales and technical support to customers worldwide.

In the future, H3C will continue to implement its philosophy of "deep commitment and hard work in practice" and create cutting-edge digital transformation solutions for more countries and industries, including Japan, to pave a smooth path into the digital age for lucrative local industries and open a new page in the global digital economy.