Kitasato University picks Colt to ensure high-bandwidth

Colt Technology Services Co., Ltd (Colt), the digital infrastructure company, has announced that Kitasato University, one of Japan’s leading private Universities with a focus on medical faculties, has selected Colt IP Access across three of its major campus locations.

The prestigious University selected a 1Gbps Internet access service for its Sagamihara Campus (Kanagawa Prefecture) and Shirokane Campus (Tokyo), where the University hospitals are located, and a 100Mbps service for its Towada Campus (Aomori Prefecture), which houses the School of Veterinary Medicine.

These are the first steps with the introduction of SD-WAN/SASE in the University’s plan to renew the system to cloud-first and to build a Zero Trust environment to utilise the new system. The Kitasato Institute was founded by Dr. Shibasaburo Kitasato in 1914, a bacteriologist who laid the foundation of modern medicine in Japan.

Kitasato University was founded in 1962 as part of the 50th anniversary of the Kitasato Institute, with a School of Hygiene in Shirokane, Minato-ku, Tokyo. It is now Japan’s leading University for life sciences with seven faculties, a graduate school, a professional training college, affiliated hospitals, and research institutes. In 2015, Distinguished Emeritus Professor Satoshi Ōmura was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. In April 2023, the University plans to open the School of Future Engineering to engage in advanced, interdisciplinary education and research.

The adoption of the Colt infrastructure is part of the transition from the “perimeter model” – in which all servers and campus networks are centralised in a single data centre – to a cloud-first network environment and was due in part to the urgent need to secure high-bandwidth Internet access from November 2020, as remote work and remote classes expand due to measures against new coronavirus infection.

In addition, it was important to expand the use of SaaS/Cloud applications such as Microsoft365, BOX, and AzureAD and to unify the use of these applications across the entire University. A local breakout configuration using SD-WAN was implemented for Internet access from each site, taking into account business continuity requirements instead of using the traditional Internet connection points at the data centre and other locations.

As a result, in addition to stable Internet access and application use for students and researchers, the University is now able to operate a highly available and flexible system and to develop a vision for future system expansion and the realisation of a smart hospital and smart University, as well as a complete migration to the cloud.

“We have been considering moving our system to the cloud to enhance our Internet access. Colt was the only company that could provide a stable, guaranteed 1 Gbps bandwidth Internet connection service in our current environment. Other carriers offered dedicated lines, but we needed Internet connectivity to realize a cloud-first system. Colt provided us with end-to-end connectivity to all seven locations, including those with low population density. After IDM and others were installed, Colt’s solution also had the advantage in terms of an easy and smooth connection to applications such as Microsoft and Box. Furthermore, the SD-WAN itself, using Colt’s line as an underlay, was built by a system integrator with a proven track record in Japan, giving us, the user, a sense of security and reliability,” said Mr. Masayoshi Seo, Executive Director of Kitazato Research Institute about the deployment of Colt IP Access and SD-WAN.

Mr. Masayoshi Seo also added, “Internet connectivity for fast and efficient access and Zero Trust security are critical to our University’s use of the cloud. The ability to realise this environment and expand various systems is essential for our new medical and educational initiatives. In addition to BCP measures based on a local breakout, we are currently strengthening BCP measures for Internet access by jointly introducing SINET. Colt and the system integrator will continue to support the stable operation and future expansion of the University’s system.”