Coca-Cola Bottlers Japan Inc. migrates to Azure, transforms data analysis results

Coca-Cola Bottlers Japan Inc. (CCBJI) is on a mission: to deliver happy moments to everyone while creating value. Accomplishing this goal requires business teams to keep up with constantly shifting trends and preferences. “In Japan, our consumer asks for more variety. We have to provide the right product at the right time in the market,” says Harsh Kachhwaha, Head of Business Systems at CCBJI.

CCBJI produced more than 600 product varieties in 2023 alone, including water, teas, sodas, and alcoholic beverages. The bottler used data in part to determine the types of beverages offered and other variants (for example, flavors). “We win the market through sustainable growth. Data is key,” says Maki Kado, Executive Officer and Chief Business Management at CCBJI. “It’s important that data is stable and is supporting our business in a timely manner.”

Harsh’s team is one of many working behind the scenes to ensure business teams always have access to the latest data. In 2022, the team attempted to execute a modernization plan on its existing datacenters in Tokyo. An aging infrastructure created roadblocks, however.

“Our datacenters in Tokyo were not up-to-date. Our data systems were growing, and we were having trouble upgrading and implementing new technologies,” Harsh says. “We needed something that was more flexible, more agile, so we could keep up with the pace of the business requirements. That was when we started to think about cloud strategy at CCBJI.”

The CCBJI team needed a flexible, agile solution that could scale. High-level security and compliance were also key considerations. A cloud solution would also need to scale up or down with seasonal demand while improving data protection. The team recognized a cloud-based solution was best suited to meet the top criteria. The team could replace the company’s aging on-premises infrastructure with a modern solution, complete with the latest data tools. The CCBJI team just needed to find the right one.

Shifting from on-premises to Azure

The search for a new cloud provider was well underway by mid-2022. A few cloud providers already had a small presence in the company, offering some initial insights into performance and offerings. Harsh’s team evaluated all the major cloud solution providers serving Japan. After careful consideration, the team made its choice: Microsoft Azure.

“We looked into the features and availability of all the additional tools of the cloud providers. Azure was outstanding among them,” Harsh says.

CCBJI and Microsoft collaborated on a plan to migrate the CCBJI SAP enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution on a 30-terabyte Db2 database. An additional 114 applications managing end-to-end operations would also move from the on-premises Tokyo datacenter to Azure. The CCBJI SAP Db2 database is thought to be among the largest in Japan, making the migration an ambitious undertaking in any circumstance. This project had an additional complication, however: limited time.

Preparing for the summer rush with Azure

The summer season in Japan begins in June and ends in October. It’s traditionally the busiest time of year for CCBJI, as families go on vacation and tourists arrive to enjoy all that Japan has to offer. Warmer temperatures, friendly gatherings, and fun in the sun all drive greater demand for the bottler’s products, making it prime time for data collection. Therefore, any major infrastructure work needed to be planned and performed outside the summer months.

Harsh worked with business stakeholders to negotiate a brief window of time for the migration. Work would begin in December 2022 with a strict, agreed-upon completion deadline of May 2023. Microsoft and CCBJI worked closely together through the winter holiday season and into 2023 to make the deadline. Together, the teams were able to migrate the CCBJI SAP Db2 database to Azure without service disruption. All work was complete by May 2023, just in time for the summer data spike. The results have been overwhelmingly positive.

“Since the migration, we have seen great performance from the systems hosted in Azure,” Harsh says. “We have also seen our backup time improve drastically. It used to take 15 to 17 hours. Since moving to Azure, it now takes between 8 and 10 hours.”

Data retrieval times have also improved dramatically, he notes. “There are examples where we wanted to see data, and it would take a minimum of 24 hours to get it. Now, that situation has changed, which gives us a lot more flexibility as well as agility to make the right decisions for our profitability and growth,” Harsh says, which means CCBJI can continue to deliver on its ultimate goal: delivering happy moments to everyone.

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