With full-stack services, leading technologies, and one of the largest globally connected platforms, NTT Global Data Centers enables businesses to tailor IT infrastructure to their unique requirements and scale it reliably, securely, and efficiently when and where they need it.
How did they get here? Let’s take a look at their story.
A History of Connectivity Excellence
Although NTT Global Data Centers was founded only seven years ago as the entity we know today, its roots trace back over 150 years to the first telegraph service in Japan. In 1952, the Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Public Corporation was established to take over the government-run telephone and communication services. Their efforts over the next few decades supported Japan’s reclaiming of their technological prowess after the war had destroyed much of their equipment. During this time, the country’s telecommunications and wireless telegraphy fields advanced leaps and bounds, from the automatic connection telephone to beepers and faxing.
Shortly after the Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Public Corporation was privatized as NTT in 1985, its Data Communications Bureau spun off to become NTT DATA Communication Systems Corporation (NTT DATA), the largest information and communication service company in Japan. Focused on being a value creator who generates energy from information, the company began operating in the field of information technology (IT), establishing offices outside of Japan, and developing new systems in new fields, like smart cards, virtual shopping malls, finger print identification, and disaster information alerts.
From 2005, in order to support a rapidly globalizing and changing world, NTT DATA adopted a more global strategy and transitioned from focusing on IT support for Japanese companies to developing a long-term strategy in the world’s largest markets: North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific. What began as strengthening alliances, building global business through more aggressive overseas expansions, and developing technology abroad through mergers and acquisitions has since evolved into becoming a trusted global innovator with the power to create systems with in-depth client understanding and advanced technologies and the power to connect diverse corporate systems and industry infrastructures. To reflect this evolution, NTT DATA transitioned into a holding company structure in 2023, where NTT DATA Group Corporation is the holding company, NTT DATA Japan is the domestic operating company, and NTT DATA, Inc. is the overseas operating company.
That’s where NTT Global Data Centers (NTT GDC) comes into play. Now part of the global arm of the business (NTT DATA, Inc.), NTT GDC—originally formed in 2018—specializes in data centers and interconnection across a global platform that spans the Americas, Asia Pacific, EMEA, and India and leverages 2,000MW+ of critical IT load.
A Sum Greater Than Its Parts
Powering billions of daily technological interactions requires a lot of collaboration and coordination across technology, services, people, platforms, and geographies. Looking behind the curtain of the company, NTT GDC is an amalgamation of four important factors:
1 Holding company resources. The holding company of NTT DATA (NTT DATA Group Corporation) is valued around 30 billion USD while the full NTT business is valued around 94 billion USD, so NTT GDC is part of a much larger credit-rated operation.
2 Sibling company services. Through other companies within NTT DATA, NTT GDC can tap into a wide variety of different IT services beyond data centers and interconnection.
3 Local company expertise. Between their integration of assets from various entities worldwide (like RagingWire, e-shelter, and NetMagic) and international operations (via data centers in the US, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, the UK, France, South Africa, and India), NTT GDC has unique perspective into individual markets and how they can work together.
4 Global platform reach. Through strategically located operations in key global markets (from Frankfurt to Virginia and Mumbai to Tokyo), a team that offers 24/7/365 support across timezones, and a client portal that provides regional and global market insights, NTT GDC offers worldwide access and continual operational excellence.
Although these components are impressive in and of themselves, what really makes NTT GDC shine is how they’re put together. From the local talent in each facility to the regional managing directors to the global functional leaders and global company leadership, the people of NTT GDC are what make this company a united local-to-global center of expertise.
Supporting Needs-Based Digital Transformation
In a global society where AI and augmented worlds exist and connected devices proliferate the edge, data centers are more society-critical than ever. The NTT GDC in-house team of data center experts is devoted to helping clients and partners with everything from data center engineering and design to purchasing and maintaining IT infrastructure. Whether a business is small or large, locally focused or globally ambitious, NTT GDC offers end-to-end services, products, and solutions.
Specifically, they specialize in:
- Colocation. Securing, powering, and connecting global infrastructure with flexible options to meet specific business and market needs, including AI deployments.
- Data center implementation and management. Planning, designing, operating, and optimizing space through a wide range of onsite services, implementation, amenities, and remote hands.
- Network and connectivity. Providing secure, compliant, and high-availability interconnection through carrier-neutral solutions.
Ultimately the goal of NTT GDC is to maintain connectivity while clients concentrate on running and expanding their own businesses, no matter where or how fast they’re growing. From implementing advanced, efficient cooling technologies and using excess data center heat for warming nearby communities to powering one of the world’s largest AI deployments, NTT GDC is setting new standards for efficient, sustainable, AI-ready data centers. They’re not just keeping pace with technology—they are partnering with their clients to help define it.
Moving Society Confidently into the Digital Future
With NTT GDC’s extensive history in connectivity excellence and innovation, comprehensive access to resources and technologies, and formidable knowledge of digital transformation from both a local and global perspective, it’s easy to see how NTT GDC has become one of the world-leading data center companies in just a few short years. Through the rest of this cover story, we invite you to dive deeper into the path of this young company and the people who have helped set its course.
