Olympus accelerates medical innovation with Equinix customer story
70%
of global endoscopy market to benefit16-rack
high-performance computing (HPC) environment for AI-powered medical imaging R&DTurning fragmented IT into a connected advantage
Olympus, a major developer and manufacturer of gastrointestinal endoscopes, optimizes IT investment and strengthens governance by integrating disparate on-premises systems and seamlessly connecting to cloud on-ramps using Equinix Fabric®.
By leveraging Equinix’s globally standardized operational structures and rules, we can quickly integrate and standardize our previously separate IT infrastructure operations from different overseas locations.
Reiko Nakano Senior Manager, Information Technology Infrastructure Lead, Japan, Olympus
Consolidated IT accelerates innovation
Olympus, long renowned as a creator of optical equipment, has expanded into a broader medical technology company over the past decade. It is now the global endoscopy leader, with a 70% market share. It is also the owner of the first FDA-approved cloud-based AI endoscopic imaging diagnostic system.
Olympus’ diverse portfolio has made it a highly innovative company, but it also resulted in a growing set of poorly connected IT systems and environments—some running on-premises, others in the cloud and still others in private data centers.
To streamline operations and accelerate research processes, the company sought to consolidate its scattered IT systems into a faster, more flexible and globally integrated infrastructure that would be more scalable and reliable. The initiative aimed to support its mission to drive digital transformation of modern healthcare worldwide while optimizing investment and strengthening governance controls.
A foundation for IT efficiency
Olympus saw Equinix as the best foundation for its big IT overhaul. Equinix data centers would ensure operational stability for the med-tech company’s high-performance servers, while Equinix Fabric would provide flexible connections to public clouds.
These capabilities are essential for cutting-edge research and development. In carrier-neutral Equinix data centers, Olympus can interconnect with multiple carriers. Additionally, the data centers ensure business continuity and the peace of mind that comes with knowing there is sufficient power and cooling capacity for current and future expansion needs.
Adopting Equinix has significantly accelerated the transformation of Olympus’ IT infrastructure, which now includes 16 racks with high-performance servers hosted at the Equinix data center in Tokyo supporting research and development.
Speeding collaboration and boosting efficiency
Olympus’ newly integrated global IT infrastructure combines in-house operations with external services, making interdepartmental collaboration much smoother and easier for its employees. They also benefit from flexible and high-speed connectivity to multiple cloud providers, including Amazon Web Services® (AWS®) and Microsoft Azure®, through Equinix Fabric.
The high-bandwidth connections have significantly improved the performance of the existing computing environment. This enhancement will benefit other systems expected to be deployed in the future too.
Going forward, the med-tech company also envisions a more sustainability-minded IT infrastructure, citing Equinix’s commitments to sustainability in service delivery and its science-based targets for emission reduction.
Benefits
Enhanced governance
Integrated IT environments simplify the task of enforcing governance standards across a complex IT infrastructure.
High reliability
Using ultra-reliable Equinix data centers as the foundation of its modernized IT infrastructure minimizes concerns about downtime.
Cost-effective transformation
With help from Equinix Fabric, Olympus is able to interconnect disparate IT environments without having to migrate all workloads—a highly practical and cost-effective consolidation strategy.
