The rapid evolution of e-commerce demands not just business innovation but also cutting-edge IT infrastructure. ConnectWave, a leading force in South Korea’s e-commerce industry, is tackling this challenge by integrating hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) with AI-driven advancements.

In this exclusive interview, Hongchul Kim, General Manager of System Division at ConnectWave, shares insights into the company’s vision for the future. He discusses the adoption of HCI to modernize legacy systems, improve efficiency, and optimize costs — while also highlighting ConnectWave’s investment in PLAi, its generative AI initiative. Designed to enhance synergy across multiple business areas, PLAi is set to transform how ConnectWave operates and delivers value to customers.

Click the video link to watch highlighted Q&As.

Full Interview Transcript

Arcfra: Please introduce yourself.

ConnectWave: Hello, my name is Hongchul Kim, and I am the head of the Systems Department at ConnectWave, a leading e-commerce solutions provider in South Korea.

Arcfra: How is ConnectWave driving IT and infrastructure innovation in its industry? What are the key achievements and future development directions?

ConnectWave: ConnectWave is one of the leading companies in South Korea’s e-commerce market. It provides various services for sellers, including its own online store platform, product management, and advertising solutions. Additionally, for consumers, it operates a price comparison service.

As part of its diverse e-commerce-related businesses, ConnectWave is developing a generative AI called “PLAi” to create synergy across its various operations. The company is working towards integrating PLAi into its multiple services to maximize these synergies.

Arcfra: What architecture has been adopted from an infrastructure perspective, and what role does hyper-convergence play?

ConnectWave: Like many companies, we operate a hybrid infrastructure, combining legacy systems in our IDC with public cloud services.

Hyper-convergence was introduced to improve our legacy systems within the IDC, and it has delivered several benefits.

Arcfra: Why did ConnectWave consider a hyper-converged architecture for its enterprise system?

ConnectWave: The primary factors we considered were stability and operational convenience. Legacy and virtualized environments have lower operational efficiency compared to HCI.

While high availability (HA) can be achieved in legacy environments, it requires more hardware and personnel than an HCI-based solution. By adopting HCI, we were able to reduce these requirements.

Arcfra: What were the main factors that led ConnectWave to adopt HCI?

ConnectWave: We adopted HCI to replace our legacy systems. A one-to-one replacement would have been inefficient, and compared to a purely virtualized environment, HCI allows us to integrate various external PaaS and SaaS solutions.

One of the aspects we particularly liked was the ability to use Kubernetes internally via HCI, much like AWS EKS.

Arcfra: Why is hyper-converged infrastructure the optimal IT solution for your industry?

ConnectWave: Traditional virtualization environments have limitations when it comes to integrating a variety of solutions like HCI.

Additionally, implementing container orchestration environments internally requires significant learning and testing.

However, with Arcfra HCI, we were able to integrate various solutions and reduce the time needed for container environment deployment, allowing us to focus more on system improvements.

Arcfra: What are the key criteria ConnectWave considers when selecting vendors and products?

ConnectWave: The most important criteria are reliability and stability.

Even if a solution is cost-effective, we will not choose it if it lacks stability. Infrastructure instability can lead to service disruptions, which could damage our customers’ trust.

Arcfra: Why did ConnectWave choose Arcfra as its enterprise solution provider?

ConnectWave: Although Arcfra was a late entrant into the South Korean market, we determined that it had significant advantages over other existing solutions.

What stood out to us was its proactive approach, which is rare to see in other solutions.

Arcfra: Can you share how ConnectWave came to collaborate with Arcfra?

ConnectWave: We learned about the advantages and effectiveness of Arcfra’s solutions through multiple channels, which led us to gradually consider its adoption.

One key advantage was Arcfra’s efficient storage utilization compared to traditional virtualization solutions, as well as its scalability.

Arcfra: Can you describe how ConnectWave implemented Arcfra’s solution?

ConnectWave: I must mention my predecessor, who played a crucial role in this process. After learning about the benefits of Arcfra HCI, he worked extensively to convince our investors, preparing materials and holding multiple meetings.

This effort eventually led to the adoption of the solution. At the time, I was a department head and not directly involved with HCI, but I received several reports and quickly recognized it as a strong solution.

Arcfra: Why did ConnectWave decide to expand its use of Arcfra after the initial deployment?

ConnectWave: Our initial adoption took place around 2024 with a small-scale deployment.

Even with this limited implementation, we were able to significantly reduce the number of outdated physical servers in our IDC (Internet Data Center), cutting IDC operational costs by approximately 15% compared to the previous year.

Based on this success, we are expanding our deployment in 2025.

Arcfra: How has your experience been working with Arcfra from a product, operations, and service perspective? What are the key factors behind your ongoing partnership?

ConnectWave: Our experience working with Arcfra has been excellent. When we shared our needs, they provided honest feedback and even suggested alternative configurations.

Arcfra: How has adopting Arcfra impacted ConnectWave’s business and IT operations?

ConnectWave: Arcfra has brought significant changes. From a business perspective, it has increased customer trust. From a cost perspective, it has helped us reduce IDC operational expenses by about 15%.

The cost savings have been reinvested in transitioning our legacy systems to Arcfra HCI.

Arcfra: Does ConnectWave have any future collaboration plans with Arcfra?

ConnectWave: We purchased Arcfra solutions in 2024 and plan to buy more this year.

This time, we intend to acquire high-performance equipment on a large scale to further improve our infrastructure.

We have already been laying the groundwork together, and we expect our 2025 project to proceed successfully.

Arcfra: Can you share your thoughts on Arcfra’s corporate culture, employees, and services?

ConnectWave: It’s a bit cautious to comment on another company’s culture. However, I can speak about the employees and services we have worked with directly.

Typically, when requesting additional features from a software provider, such requests are often denied.

However, Arcfra takes the time to review even difficult requests, and if feasible, they implement them — even if it takes time. This aspect impressed me greatly. It reflects Arcfra’s cultural strength — paying attention to every customer request — demonstrated by its proactive employees.

Arcfra: If you had to describe Arcfra as a company, as well as its sales and engineering teams, in two or three words, what would you choose?

ConnectWave: Company — “A trusted partner”. Sales team — “Proactive guides”. Engineering team — “Reliable problem-solvers”.