If you were to take a walk down the sleek corridors of NTT TechnoCross, you’d probably feel the pulse of a company that lives and breathes cutting-edge tech.
Born in July 1985 as a subsidiary of telecommunications giant Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT), the company has been powering up businesses for decades, all while making waves with their high-tech security, cloud, and network solutions.
The case study of NTT TechnoCross isn’t just one of technology – it’s about pushing boundaries. Their motto, “Powering society through advanced technology,” might sound lofty, but they’ve been delivering on it, one system at a time.
Whether it’s designing, constructing, maintaining, or operating intricate ICT systems, NTT TechnoCross has built its empire on top-tier tech and the brains at NTT Labs.
But here’s where things get interesting: NTT TechnoCross isn’t just about building IT systems; it’s also about building trust.
That trust? It’s largely driven by their business-to-business model, with their website serving as the digital front door. It’s not just a site – it’s the heartbeat of their brand, where they connect with clients and nurture loyalty.
So, any hiccup there? That’s not just a glitch; it’s a full-on trust breaker, with ripple effects that could extend beyond just TechnoCross, affecting the broader NTT brand.
Given that their entire brand is anchored in security, the stakes couldn’t be higher when it came time to refresh their website. One thing was clear: if they were going to renew their site, they couldn’t just settle for something basic.
They needed a fortress to protect it from the growing threat of cyberattacks. Because for a company built on security, even a small breach would spell a big hit to their reputation – and nobody wants to be the IT company that failed at IT security.
The Centerpiece Of Its Brand Strategy
By mid-2014, NTT TechnoCross found itself at a crossroads with its website, a key player in their brand strategy. Cloud computing was exploding in the business world, and the company—already a major provider of cloud and security support—saw the writing on the wall.
It wasn’t just time to give their site a facelift; it was time to go all in on cloud-based services and beef up security by outsourcing those operations.
Ryo Sakamoto, Section Manager in the marketing and sales department, explained the logic behind this shift, “Reliably defending the website against global-scale threats that evolve on a daily basis, such as DDoS attacks, became essentially impossible under in-house operation,”
“There was also the major burden of working day-by-day through the chain of investigation, analysis, testing, analysis of results, full-scale response, and reporting of results, in order to deal with these threats. Of even greater concern was the risk of overlooking a threat itself because of an insufficient response.”
At the time, just two people were manning the website. And while they were doing their best, it was like fighting a fire with a garden hose.
Their days were filled with investigating attacks, researching countermeasures, and keeping the content updated, all while getting input from both the Internet and the in-house security team. By the time the renewal kicked off, those two staffers were tapped out—overloaded and overwhelmed.
When NTT TechnoCross began revamping the site, they made a crucial decision: find a solution that could protect the website from the constant barrage of threats and, at the same time, take some of the weight off the team.
The stakes? High. But the company knew they couldn’t keep fighting the battle with an understaffed team and limited resources. Something had to change.
The Requirements For Selection Of A Solution
When it came time to choose a solution for securing their newly revamped website, NTT TechnoCross had a clear set of criteria.
They needed something with a global track record, easy operability to reduce workload, stable availability, quick implementation, and a service-based model rather than an asset. Oh, and it had to fit into a monthly, pay-as-you-go fee structure.
Sakamoto summed up the urgency perfectly:
“All of these, including global track record, are important. However, we faced a really tight schedule with the transfer to the new system scheduled at about two months out, so ease of implementation was a particularly vital requirement.”
Yusuke Takahashi, Manager of the Business Solution Business Department, also had his hands in the selection process. His focus? Making sure the solution worked seamlessly with NTT’s labs and existing websites, meaning it had to be IPv6 compatible.
“For reasons related to NTT’s laboratories and websites in use, IPv6 compatibility became one of the requirements. In addition, prompt response in the case of an incident within the NTT Group was necessary, so the ability to use custom policies was also an absolute requirement,” Takahashi said.
After digging through the options, NTT TechnoCross found that Imperva was the only cloud-based WAF service that checked all the boxes. The kicker? They managed to get it up and running in just a month and a half—an impressive feat given the tight timeline.
The Results
Sakamoto didn’t waste any time noticing the positive impact after implementing Imperva. Right away, the website’s performance stabilized, and the operational load was noticeably reduced.
“After implementing Imperva, countermeasures against specific threats have been off our radar in a good sense and we essentially leave things to Imperva,”
“The ability to achieve stable operation of the website without worries really has great merits, both physically and mentally.,”
“In addition, since the burden of investigating and testing for threats was significantly reduced, we were able to allocate one of the two people in charge of the website to other work,” he explained.
Sakamoto highlighted just how much of a game-changer this was from a business perspective:
“As the expense for one person is several million yen per year, this expense was saved and the resources could be redirected to work that we originally needed to focus on. I’d call this a quantitative effect of implementation.”
“Something we really appreciated was the life cycle aspect of the service. The successive appearance of features that we had wanted is really effective,”
“For example, although we thought that IPv6 compatibility would not be possible in a cloud service, that feature eventually appeared.”
“When we talked about other features we wanted, those would come up on the next road map. I get the impression that Imperva takes full advantage of its format as a service provided in the cloud.”
Being part of the NTT Group, NTT TechnoCross often fields questions from other companies in the Group. Sakamoto was quick to praise Imperva’s support, which made dealing with the inquiries a breeze.
“The response to questions from Imperva’s support is incredibly quick. We get responses on the average in two to three hours, letting us respond when an inquiry from within the Group calls for a prompt reply,”
“When a prompt reply looks to be difficult, Imperva’s support quickly informs us of this in the form of a preliminary response,” says Sakamoto.
Fast forward three years into the live operational phase, and NTT TechnoCross continues to reap the rewards of not just Imperva’s service but also their consistently responsive support.
The Benifiets
Sakamoto didn’t just stop at detailing the immediate benefits of implementing Imperva; he’s also thinking about how it fits into future plans.
“Our department essentially engages in digital marketing with a focus on the website. We are planning to move beyond the current domain and gradually expand our websites to increase visitor inflow,”
“I think defense through Imperva will become more important than ever. At the same time, the fact that we can offer reliably secured services is something that I want to properly communicate to customers.”
For NTT TechnoCross, which is always pushing the envelope with the latest in security, cloud, and network technologies, Imperva has already carved out a crucial role.
It’s not just a tool; it’s become an indispensable part of ensuring the security of the company’s website—the very face of their business.
