Messages from the DevelopersExastro

Systems are progressively getting more complicated while human resources are reducing

What happens when tasks increases when there is a lack of human resources? All the additional work will be left to the current engineers, causing a wave of fatigued workers. I don't think any young people would look at an overworked engineer and think "I want to be an engineer!". Humans tends to admire positions and jobs where the workers are working smart, fast and stylish.

Exastro does not only allow users to free themselves from a chain of troubles. We believe that it can play an important role in initiatives for expanding businesses.

How it all started.

Something isn't right (Engineers weren't working as efficient as we thought?)

Before I worked on my first project, I always had an high expectation of how system engineers worked in regards to digitizing. I was however shocked when I found out that their tasks were both analog and individualistic. Even so, the project went on fine and working on it gave me room to improve my skills.

The decisive factor that broke the limits

When the whole Japanese society changed to Smartphones in 2010～2015, we were constantly adding new machines in order to keep up with the sudden rise of people surfing the internet. The individualistically managed systems configurations therefore often unclear and came with a lot of configuration mistakes. As an attempt to prevent this, we added steps for reviewing in the process, which ultimately complicating the process further. Our team fell into a series of added burdens and needed to reevaluate the analog process that had been ignored for years.

The first step

In order to escape this chain, we first needed to focus on the source of the human errors, the management of System structure information, A System for centrally managing information was created and deployed in groups. This granted us the opportunity to reevaluate the previous operations and start with Digitizing, Automating and Autonomizing tasks.

Regularize

Around 2015, when the aforementioned surge of equipment additions came to a halt, we wondered if the same issues were not limited to telecommunications carriers. As expected, we found a similar situation when we conducted a cross-sectional analysis of the situation. We started seeing the same problems outside our own company as well, which lead us to the idea of it being a common problem in the Japanese system industry.

If so, that was a priority that Japan needed to deal with. As the rest of the world was progressing with DX(Digital Transformation), Japan needed to keep up with the rest and not fall behind. We came to the conclusion that we should start working on creating a system that could be used universally, which led to the development of Exastro.

Choosing OSS (Open Source Software)

As many already know, Exastro is an application developed in-house. And I think that an equal number of people asks us "Why are you opening it to the public?" While cases of releasing software as OSS in order to boost the image of the company are increasing, Exastro is not a product of that. As a result, Exastro does not use our company logo at all.

So why Open Source?

System engineers today are tasked with the important role of supporting DX. For example: communication (Telephone/Internet) and banking systems are no longer "convenient", but rather something that is absolutely necessary.

Nonetheless, these are systems that does not only need to be maintained, but needs to add and improve functions in order to handle constant evolving technology and increasing needs. This upgrade comes with a risk. Some of you might have seen news about it being stopped because of human error. If the people who uses these services lose out on opportunities because of system outages, the damage will be immeasurable.

The same goes for companies. What would you do if a system your company relies on suddenly stopped? Can you say for sure that you would not miss out on any big chances? I think that many would agree that a change would be needed if the situation called for it.

DX will only continue to grow. And the same can be said about the lack of IT staff. Will Japanese corporation's systems that have been supported solely by humans still be able to survive in the world in the future?

As someone who was able to recognize this early through a series of large-scale and long term expansions, I believe that one our most urgent tasks should be the survival of Japanese companies. My company agreed with me, and we decided it would be better to have it used by more people than using it as a tool to draw in customers. That is why we released it as an OSS.

Exastro is an application built by engineers for engineers. We live in a time where even people who think that they are fine could end up in the same situation as us any moment, and I highly recommend to give Exastro a try.

If it ain't broke, fix it!

"Why should we change our routine? It works perfectly fine as it is."

Implementing automated processes could lead to less strain on the engineers and less human error. Though result vary on a case to case basis. I think that it is very normal to not want to change anything when dealing with systems crucial to the company.

But, that also means that the system won't change until it is already too late

The project I worked saw to Automation only after we found out that it would not be possible to continue with the same methods. I am of course not saying that there are no risks. What I am saying is that if we don't establish a conventional method moving forwards while we still can, it might be our customers that will have to pay the price. I understand that it can be tough to change one's routines, but I know the hardships of failing personally.

Please do not do the same mistake that I did.

To everyone who is interested in Exastro

Exastro is a tool created to help digitize, automate and autonomize the tasks related to the system lifecycle (Design, Development, Construction and Application).

I also believe that it is a tool that can help increase the value of us engineers. Let us all take time to reevaluate our routines and reform our workflows. Let us become cool engineers that can pave the way for the next generation.