Mazda deploys Azure Virtual Desktop to realize a secure desktop environment and accelerate its digital transformation initiatives

Microsoft solutions support Mazda's global digital transformation efforts

Manufacturing has long been the backbone of Japanese industry, and Japan's automotive industry continues to be particularly competitive in the global marketplace. Japan's economic prowess is exemplified by its high performance, product quality, and product capabilities to meet cutting-edge, diverse market needs, as well as its excellent human resources and organizational capabilities throughout the supply chain.

In recent years, digital transformation (DX) has become the most important theme that holds the key to new competitiveness in the automotive industry. At the forefront of the coming DX wave implementing various leading-edge measures has been Japanese automobile manufacturer Mazda, which celebrated its 100^th anniversary in 2020.

One of Mazda's four key initiatives in its mid-term management plan updated in November 2022 is "value creation through co-creation between people and IT." Based on its Human-Centered philosophy, Mazda has conducted research on people and the Joy of Driving perceived by the five senses. At the foundation of this is Mazda Digital Innovation (MDI), which the company has been working continuously on since the 1990s, and it uses its IT know-how as it works to significantly streamline its technical development. The steady implementation of DX initiatives has led to a process innovation including Model-Based Development to realize high-efficiency development and the creation of higher added value, which are Mazda's unique strengths.

Mazda introduced Microsoft 365 as a collaboration and communication tool to support its DX initiatives, and delivered it from the Microsoft Cloud via its virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) solution,  Azure Virtual Desktop. The company's Infrastructure Systems Department in the MDI & IT Division maintains the infrastructure, which serves as the foundation for these tools, and it was able to deploy Azure Virtual Desktop within a few months. This was possible due to the strong partnership between Mazda and Microsoft, which had been cultivated over the years.

Launching Azure Virtual Desktop support secure collaboration with external vendors

Mazda's Infrastructure Systems Department supports an IT infrastructure that is used for daily operations by the group's 43,000 employees. Amid the company's goal of "value creation through co-creation between people and IT," the department is responsible for creating an environment for its digital human resources that can master AI and IT.

Mr. Toshiyuki Okahara, Department Manager of the Infrastructure Systems Department, discusses the mission of the department. "Our IT Division oversees the overall systemization of the Mazda Group, with one department in charge of application systems for each area, such as product development and the supply chain, another department that tackles structural issues across areas, and my department, which oversees maintaining the Group's entire IT infrastructure. Last year, we started activities to promote DX initiatives across the entire company, and we are looking forward to quickly responding to the various IT infrastructure needs both inside and outside our division."

Mazda had been using VDI and VPN services together as a remote access client environment for system development, resulting in an inefficient environment with inconsistent security policies. When this became apparent during the pandemic, a project was started to realize a more secure and efficient environment through optimal VDI services utilizing cloud computing.

According to Mr. Okahara, the division mainly focuses on formulating plans for systems and services, and it outsources most of the actual development to a vendor outside the division. However, because new systems have rapidly increased with the focus on DX, Mr. Okahara recalls that it was difficult to secure locations where work could be done, and having the vendor visit the headquarters in Hiroshima also posed difficulties.

Because Mazda had been handing over client PCs on a case-by-case basis, which proved to be inefficient in many ways, and there was an increase in outsourcing to overseas vendors, the decision was made to deploy a new VDI service with the goal of providing a secure desktop environment for outside development vendors and resident vendors.

Performance and ease of management drive migration to Azure Virtual Desktop

Mazda decided to build a new VDI environment on Azure leveraging Azure Virtual Desktop

Ms. Shihomi Morigami, who works in the Infrastructure Systems Department in the MDI & IT Division, discusses the reasoning behind Mazda’s decision. "The cloud VDI service we used in the past did not perform well enough for our development and maintenance work, and we received many complaints from users. However, with the Azure-based VDI service Azure Virtual Desktop, we are able to achieve comfortable operations with a similar response to a physical client, and one reason for this is that we no longer have to worry about performance. Also, in the conventional system, we had to build individual systems for operational management, but Microsoft's service enables us to do this all at once. Therefore, even if there is a need to immediately deploy dozens of machines, we can quickly respond by building the machines all at once, significantly reducing the lead time, which is another major reason for migrating to Azure Virtual Desktop."

The migration to Azure in a VDI environment was done in phases starting in 2021, and by February 2022, the division began Azure Virtual Desktop operations. The construction of the environment for Azure Virtual Desktop itself was completed in just about half a year.

Mr. Toru Mitsumune, Senior Specialist in the Infrastructure Department of the MDI & IT Division, recalls the support from Microsoft at the time of deployment. "We outsourced the construction of the new VDI environment to a vendor with a proven track record with financial institutions. When we considered the overall configuration, especially with regard to the network configuration, we brought in Microsoft at the design stage. Microsoft proposed an optimal configuration based on our requirements and suggested precautions and common patterns when going through firewalls and proxy servers."

Quickly responding to growing needs and solving past performance issues

Nearly 1,000 employees in Mazda's IT Division already work in a VDI service environment based on AzureMr. Okahara describes the challenge faced by the division. "We have projects running to replace legacy operating systems all at once, and in a busy month, about 50 machines are added. If we had tried to purchase physical computers to meet that demand, we surely would not have been able to procure them due to supply issues with semiconductors. Since the the Azure Virtual Desktop  deployment is happening  much faster than expected, the challenge now is how to secure the best resources at the best cost."

Ms. Morigami discusses the effect of deploying Azure Virtual Desktop. "We were able to successfully solve the performance issues that were a challenge in our previous VDI environment. In addition, we are able to use functions that were not available in the previous VDI, such as voice conferencing and sub display, for more versatile business use. As we look to the future, we will migrate all environments with physical clients and VPN that we currently provide to some vendors to VDI environments in order to integrate remote access client environments of external vendors into a more secure environment."

Ms. Morigami goes on to praise Microsoft's support. "Microsoft also holds study sessions for vendors to whom we outsource operations and maintenance, and this helps boost the skill level of these vendors."

Mr. Mitsumune is impressed that expert Microsoft engineers are assigned to help Mazda based on the topic at hand, creating trust, providing insight, and helping solve various challenges.

Microsoft and Azure continue to support Mazda's "value creation through co-creation between people and IT" through its use of digital transformation.