Case Study: SoftBank Telecom Corp. achieves rapid cloud scale (22,000 virtual desktops) and 39% energy savings with NetApp

SOFTBANK Group Transformed its Business and Helped Lift a Nation

SOFTBANK Group, a leading Japanese telecommunications and Internet company, faced an urgent challenge after the March 11, 2011 Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami disrupted infrastructure and led to government-mandated 25% industrial energy cuts. With public transportation and office power unreliable, SOFTBANK needed to maintain operations, reduce energy use, and support the broader national recovery.

SOFTBANK rapidly offered its White Cloud services free or at a discount to affected organizations and scaled its White Cloud Desktop (DaaS) using NetApp storage technology, enabling thousands to work remotely. Within weeks it added 14,000 internal virtual desktops and by June 2011 operated more than 22,000 virtual desktops, cut corporate HQ energy use by 39%, saved over 50% in storage capacity, and reduced deployment time for 1,000 desktops from one week to one day—transforming IT into a resilient, efficient cloud platform that supported recovery efforts.

SoftBank Telecom Corp.

Amane Kito

Chief Information & Security Officer