On AWS, Nissan drive automotive big data analytics platform, races ahead with 229 company-wide projects in three years

Nissan Digital Next was a medium-term digital strategy underpinning Nissan Next, a transformational business plan setting objectives for 2023. One of Nissan Digital Next’s pillars—driving innovation—was supported by data analytics platform services built on AWS and launched in 2021. Nissan use   these services for several projects in the company, with its data warehouse holding all manner of vehicle information, including development, manufacturing, supply chains, and sales.

Nissan was able to build its new integrated data analytics platform through previous efforts toward early and efficient data delivery and environments in which to use the data. In 2015, the vehicle manufacturer built a shared on-premises data platform and made it available to the entire company. However, the teams running the platform weren’t able to respond to requests from user departments as quickly as desired. “It’s difficult to estimate the amount of resources that data platforms need, and preparing and expanding platforms in on-premises environments takes three months to a year,” explained Akinori Baba, General Manager of Nissan’s Enterprise Data Service Department at the time of interview. “After development was complete, as we frequently encountered problems in processing heavy loads, the operation of infrastructure and middleware was a headache.”

At the time, the Enterprise Data Service Department was mainly responsible for managing infrastructure, and data had become siloed and black-boxed. In 2018, Nissan set a policy to collect all data across vehicle life cycles on a platform centrally administered by the Enterprise Data Service Department, and launched a project for a user-friendly and secure data analytics platform. The initial focus was on vehicle data, but the scope soon expanded to cover customers, parts, vehicle running information, batteries for electric vehicles, and more.

To build the data analytics platform service, Nissan adopted AWS—the shared cloud platform across the Nissan Group. According to Komei Yoshida, a person in charge (PIC) from the Enterprise Data Service Department of Nissan at the time of interview, “My first impression of AWS was highly agile, easy to use, and informative. Since 2019, we’ve been using a cloud-based data warehouse called Snowflake, and AWS is the excellent compatibility with it because of available in AWS’ Tokyo region. It is another key consideration.”

Nissan’s new data analytics platform consists of three main layers. The first is a data lake that stores source data and uses Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3). The second is the Snowflake data warehouse comprising three parts: raw data, molding data, and datamarts for user processing. The third layer, data utilization tools, established the execution platform of load (ETL) jobs using the Amazon SageMaker of machine learning framework and Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS) , and leverages Amazon QuickSight as a BI tool.

“This was the first project in which the Enterprise Data Service Department fully utilized AWS managed services, and we became more knowledgeable about connecting to Snowflake through trial and error,” said Yoshida.

While constructing the data platform, Nissan also proceeded to prepare data catalogs, set rules and scopes for data use, and established internal processes for data access. “We were having difficulty deciding policies from scratch, establishing enterprise-level data governance, and communicating with development teams at Nissan Digital India, our offshore development office,” recalled Mitsuharu Nakamura, another PIC from the Enterprise Data Service Department at Nissan at the time of interview.

TCS Japan joined the project to support development of the overall platform and assist with some data maintenance. The company has also handled operation and maintenance after the service released. According to Hiroki Morimoto of TCS Japan, “Launching a new service requires a wide range of knowledge and expertise, so we assigned bilingual personnel with broad skillsets, including members of our company to participate on-site.”

“TCS Japan’s proposal for infrastructure and data maintenance was a total package including engineers with the skills for end-to-end coverage, which has enabled us to grow a stable and sustainable team,” said Baba, evaluating TCS Japan’s support system.

Since the official release in 2021, Nissan has used its new data analytics platform service in 229 projects as of the end of August 2023.

“Between 2015 and 2019, we used our on-premises data platform in only 17 projects,” said Baba. “By new data analytics platform service, we launched 229 projects in three years from AWS pilot in 2020. Our data use is progressing faster than expected.”

The response from users has been strong, particularly in regard to the system’s ease of use.

“Users were saying the system is more convenient than ever because they have all the data they want, as well as data catalogs, training menus, and instructions,” said Nakamura.

The benefits of the cloud also enable Nissan to dispense components and data in a timely manner, minimizing lost opportunities. When adding new components, there is no need to worry about hardware or configuration costs, and user requirements can be met flexibly. Because there is no operational overhead, the company can optimize human resources.

Going forward, to improve, expand, and promote our data analytics platform is aimed so that employees in the business divisions can gain insights from data and create new value. The automotive manufacturer will also expand its data analytics platform service overseas so that Nissan employees around the world can access Nissan’s global data.

“Five years have passed since the data analysis platform service launched, and we’ve finally established a data management platform, so we’ve entered a phase for full-scale use,” explained Baba. “We’ll make improvements so that all users can take advantage of the system without any extra work and continue promoting data accessibility. We look forward to continuing our close work with TCS Japan and taking on new challenges together.”