• Industry: Manufacturing
• Solution: Content Acceleration, Object Storage
• Key Impacts:
  • Optimized cache hit rate to over 99.5%
  • Reduced costs by 30%
  • Support for content delivery to the Chinese market

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Background

PFU Limited (hereafter referred to as “PFU”) is one of Japan’s leading electronics manufacturers, known globally for its development, production, and sales of hardware such as image scanners. Within its service operations and maintenance division, PFU provides utility software and drivers via web distribution to users in over 100 countries and regions worldwide.

Previously, PFU utilized a CDN service from another provider. However, due to anticipated increases in traffic and the associated rise in costs, the company sought a new solution. After evaluating various options, PFU selected CDNetworks’ CDN and object storage services.

Challenges and Pain Points

1. Rising traffic and increasing costs due to expanding product sales

As sales volumes for products that offer driver and utility software via web distribution increased, so did the traffic, leading to a surge in CDN usage costs.

2. Preparing for future cost increases due to expansion of web-distributed products

Previously, only select products from the “ScanSnap” and “fi Series” lines supported web distribution of software. Other products relied on bundled DVD-ROMs, which incurred higher costs compared to web delivery and posed convenience issues for users. PFU planned to expand web distribution coverage to more products, forecasting a significant increase in traffic volume.

3. Ensuring high availability and fast delivery for global web distribution

Given PFU’s global market presence, it was essential to deliver software quickly and reliably under diverse network conditions worldwide. China, in particular, is one of a key markets with unique network infrastructure challenges, requiring a distribution platform that could meet these demands effectively

Solutions

Why PFU Chose CDNetworks

When evaluating CDN providers, PFU prioritized the following criteria:

• The ability to maintain current levels of service quality and speed, while ensuring stable delivery to users worldwide, including in China.
• Support for detailed delivery settings such as Basic Authentication, Referrer Control, GeoIP controls, and TTL management, with flexible configuration options.
• Compatibility with PFU’s existing content management system and support for API-based automatic cache purging.

CDNetworks met all of these requirements, leading PFU to adopt its services.

Implementation and Operation of CDNetworks

During the implementation process, CDNetworks proposed a redundant system architecture using two object storage origins—one located in the U.S. and the other in Japan. PFU adopted this configuration and gained the following advantages:

• High availability was achieved by enabling failover between the two origins in the event of an outage.
• Content uploads were made only to one origin, with automatic replication to the other, allowing PFU to maintain its existing operational workflow.

Key Impacts/Benefits

1. Optimized cache hit rate to over 99.5%

• Cache hit rates improved significantly from approximately 90% with the previous provider to over 99.5% after implementing CDNetworks.
• The combination of CDN and object storage optimized origin access.

2. Reduced costs by 30%

• The improved cache hit rate reduced the load on origin storage.
• As a result, PFU successfully reduced CDN usage costs by 30%.

3. Seamless Support for the Chinese Market

• During the ICP license renewal process, CDNetworks provided prompt support, allowing a smooth transition of delivery domains for Chinese users.
• A PFU representative commented, “We are very satisfied with CDNetworks’ post-implementation support. The domain migration for our China distribution was handled smoothly, which was particularly helpful.”

PFU plans to continue leveraging CDNetworks’ CDN services to further enhance user convenience and satisfaction.

Through the implementation of CDNetworks’ CDN and object storage, PFU successfully achieved cost reduction, improved system availability, and ensured high-quality, fast global distribution.