GMO Internet Group, a leading international provider of Internet infrastructure services listed at the Tokyo Stock Exchange, has introduced a groundbreaking web acceleration engine called WEXAL on their shared web hosting services, ConoHa WING and Onamae.com Rental Server. This move marks the first time WEXAL, developed by Japanese company Prime Strategy, is made available on a shared web hosting server, expanding its reach beyond virtual private servers (VPS).
The decision to implement WEXAL on shared servers was driven by GMO Internet Group’s commitment to providing user-friendly services and staying ahead in the competitive market of shared web hosting.
GMO Internet Group’s ConoHa WING would be renowned as one of the fastest shared web hosting services in Japan, catering to a wide range of clients, including bloggers and corporate websites. With an increasing number of individuals and businesses venturing into website creation, GMO Internet Group recognized the need for a service that offers search engine optimization (SEO) measures and faster loading speeds without requiring specialized knowledge. While the company had been continuously working on enhancing speed since the launch of their service, finding an optimal front-end solution had proven to be challenging.
In search of a cutting-edge acceleration solution, GMO Internet Group turned to Prime Strategy, a partner known for their KUSANAGI virtual machine. After discussions and collaboration, WEXAL was introduced as a standard feature of GMO Internet Group’s hosting services, enabling clients to boost their website speeds with a simple one-click activation. This groundbreaking feature not only differentiated GMO Internet Group from its competitors. It would also contribute to the advancement of the Internet industry as a whole.
Solving Deployment Challenges
Before the integration of WEXAL, shared web hosting services in Japan faced difficulty in distinguishing themselves due to similar specifications and service lineups, according to Prime Strategy. GMO Internet Group saw front-end acceleration as a key area for differentiation, as it was an aspect that had yet to be effectively addressed by competing services. By implementing WEXAL, GMO Internet Group aimed to go beyond content optimization and user experience improvements, providing clients with a powerful tool to increase new subscriptions and retention rates.
The addition of WEXAL had a significant impact on GMO Internet Group’s shared web hosting services. The company became the first Japanese shared web hosting service to adopt WEXAL, gaining a competitive edge and experiencing a surge in subscriptions and improved customer retention rates.
The implementation of WEXAL on shared web hosting servers was not without its challenges. As a pioneering initiative, GMO Internet Group and Prime Strategy had to address technical considerations and co-locate WEXAL with the existing web server to minimize scaling and potential performance issues. Through collaboration and innovation, Prime Strategy successfully containerized WEXAL and improved its performance, allowing GMO Internet Group to achieve its goals and bring the project to fruition.
Integrating WEXAL into GMO Internet Group’s Services
In line with their brand concept, GMO Internet Group strived to design share web hosting services that were user-friendly and aligned with their customers’ needs. Despite the high functionality of WEXAL, the company sought to simplify the user experience, ensuring that clients could maximize its benefits with minimal effort. Onamae.com, catering to beginners, aimed to provide a seamless installation process with a one-click feature, while ConoHa offered an advanced mode for more experienced users. By tailoring the features to the characteristics of each brand, GMO Internet Group enhanced the overall user experience and maintained consistency with their brand identity.
The development process for integrating WEXAL into GMO Internet Group’s services was remarkably swift, according to Prime Strategy and its client, taking only three months. The well-developed APIs provided by Prime Strategy would facilitate the smooth integration of the control panel and the WEXAL container. This efficient collaboration enabled GMO Internet Group to launch the new share web hosting services within the projected timeframe.
WEXAL’s Intellectual Property (Patents)
The technologies comprising WEXAL and AI David have been filed as an international application under the provisions of the Patent Cooperation Treaty as an automatic display control method for web content (WEXAL) and an automatic high-speed display control method for web content (AI David).
About Prime Strategy
The business philosophy of Prime Strategy is ‘Everything we do is for the development of the enterprise OSS ecosystem,’ and the firm aspires to produce social value by addressing societal concerns with technology-centered solutions.
In addition to developing and providing the web acceleration solution ‘KUSANAGI Stack’ from major clouds, etc., the company from Japan also provides fully managed support services such as ‘KUSANAGI Managed Service’ that provides consistent maintenance and management of WordPress and other CMS and servers, cloud integration services, and license services. Prime Strategy also provides cloud integration and licensing services.
More about WEXAL can be found here.
