DeNA

DeNA ensures remote connectivity for a distributed workforce with Cloudflare

At DeNA (pronounced "D-N-A") they engage in a variety of businesses, from games and live communities to sports & the community and healthcare & medical, under their mission to delight people beyond their wildest dreams. Since their founding, DeNA has produced many businesses leveraging their passionate and enterprising employees and their technological capabilities. They develop and operate high value add services that capture customer needs through their usage of AI technology and their unique data analysis methods to maximize business value and solve problems.

Challenge: Ensuring reliable connectivity for remote employees

DeNA has a distributed workforce with the majority of its employees located in Japan. In 2023, VPN connectivity issues worsened significantly, causing employees to frequently lose access to internal resources. Alongside the impacts on productivity, DeNA’s IT desk experienced an increase in tickets as employees reported difficulties accessing corporate applications.

Addressing connectivity challenges for improved productivity

DeNA began a search for an alternative solution that could help address its network connectivity challenges. After evaluating several different providers, the company chose to deploy Cloudflare’s Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) service to gradually replace their VPN.

According to Katsuhiro Sakai from DeNA’s System Infrastructure Group IT Strategy Department, usability and reliability were critical factors in this decision. He commented, “Our engineers,, tested Cloudflare’s device client, WARP, before signing the contract and found that it remained stable and did not disconnect. Cloudflare offered the best solution at a reasonable cost while delivering excellent customer service.”

Since deploying Cloudflare Access, DeNA has been transitioning employees over from its existing VPN solution. According to Sakai, “When people experience VPN issues, we suggest using Cloudflare instead. We’ve seen a significant decrease in resolution times for VPN-related issues, and some previously unresolvable issues have disappeared since Cloudflare was introduced.”

After introducing Cloudflare, the average time to remediate VPN-related issues has decreased by 82%. On average, DeNA has been able to recoup over 400 hours per month in lost productivity.

Each December, DeNA runs an employee survey soliciting feedback on the various tools in their environment. In the 2024 survey, the feedback on Cloudflare was overwhelmingly positive with comments that it eliminated VPN-related problems while enhancing connection stability and network quality.

Protecting medical data and services with posture management

In addition to network stability and reliability, DeNA had significant concerns about data security and privacy. The company offers various applications and services in the healthcare field, which means that it has access to sensitive medical data.

However, its existing VPN solution, a combination of standard products and custom solutions, had limited built-in security controls. According to Junya Taniguchi, Group Manager of DeNA’s IT Strategy Department, “We were concerned about undetected viruses and cyberattacks targeting vulnerable systems. One reason we chose Cloudflare was for its posture management capabilities.”

With Cloudflare’s SASE platform, DeNA has visibility into each device that connects to its network and applications. This not only aids the troubleshooting efforts of the IT helpdesk but also allows the company to more effectively identify and resolve potential cyber threats. Taniguchi commented, “Cloudflare’s policy setup, security risk management, and URL filtering features help to protect our users from malware and other threats.”

Providing a positive customer experience

While DeNA was primarily searching for a solution that could resolve its connectivity issues, Sakai and Taniguchi were also impressed by Cloudflare's customer service. Taniguchi commented, “Our contacts at Cloudflare have been responsive, fast, trustworthy, and constantly following up. We were also impressed by the time the engineers spent working with us to resolve deployment challenges and help us move forward.”

Expanding internal adoption of Cloudflare Access is a primary IT objective, but the company is also exploring how other Cloudflare solutions can help it to further enable its employees and delight its users. According to Sakai, “Cloudflare frequently adds new features, and there are regular updates. Our partnership with Cloudflare has a promising future.”