Covid accelerated demand for cloud, network solutions: NTT Global Data Centers

MUMBAI: Massive dependence on cloud services from businesses of all sizes resulted in record booking for Global Data Centers division of NTT in India during the June quarter, said senior officials of the company.

Speaking to Mint on the sidelines of the launch of a new high-density and hyperscale data center in Mumbai, the management said many data center projects have accelerated globally following the massive demand generated for cloud services in the recent months.

The Mumbai 7 Data Center operates with 375,000 sq.ft of co-location space, and will offer the capacity to host 5000 racks and over 30 MW of load. This facility will expand NTT Ltd’s data center capacity (server room) in India by 30%.

The data center footprint expansion in India is part of the ongoing growth strategy of the Global Data Centers division which operates the third-largest data center platform in the world, with over 160 centers spanning more than 20 countries and regions. The Mumbai 7 Data Center is operational with some marquee anchored customers on-board already.

“Demand was already going up for cloud servers and infrastructure. Due to the pandemic, businesses, especially smaller ones, realised the drawbacks of maintaining on-premise servers and thus started moving to the cloud. We will be fulfilling the demand over the next couple of years but in terms of booking this was our best ever quarter,” said Sharad Sanghi, CEO, Global Data Centers and Cloud Infrastructure of NTT Ltd. in India.

Sanghi added that a chunk of the demand came from global capability centres of MNCs based in India. The company had to also work on providing more collaborative services beyond co-location services to clients following the spiralling demand like disaster recovery and business continuity plans, secure work from home solutions and even security for virtual events.

He added that while the pandemic forced construction of data centre locations to be halted briefly, the company has utilised the delay to acquire land across Noida, Chennai, Bangalore and Navi Mumbai.

“We adopted a land banking strategy so that when construction resumes at normal pace we can start work on building data centres aggressively,” said Sanghi.

The Global Data Centers and Cloud Infrastructure division in India has launched its first 50 MW Solar Photovoltaic (PV) power plant in Solapur, Maharashtra, which is built in partnership with Tata Power. The new Solapur power plant is aimed at meeting 83% of the power needed by the Mumbai data centers. The capacity can be expanded to generate another 50 MW solar power in the future.

NTT plans to invest around $2 billion on the expansion of data centers, networks, and solar power projects in India. With the addition of Mumbai 7 Data Center, NTT Ltd’s Global Data Centers and Cloud Infrastructure division in India currently operates with 10 data centers across four major cities with over 1.5 million sq. ft. and over 150 MW of power. The company plans to double its capacity in the next two to three years to strengthen its hybrid solutions and support the digital transformation of customers in India.

The company is shaping its last mile data centre strategy globally, although it still has some cost constraints that need to be ironed out via partners if required, said Masaaki Moribayashi, senior executive vice president, services of NTT.