Founded in 1951, Japan Airlines Corporation (JAL) , a member of the oneworld® Alliance, owns 227 aircraft as of March 2024 and, along with its partner airlines, offers a network serving 384 airports in 66 countries worldwide. Recognized as a 5-Star Airline by Skytrax and awarded "World Class" Airline by APEX, a North America-based non-profit organization, JAL is one of the world's most punctual airlines. It is committed to providing customers with the highest level of flight safety and quality in every aspect of its service and aims to become the most preferred airline in the world.

JAL has ventured into the non-airline business landscape and embarked on a new journey beyond its aviation roots. Under the title "JAL Sauna Travel," it has been pioneering this new travel concept and contributing to the sauna market since 2019. Utilizing the strengths and knowledge that JAL has cultivated in the Japanese sauna economy, JAL collaborated with AQTIA, which specializes in supporting emerging businesses, to launch a new service.

TOKYO SAUNIST, jointly created by JAL and AQTIA, is a cloud-based service that uses a 3D-LiDAR sensor installed in front of the sauna room to detect the number of people with high accuracy and collect data in the cloud. The collected data is used to visualize the sauna room's congestion status in real-time and provides an application for users and facility managers.

AQTIA is a co-creation and collaboration-type business incubation firm. By co-creating and collaborating with clients, it aims to support the creation of new businesses and the growth of existing companies. It assists with various angles, including designing and planning strategies for establishing joint ventures, forming optimal alliances, and developing and operating business platforms to achieve rapid business formation in new markets and establish new businesses by gaining a dominant position.

One of the main challenges that led to the creation of TOKYO SAUNIST is the stress caused by overcrowded sauna rooms, especially in large cities like Tokyo. To help customers seeking peace and relaxation, a real-time monitoring system to display occupancy levels was necessary. However, saunas are traditionally non-digital and privacy-sensitive areas, making typical AI camera surveillance impractical. To address this, TOKYO SAUNIST needed to implement specialized sensors and a robust backend infrastructure. It chose to deploy "3D LiDAR" sensors, commonly used in self-driving cars, to count people individually. Additionally, it required a cloud infrastructure that met JAL Group's stringent security standards, could handle vast amounts of real-time data, and was economically viable for the project.

TOKYO SAUNIST selected Alibaba Cloud for several key reasons that align with their operational and security needs.

Proven Track Record: Alibaba Cloud cleared the security certification mechanism and proof of qualification that a cloud data center should take. Additionally, Alibaba Cloud has collaborated with AQTIA on a project implemented during one of the world's largest sports events. By providing cloud services for various big sports events with stringent security demands, Alibaba Cloud has demonstrated its capability and reliability to TOKYO SAUNIST.

Low Latency for Real-time Operations: The cloud environment must be connected to a 'real-time monitor' installed in front of the sauna room, a 'dashboard' for facility managers, and a smartphone app for users. Therefore, Alibaba Cloud could provide a robust and highly available IT infrastructure environment that can withstand the vast amount of real-time data collection, analysis and storage from multiple locations.

Flexible Support and Competitive Pricing: JAL and AQTIA had budget limitations while moving forward with the project, but with Alibaba Cloud's support, they could move forward at speed with a complete cloud infrastructure at a minimal cost, making it an attractive option that balances cost-efficiency with high-quality service. Additionally, Alibaba Cloud offers flexible support tailored to new business ventures, which was crucial for TOKYO SAUNIST.

To meet the real-time data storage and management needs of TOKYO SAUNIST, JAL and AQTIA leveraged various Alibaba Cloud solutions. It deployed Elastic Compute Service (ECS), utilizing secure virtual cloud servers to accommodate their hosting requirements. It also used Elastic IP Address (EIP) to decouple public IP addresses from ECS instances and facilitate management. Additionally, it leveraged ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL, facilitating on-demand database hosting with automated monitoring, backup, and disaster recovery features, ensuring seamless operation.

To uphold the privacy and security of the cloud infrastructure, JAL and AQTIA implemented NAT Gateway on Alibaba Cloud, ensuring compliance with JAL's security protocols.

Extensive testing and user research have shown that TOKYO SAUNIST has garnered predominantly positive user feedback across social networking sites and other platforms. With staffing levels decreasing late at night, feedback has indicated that by understanding the number of sauna users remotely, facilities have been able to re-evaluate and adjust the frequency of their patrols.

TOKYO SAUNIST looks forward to developing a mobile app for sauna enthusiasts. The app will log activities and visits and enable data analysis and targeted advertising. It also aims to integrate with AI to offer problem-solving services for facility managers.

The partnership has reached significant milestones, and Alibaba Cloud looks forward to supporting TOKYO SAUNIST in its upcoming initiatives for further collaborative success.