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Remote PC Array Case Study

Saitama Yokoze Town Hall

Realizing a telework environment that balances business
continuity, including resident services, with work stylereforms, while ensuring security

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Efforts to realize a telework system for staff as earlyas possible as the covid pandemic worsens
Yokoze Town is located in the southeastern part of the Chichibu region
in the western part of Saitama Prefecture, 70 km from the center ofTokyo. The town is known as a popular tourist spot in the suburbs ofTok yo because of its spectacular natural scener y, rich forest
resources, and numerous historical and cultural heritages, centeringon Mount Buko. Positioned in a basin nestled in the mountains, theclimate is generally mild throughout the four seasons although there
are relatively large differences in temperature. Most of the town ismountainous, but there is a flat area in the Yokose River basin running
northwest, where the Yokose Town Hall is located. For several years,
the Yokoze Town Office has been considering introducing telework as
par t of its ef for ts to reform work st yles. In the midst of thesedeliberations, the covid pandemic grew more serious and raised theneed for telework. Consequently, the Town Hall began full-scale efforts
to establish a telework environment for staff in April 2020. Masakuni
Inoue, Deputy Mayor of Yokoze Town, talks about realizing a teleworkenvironment at an early stage.
The construction of a telework environment for employees at theYokoze Town Hall was originally an effort to reform the work style oftown office employees and to ensure the continuous operation ofbusinesses, including resident services, as part of the BCP. However,covid prompted the need for early implementation. We therefore built asy s t e m t h a t a l l o w s r e m o t e a c c e s s t o t h e LG WA N (G e n e r a l
Government Wide Area Network) while ensuring security, and initiatedefforts to allow early realization of telework operations for town hallstaff."

Improving business efficiency and convenience by
creating an environment that allows remote access toLGWAN
Based on the information security measures for municipalities
recommended by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications,Yokoze Town's information system consists of a network based on" three - layer measures" that separates the My Number usage
administration system (basic resident register network), LGWAN
connection system, and Internet connection system. Separating thethree networks improved robustness and enhanced security, but at thesame time, it posed challenges in terms of staff work efficiency andconvenience. The realization of a telework environment at the Yokoze
Town Hall included the resolution of these issues as par t of its
objectives.
The network environment of the Yokoze Town Hall is a three-tiered
separation, where the main communication takes place within theLGWAN, which is completely cut off from the Internet. Naturally,
operations that do not need to be connected to the outside world canbe performed within the LGWAN, but the staff members who performthese operations cannot leave their terminals (at the town office).

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Saitama Yokoze Town HallMasakuni Inoue(Second person from the right)
Kota Katsumada(Third person from the right)
Yasuhiro Tomita(Second person from the left)
Solution Business Division,
Agent Smith Inc.
Yoshio Kawaguchi (the right end)
Kenki Oba (the left end)

Profile of municipality
Name of municipality:
Saitama Prefecture Yokoze Town
Address:
4545, Yokoze, Chichibu Gun Yokoze
Machi, Saitama Prefecture, Japan
Population:
8,030（As of June 1, 2021)
Yo k o z e To w n i s l o c a t e d i n t h esoutheastern part of the Chichibu region
in the western part of Saitama Prefecture,
70 km from the center of Tokyo.
In addition to the cement-related industry
that uses high-quality limestone from
Mount Buko, which is one of the 200
famous mountains in Japan, tourism
agriculture centered on fruit trees isactive. Furthermore, the town spectacularnatural scenery, rich forest resources, andnumerous h istor ica l a nd c u lt ura lheritages, centering on Mount Buko, it isalso known as a sightseeing spot in thesuburbs of Tokyo, which is a minimum of
7 2 m i n u t e s b y t r a i n f r o m To k y o
Ikebukuro.
https://www.town.yokoze.saitama.jp/| +886 3 328 8837

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Another objective of our telework environment is to create an environment that allows remote accessto the isolated LGWAN network. (Inoue)

Adopting a system proposal that allows telework without major changes to theexisting system environment and offers excellent maintenance and scalability
The Yokoze Town Hall asked related companies to propose a system forr e a lizi n g a n e nv i r o nm e nt f o r te l ewo r k . Kot a K at sum ada, Tow n
Management Division, Yokose Town Hall, explains the conditions of theproposal as follows.
“We need to be able to do this remotely, at the lowest possible cost, withno major changes to our existing system environment, and withoutchanging our current business operations. Being a small-town hall,
maintenance and management with a limited number of personnel shouldbe easy. We also set conditions for the system to be scalable to allow us
to gradually increase the number of terminals.”
Kenki Ohba, General Manager of the Solution Business Promotion Office,Solution Business Division, Agent Smith Inc. who was responsible for theproposal and actual construction of the system, describes the system
proposal as follows.
The first thing that comes to mind when considering the security
environment unique to municipalities is a virtual desktop system, but thisinevitably increases the burden of maintenance and management. Therefore, we proposed a systemcentered on the Remote PC Array, which is easy to maintain, manage and scale without significantly
changing the existing system environment.
“Remote PC Array” is a remote access solution planned and commercialized by Ascentech based on
more than 20 years of experience in building virtual desktops. As a feature, 1U enclosure houses
multiple physical PC cartridges and components needed for virtual desktops.
In reviewing the proposals, we set a number of evaluation criteria, and the proposal that best met thecriteria was selected. That proposal was to create a telework environment
using Agent Smith's "Remote PC Array." We found that the system would
allow us to maintain our existing LGWAN environment while providing
secure remote access to our normal work environment, and that it waseasy to maintain and manage, as well as highly scalable." (Katsumada)In addition, Yokoze Town has been considering the possibility of using thecurrent system environment without changing it as much as possible whenconstructing a telework environment, based on the three-tier separation
structure unique to local governments. This proposal met that requirement
as well. For example, by installing a system with 20 physical PC cartridges
per 1U, it means that the number of LGWAN terminals has simply
increased by 20, and since the work contents are projected to the telework
terminals in the form of screen transfer, the work can be done without
Yokoze Town Hallleaving any data on the telework terminals.
"The existing LGWAN environment will remain as it is. Furthermore, in the City Management
unlikely event that something happens to the device that was taken out, Division
the physical PC in the remote PC array will be protected and the LGWAN Kota Katsumada
environment will not be affected in terms of security." (Katsumada)
Saitama Prefecture
Yokoze Town
Deputy Mayor
Masakuni Inouesales@atrustcorp.com | www.atrustcorp.com| +886 3 328 8837

Success Case Study
Your Reliable Cloud Computing PartnerStarting small in terms of the scale of telework itself, and aiming for the nextstage of development while acquiring know-how
System construction for the realization of a telework environment began in November 2020, and work
was completed the following year in February 2021. Yasuhiro Tomita,
General Affairs Section, Yokoze Town Hall, talks about the construction ofthis telework environment.
"The Town Hall currently has around 100 employees. Based on thisnumber, we assumed that 15 units would be the minimum number
needed when transitioning to a telework environment for daily operations
or emergency response. And since the "Remote PC Array 100" installed
this time can accommodate 20 physical PC cartridges in a 1U enclosure,
we set up a telework environment in which the remaining 5 terminals canbe used as spare terminals when 15 terminals are used, for a total of 20terminals. In the case of municipals, the software required will differ
depending on the department and the work of the individual. From thisperspective, it meant that the system introduced could save costs byYokoze Town Hall
allowing the software used to be changed on a per-user (terminal) basis.”
General Affairs Division
As for future developments, Inoue says;
Yasuhiro Tomita"Although Yokoze is a small town with a population of about 8,000, wewere able to develop a telework environment for the town office staff
through proposals and construction in accordance with the conditions. We started with a small scaleof 20 units, but we hope to gradually increase the number while acquiring know-how with these 20units. The system installed this time can be scaled up while still using other terminals. What is mostimportant is to ensure the continuity of services for residents and others. We hope to continue ourefforts to combine such BCP with reforms in the work styles of town hall employees.”

System conceptual diagram
Town office
LGWAN-based
businessserver

Screen transfer
Only protocols allowed

LGWAN-based PC terminals
Remote desktop

Remote PC ArrayInternetVPN

FirewallL3 routerPC terminal

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Thin client terminal

Thin client terminal

Thin client terminal

Town public facilities

Destination / satellite offices

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