Using RedHat Ansible Tower, SoftBank is able to reduce the time required for updating SSL Certificates to as little as 20 seconds
Japan’s telecommunications service provider SoftBank Corp. has adopted Red Hat Ansible Tower to automate its network infrastructure and reduce operations dependent on manual efforts.
SSL certificates are important for the security of a server connection, however, updating each system required different operators and procedures.
To automate the process of updating SSL Certificates and reduce work hours, SoftBank deployed Red Hat Ansible Tower. Using Red Hat Ansible Tower, SoftBank reports a reduction in the time required for updating from as much as two hours down to as little as 20 seconds. SoftBank has also been able to reduce work hours for updating by 99 percent.
Additionally, using Ansible Playbooks to share automation across the company, updates can now be performed more accurately and quickly. SoftBank reports that burdens on employees who conducted the updates at night were also reduced, and spare time has been used to learn new skills and improve operations.
Mochizuki Hirokazu, president and representative director, Red Hat K.K., said: “SoftBank faced the challenge of efficiently managing operations in complicated IT environments. By automating IT operations dependent on individual skills and reducing manual operations, Red Hat Ansible Tower has helped SoftBank improve organizational productivity and quality of services as well as reduce maintenance time.”
Expansion Plans
SoftBank currently has plans to further automate operations and expand the devices automated with Red Hat Ansible Automation including datacenters inside and outside the company, networks, appliance devices for internal networks and existing servers.
Takayori Maeda, section manager, Technology Unit, IT & Network Unit, Information Technology Division, IT Infrastructure Division, SoftBank Corp., commented:
“The adoption of Red Hat Ansible Tower has helped enable quicker and more flexible automation of our network infrastructure management work. With Red Hat Consulting we have been able to train our technical personnel to use Red Hat Ansible Tower, which has led to improved operations. We plan to expand our use of Red Hat Ansible Tower to provide a higher-quality and more reliable infrastructure.”
Headquartered in Tokyo, SoftBank is one of Japan’s largest telecommunications service providers. In 2015, the company adopted the slogan “Half & Twice” which aimed to reduce manual efforts and costs by half through the use of technologies and simultaneously double productivity and creativity.
In 2016, they adopted the slogan “Smart & Fun!” to encourage employees to use the time saved through the use of technologies for innovative and creative activities to further the business.
