Wasabi Cloud NAS Eliminates the Need for Amazon S3 Capacity Expansion and Simplifies Storage Management.
Seamless Integration with Snowflake Unlocks Data Analysis and Utilization
Overview
The company behind the Kaiten-sushi chain Sushiro began in 1984, when a chef from the standing sushi bar “Taisushi” in Abeno, Osaka, pursued the vision of providing delicious sushi at affordable prices to as many people as possible. Since then, the company has steadily expanded—even through the COVID-19 pandemic—and now operates 659 locations in Japan and 227 overseas as of September 2025.
The company also opened the SUSHIRO to the Future: Expo Edition at the 2025 Osaka-Kansai Expo. This location featured “Digiro” (Digital Sushiro Vision), a digital simulation of the Kaiten-sushi dining experience installed at every seat. Exclusive Expo content, such as the UNI CATCH GAME, allowed visitors to learn about marine resource sustainability through interactive entertainment. Digiro continues to be utilized to create enjoyable, future-ready dining experiences.
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No need for additional storage capacity
Eliminates manual, periodic storage capacity management tasks
Data analysis and utilization through Wasabi and Snowflake integration
Challenges
Rapid data growth driven by digitalization
Annual storage expansion of 20–30%
Ongoing need for manual storage capacity management
As Digiro illustrates, the company is aggressively promoting digitalization. However, this has resulted in explosive data growth. For example, distributing menu content on an 11–12-inch touch panel requires only about 50 MB. But game-based content like the UNI CATCH GAME generates files nearly 4 GB in size. With data volume and file sizes increasing rapidly across operations, the file server demanded a creative solution for capacity management.
The company operates its Windows file servers in AWS, with storage on Amazon S3. S3 capacity frequently reached its limits, prompting frequent requests from end-users for additional storage. Simply increasing storage whenever requested would cause immediate and continuous capacity growth. Although the IT team asked users to delete old or unnecessary files, users often responded that they could not determine what might be needed later, making deletions difficult. To avoid disrupting operations, the company repeatedly expanded storage—ultimately increasing capacity by 20–30% every year.
Another challenge was manual capacity management. A dedicated staff member spent about an hour every two weeks manually deleting clearly unnecessary files to prevent storage from filling up. Although rare, forgotten files sometimes block new data from being saved, delaying downstream analysis tasks.
Learning that users could continue saving files as usual on the file server—while Wasabi automatically transfers less-frequently accessed data to the cloud—made me realize how useful it is. We could also start small through a solution provider, offering great cost performance, so we decided to try it.
Yutaka Sakaguchi, General Manager of IT Department, FOOD & LIFE COMPANIES LTD.
Solutions
In this context, the company discovered Wasabi. Mr. Yutaka Sakaguchi, General Manager of IT Department at FOOD & LIFE COMPANIES LTD., recalls being immediately impressed by the concept of Wasabi Cloud NAS, which extends a Windows server directly into cloud storage.
“At first, I assumed we would need to create a dedicated folder for Wasabi. But learning that users could continue saving files as usual on the file server—while Wasabi automatically transfers less-frequently accessed data to the cloud—made me realize how useful it is. And since files can be retrieved as if they were still on the local server, the IT department no longer needs to micro-manage storage. We could also start small through a solution provider, offering great cost performance, so we decided to try it.”
Wasabi’s simple and predictable cost structure was another decisive factor. With a fully flat-rate model—no additional charges for egress, API requests, or user numbers—monthly costs are predictable and free from unexpected spikes. This predictability gave Mr. Sakaguchi confidence. As a result, the adoption decision was made quickly—within two months of the initial discussion in October 2024—largely due to the ease of evaluating cloud-based solutions with minimal risk.
Results
The company began using Wasabi Cloud NAS on its file servers. The connection was completed smoothly, files were automatically transferred to Wasabi, and subsequently deleted from Amazon S3. As a result, no further storage capacity additions were necessary, establishing a system where storage capacity and costs can be maintained at the current level. Furthermore, staff members were freed from storage capacity management, allowing them to concentrate on more essential work.
Having realized the effectiveness of Wasabi, the Information Systems Department expanded its use to the data lake domain. The company collects order, sales, attendance, and financial data into a data analysis platform and uses various BI tools to analyze the data from multiple perspectives. For this purpose, they integrated Wasabi with Snowflake. This allows analysis staff at the headquarters and stores to access data through Snowflake.
Different data types follow different ingestion patterns:
Order Data: Transferred to Wasabi every 15 minutes, then accessed by Snowflake. The short cycle time is critical for store operations that rely on timely decisions—such as preparing for evening demand.
Sales Data: Loaded into Wasabi daily and then utilized by Snowflake.
Mr. Sakaguchi notes:
“Contracting at the minimum unit is inexpensive, so it’s best to adopt early and start small.”
The introduction of Wasabi has helped build a smarter, more efficient infrastructure, supporting FOOD & LIFE COMPANIES as they advance along their digital transformation journey.
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