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Fujitsu Cloud Service Employed by Metawater for Water Business Cloud

Cloud service, with usage-based billing, underpins highly-reliable system platform supporting continuity of water and sewer operations

Fujitsu Limited

Tokyo, June 07, 2011

Fujitsu today announced that its On-Demand Virtual System Service cloud service is being employed by Metawater Co., Ltd., which supports the water and sewer operations of local governments, as the system platform for Metawater's new water business cloud. Through its newly-built water business cloud, Metawater has been providing regional monitoring services, asset management services, and remote support services since April 2011. By using the water business cloud in their water and sewer operations, local governments or their sub-contractors can use shared information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure at a low cost, without having to individually own an ICT infrastructure. Particularly when it comes to regional monitoring of water and sewer operations, it is anticipated that the water business cloud will cut lifecycle costs, including system deployment and running expenses, by 30% compared to in-house systems.

As the service uses, as its system platform, Fujitsu's On-Demand Virtual System Service cloud service, which features metered billing, the system delivers superior flexibility at a low cost. By leveraging its cloud computing technologies, Fujitsu is committed to supporting this new business of Metawater, which is designed to support the continuity of water and sewer operations into the future.

Background

Remote support services for Metawater's water business cloud

Metawater, which is involved in the development, layout, and construction of a variety of equipment and facilities in the area of waterworks, including water and sewer management and desalination facilities, is a company at the top of its game in its field in Japan. Metawater aims to be a leading global company addressing the social imperatives relating to the issues of water and the environment.

Much of Japan's water and sewer infrastructure is becoming run-down with age. It is said that starting in 2015, Japan will enter an era in which its entire water and sewer infrastructure will need to be upgraded. Many of the local governments that run water and sewer operations, however, face difficulty in securing adequate budgetary resources due to declining tax revenues, brought on by a combination of municipality mergers and a declining population, with lower birth rates and an aging population. As well, it is anticipated that there will be a shortage of experienced engineers. Moreover, in order to perform their various information management and monitoring functions, such as monitoring the operational status of equipment and facilities in their respective regions, each local government has had to own its individual ICT infrastructure and deal with the complications of operating and maintaining its own systems.

To address these issues, Metawater has created its water business cloud, a new business that leverages cooperation among local governments. Underpinning the new business is Fujitsu's On-Demand Virtual System Service, which provides a highly-reliable system platform, with excellent scalability and flexibility, at a low cost.

Features of the System Platform

As the service uses as its foundation, Fujitsu's On-Demand Virtual System Service which features metered billing, Metawater can use just the right amount of ICT resources it needs, when it needs them, and can access highly-scalable ICT resources as the scale of its business grows. Moreover, as Metawater adds new solutions, it is easily able to expand its system, enabling it to provide services to its customers on a timely basis.

For its authentication platform, the system uses the WebSERVE smart SaaS Platform(1), which can accommodate both multi-tenant(2) and single sign-on(3). It presents an integrated user interface that can authenticate multiple ICT resources at once, making for a system platform that delivers high reliability while being easy to use.

System platform supporting the water business cloud

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Anticipated Benefits

  1. Anticipated benefits for Metawater
    • Metawater can use just the right amount of ICT resources it needs, when it needs them, with the ability to access highly-scalable ICT resources as the scale of its business expands.
    • Metawater can flexibly upgrade its infrastructure environment, such as when it wants to add new solutions.
    • Use of Fujitsu's cloud service frees Metawater from the complications of operating and maintaining its own system.
  2. Anticipated benefits for local governments or their sub-contractors running water and sewer operations
    • Amid a difficult operating environment for water and sewer operations, brought about by municipality mergers and other factors, multiple local governments or companies can use shared ICT infrastructure at a low cost. Particularly when it comes to regional monitoring of water and sewer operations, it is anticipated that the water business cloud will cut lifecycle costs, including system deployment and running costs, by 30% compared to in-house systems.
    • Use of a cloud-based system reduces the risk of losing data as a result of a disaster or major accident.
    • Use of a cloud-based system frees local governments or their sub-contractors from the complications of operating and maintaining their own systems.

About Metawater's Water Business Cloud

Using cloud computing technology to deliver new services, Metawater has been offering the following three support solutions to local governments or their sub-contractors running water and sewer operations since April 2011:

  • Regional monitoring services for monitoring the operational status of equipment and facilities in their respective regions as well as water levels, water quality, and water pressure.
  • Asset management services for optimizing the management of facilities and equipment through the unified management, at a datacenter, of all forms of information relating to specifications, operations, malfunctions, and maintenance of equipment and facilities.
  • Remote support services that enable engineers with considerable experience in a variety of fields, both inside and outside of water and sewer operations, to provide remote support for the assessments and work of on-site personnel.

Using this system platform, Metawater also plans to provide a variety of solutions for reducing electricity usage volumes, as well as associated costs and CO2 emissions, of water and sewer operations, which use a combined total of 1.5% of the electricity generated in Japan. Furthermore, by soliciting the participation of many partners among both local governments and companies, Metawater plans to enhance its menu of solutions. The company aims to achieve sales of 3 billion yen by fiscal 2013, and sales of 8 billion yen by fiscal 2015.

About Fujitsu's On-Demand Virtual System Service

This service, which is a public cloud service, delivers bundled virtualized ICT infrastructure from Fujitsu's datacenters, providing resources through the customer's network on a metered-use billing system that is based on customer usage. For business processes such as end-of-the-month accounting or, for example, unscheduled system development to be able to accommodate regulatory changes, in which reliability and scalability are essential, the service allows the utilization of low-cost ICT system resources on an as-needed, when-needed basis, without the need of having to build individual ICT systems.

As a partner to Metawater, Fujitsu is committed to supporting the water business cloud with its latest technologies, providing flexible services to meet business application needs, and working with Metawater to create new business opportunities.


  • [1] WebSERVE smart SaaS Platform

    A technology platform for the cloud offered by Fujitsu System Solutions Limited.

  • [2] Multi-tenant

    A systems environment in which the systems or applications of multiple companies can be jointly used, just as multiple companies or stores can be located in a single commercial office building.

  • [3] Single sign-on

    The ability to access multiple operating systems or applications with just one authentication procedure (or functions that enable that capability).

About Fujitsu

Fujitsu is the leading Japanese information and communication technology (ICT) company offering a full range of technology products, solutions and services. Over 170,000 Fujitsu people support customers in more than 100 countries. We use our experience and the power of ICT to shape the future of society with our customers. Fujitsu Limited (TSE:6702) reported consolidated revenues of 4.5 trillion yen (US$55 billion) for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2011. For more information, please see http://www.fujitsu.com

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All other company or product names mentioned herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. Information provided in this press release is accurate at time of publication and is subject to change without advance notice.

This press release has been revised as of December 17, 2018.

Date: 07 June, 2011
City: Tokyo
Company: Fujitsu Limited, , , , , , , , , ,