The novel coronavirus is changing the way Japanese people work. Companies must think about office infrastructure based on the premise of a new work style in the With Corona era, rather than a "fixed-edge response" after the declaration of a state of emergency. How will Yamaha's network equipment contribute to the realization of such a "new normal office"?
What we need is a work style option that is not obsessed with telework
2020 has been a year in which work styles in Japan have changed dramatically due to the impact of the new coronavirus. In a nutshell, “telework is an option for working styles”. After the state of emergency was declared, telework, which had not been used for a long time, spread at once, and companies were forced to take a permanent rather than temporary response. Currently, telework is centered on IT companies and white-collar jobs that have a high affinity with telework, but in the future, telework will spread to jobs that have been considered difficult until now (related article: Challenges of working from home " How should a company support a home network environment?).
Telework is not limited to so-called pandemic countermeasures like this one, but it also brings great benefits in terms of work style reform, disaster countermeasures, and shortage of human resources. If the number of teleworkers increases, offices and working hours will be dispersed, which will alleviate the notorious crowded trains in the Tokyo metropolitan area. Employees will also be able to work flexibly according to life events such as childbirth, childcare, and nursing care. In addition, Japanese companies, which are prone to disasters, need to deal with typhoons and earthquakes that occur almost every year, and telework can be said to be an effective measure in this respect. Furthermore, if a work environment that does not depend on location is established by telework, it will be possible to acquire human resources in local areas and overseas. This will lead to the elimination of the shortage of human resources, and will naturally fill the gap between urban and rural areas.
But will the office be obsolete? That shouldn't necessarily be the case. Certainly, some IT companies are downsizing or closing down their offices in Tokyo. The other day, Pasona, a major human resource company, announced that it would move its headquarters to Awaji Island in Hyogo Prefecture, and it became a big topic. However, telecommuters and managers are complaining that they can't easily talk to them, feel lonely, and can't see the progress of their work as telecommuting becomes longer. Some people are reluctant to work from home, which is their “place of living,” and it is still difficult to say that technology can replace the sense of team unity that office work brings.
Advantages and disadvantages of telework and office work
Currently, there is a large gap between cutting-edge companies that are heading straight for telework and companies that eventually return to the office after trialing telework. However, what is required of today's companies is work style options and the development of workspaces that realize them. The best solution is a “hybrid work style,” which allows employees to flexibly change their working location according to the nature of their work, such as going to the office at times, working from home at other times, and working in a shared office at other times. If it is not possible to go back to the pre-coronavirus situation, the path forward for a company is to actively invest and build a strong "new normal office."
A new normal network for a new normal office
So, what is needed for a new normal office that claims to support telework?
What is clear is that the pre-Corona vortex method of concentrating many employees in a small office space is about to become nonsense. In the corona crisis, social distancing is required to keep distance between people, and it is necessary to take care not to create the three Cs in the office. And as telecommuting and mobile work become commonplace and more people work outside the company, the occupancy rate of fixed desk space will naturally decline.
Another point is to ensure the quality and quantity of communication. Telework replaces the conversations that people used to have when working together in the office with chats and teleconferences. In other words, the total volume of conversations in the office will flow directly to the cloud application as data such as text, video, and audio. Especially important is the improvement of sound quality to accurately convey intentions, feelings, and nuances. Meeting rooms and existing workspaces that facilitate communication using the latest technology must be realized.
A new normal office that realizes a comfortable remote conference environment by seamlessly and securely connecting to telecommuting and shared offices while maintaining social distance. If you've read this far, it should be obvious that the key lies in the network. Stable communication with the cloud and a VPN that securely guides employees to the office network, a highly stable wired LAN, and a wireless LAN that realizes flexible work styles. Such a new normal office is realized by Yamaha's network equipment.
Yamaha's network equipment that realizes the new normal office
Yamaha is a long-established router manufacturer since the dawn of the Internet, but 10 years after entering the switch market and 8 years after entering the wireless LAN market, it has become a comprehensive network equipment manufacturer. there is It has a reputation for its highly reliable, simple and sturdy hardware, quick support for the latest technology, and stable software, and has long supported the networks of Japanese small and medium enterprises and SOHOs. In addition, we are also developing high-quality conference speaker products that make use of Yamaha's DNA, which is particular about sound. As a result, we have a product lineup like a general trading company that says, "Yamaha has everything you need for telework under the influence of the new coronavirus."
High-speed internet, security, VPN, etc. to raise the standard of the telework environment
In the new normal office, Yamaha routers provide high-speed internet connections for teleconferencing and cloud use. Slowness in office and home applications is also often due to poor internet connections. By replacing this with the latest gigabit FTTH and Yamaha routers, comfortable remote conferencing and cloud use will be realized. Naturally, you need a high-performance gigabit router that can withstand large volumes.
Of course, there are many routers in the world that claim gigabit support, but in many cases, inexpensive personal routers cannot withstand use. For example, when using cloud services, it is necessary to set up thousands of sessions on a single PC, and ordinary personal routers cannot handle such sessions. Also, if high throughput is to be achieved, it is necessary to consider introducing IPv6, which does not have the overhead of PPPoE. In that respect, Yamaha's latest routers such as NVR510 and RTX830 boast high performance that fully utilizes large-capacity FTTH. The NVR510 and RTX830 have a throughput of 2 Gbps between LANs, a sufficient number of NAT sessions of 65,534, and support IPv6.
"RTX830" can handle high throughput and number of sessions
Furthermore, for enterprise use, the firewall needs to be not just simple packet filtering, but a high-performance one that can visualize and control cloud applications. Looking at the security functions, the NVR510 has unauthorized access detection (IDS), and the RTX830 has IDS, URL filtering that works with external services, and application control (DPI) that allows routing, QoS, and filtering for each application. corresponds to
In addition, the lack of VPN capacity was a major issue in this telework. Some companies have taken the opportunity of this corona disaster to move their systems to the cloud, but many companies needed to remotely log in to their internal systems and NAS via VPN. However, VPNs are not designed on the premise that all employees will telework, and it is difficult to suddenly increase VPN capacity. There seems to have been a case where the VPN gateway that had been used before was suddenly pulled out of the warehouse and used, resulting in the software being outdated and being exploited for vulnerabilities to gain unauthorized access.
Now that nearly half a year has passed since the declaration of a state of emergency, it is time to seriously renew the “immediately created VPN”. It is necessary to prioritize the systems to be migrated to the cloud and to increase the number of VPNs on the premise of company-wide telework. Yamaha's router is an effective option here as well.
The latest gigabit router "RTX1210" boasts 100 VPN connections (IPsec throughput 1.5 Gbps), and the "RTX3500" designed as a central router boasts 1000 VPN connections (IPsec throughput 2 Gbps), providing stable A VPN environment can be realized. Cloud-based VPN services are also available as an option for VPN deployment, but the stable throughput and performance are advantages unique to hardware. In addition, if you install the VPN client "YMS-VPN8" that enables secure remote access to the PCs of employees who telework, they can connect to internal systems via VPN and cloud services directly via the Internet. It is possible to reduce load and traffic.
Internet breakout realized by YMS-VPN8
What is a new office network based on remote conferencing?
In addition to Internet and WAN connections, the office network must also be designed with telework in mind. In a nutshell, it is a hybrid of wired LAN, which requires stability, and wireless LAN, which provides flexibility.
The most popular application for telework is remote conferencing. Teleconferencing requires high-capacity, real-time communication such as video and audio, and unless it is transmitted with high quality, it will lead to a loss of user experience. Audio is more important than video, and in an environment where the sound is interrupted or heard with a delay, the participants will feel stress in the interaction, and the conference itself will not work. From this point of view, a highly stable wired LAN is considered essential for office networks.
On the other hand, in the current office, laptops and smartphones are often used as business terminals. Since these devices often have only wireless LAN as a network interface, a wireless infrastructure is also essential. With a stable wireless LAN, users can easily communicate via teleconference wherever they go in the office.
On that point, Yamaha has a lineup of wired switches and wireless LAN APs, and it is possible to realize a hybrid network. Wired LAN switches have a wide variety of product genres, such as L3 switches that support large-scale networks, light L3 switches with routing, intelligent switches with SNMP management functions, smart L2 switches with PoE lineup, and simple L2 switches. The number of ports is also abundant.
Yamaha's intelligent L2 switch "SWX2310 series" announced at the end of last year
In addition, the wireless LAN AP lineup includes WLX212, WLX402, WLX313, and WLX202 that support IEEE802.11ac. In addition to being able to efficiently manage multiple wireless LAN APs, it also has a radio wave visualization function. The white housing that blends into the office is also impressive.
The greatest feature of Yamaha's network equipment, including routers, switches, and wireless LANs, is high manageability. By using the cloud-based network management service "Yamaha Network Organizer (YNO)," IT administrators can configure and manage network devices in multiple locations in an integrated manner simply by accessing the cloud from a web browser.
For example, by using the zero configuration function, you can complete the connection and settings by inserting the USB memory containing the connection setting information into the device. No prior kitting or on-site setting/confirmation is required. In addition, firmware updates, which are a concern from a security standpoint, can be scheduled remotely and performed all at once. In addition, by using the LAN map function, it is possible to visualize the network configuration of switches and wireless LAN APs under the router, and to receive an alert if a connection failure occurs.
The latest wireless LAN AP "WLX212", which was just announced in July 2020, also supports management by YNO, and it is possible to visualize the radio wave condition of the wireless LAN as well. If you continue to use the existing IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n wireless LAN environment, consider upgrading to a stable high-speed wireless LAN such as IEEE 802.11ac.
The secret to avoiding the three Cs and using teleconferencing comfortably
So, what kind of office network should be realized by using these Yamaha switches and wireless LAN? Huh?
Work areas where teleworkers are increasing and office workers are decreasing, maintain social distance, avoid the three Cs, and promote free space with plenty of space. Also, it is desirable to introduce a 5 GHz band wireless LAN with high transmission capacity to achieve both flexibility and capacity. WLX212 compatible with YNO has a built-in virtual controller function for collectively managing wireless LAN APs on the same LAN, so when wireless LAN APs are added or replaced, settings are automatically synchronized, enabling status monitoring and software control. Batch uploading is also possible.
On the other hand, the meeting area needs to accommodate a significant increase in remote meetings with teleworkers and customers. In addition to the wireless LAN, it is recommended to prepare a wired LAN environment that can ensure stability and reliability. In the future, more important meetings that should not be interrupted will be held remotely, so wired LANs are easier to ensure stability than wireless, which is susceptible to the surrounding radio wave environment. Yamaha's switches support gigabit, and in addition to simple L2 switches, we offer a wide range of smart L2 switches, intelligent L2 switches with enhanced management functions, and L3 switches with routing functions. The number of ports can also be selected, so networks with various requirements can be flexibly constructed.
Different use of wired LAN and wireless LAN
In addition, Yamaha has introduced products in various genres such as voice communication, telework booths (soundproof rooms for offices), speech privacy, etc. for audio, which is the most important in teleconferences. For example, a speakerphone that realizes a comfortable meeting by installing an adaptive echo canceller and noise reduction is a must-have item in the telework era. The latest "YVC-330" has a function called "SoundCap" that suppresses ambient noise so that you can communicate comfortably even in noisy open spaces. It's the perfect device for huddle meetings in conference areas. In addition, the other day, we announced the one-stop sound solution "ADECIA" assuming remote conferences, supporting the realization of a new normal office.
Increase productivity in a "hybrid work style" office
The current corona crisis has overturned the common sense of "working in the office", but the era has progressed to telework. It is no longer an inevitable trend. From the perspective of work style reform and disaster countermeasures, many companies should permanently consider the environment, systems, and company rules that allow them to work regardless of location, which is necessary for the introduction of telework.
Under these circumstances, the future work style must be based on a "hybrid work style" that combines telework and office work. We have broken away from fixed time and place meetings, oral and paper communication, and working in a small office with desks side by side, providing a highly productive environment for many employees, It can even be said that it is our responsibility to improve our communication skills and corporate competitiveness.
Yamaha products provide the best products and services to build such a new normal office. Routers that realize high-speed and secure Internet and VPN connections, wired switches and wireless LAN APs that realize both stable and flexible networks, cloud services for stable operation of networks in multiple locations, and comfortable remote conferences. With a wide range of products such as voice communication products for use, we will solve the problems of users related to telework. In particular, as a musical instrument manufacturer, they show a strong commitment to solutions that solve sound problems.
In addition to various webinar videos that relieve anxiety about telework, Yamaha's site has a "telework consultation desk", so please access it.
(Provided by Yamaha)
