NTT DATA Establishes IOWN Global Promotion Offices in North America and EMEAL

 NTT DATA,a global digital business and IT services leader, will establish IOWN Global Promotion Office locations in the North America and EMEAL^*1 regions from October 2023 to generate business cases using IOWN, an innovative, next-generation network infrastructure. NTT DATA plans to train 600 IOWN technology experts globally by the end of FY2025, with the aim of realizing a smart society through the practical application of IOWN.

Background

Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT) and the entire NTT Group is working to realize the IOWN concept in order to provide solutions for various societal issues, optimize the individual and the whole based on a broad range of information, and create a prosperous society open to diversity. IOWN is an acronym for “Innovative Optical and Wireless Network.” It is an effort to use the “photonics-electronics convergence technology” invented by NTT for information transmission and exchange using light instead of electricity, in order to realize an innovative network and information processing infrastructure with low latency, low power consumption, large capacity, and high quality. NTT expects to finalize specifications for IOWN in 2024, and is conducting research and development aimed at practical application in 2030.
In addition, NTT, Intel Corporation, and Sony Corporation have established the IOWN Global Forum, an international forum to standardize IOWN technology and share case studies. More than 130 companies, organizations, and associations from a broad range of industries have joined the forum, which is working to widely publicize and communicate the value that IOWN will bring to the world.

Role of the IOWN Global Promotion Office

NTT DATA Group handles overseas business operations for NTT Group, providing services to many customers outside Japan. As a new initiative to promote IOWN, NTT DATA will establish IOWN Global Promotion Office locations in North America and EMEAL^*1, which will work with NTT DATA bases in each region and country to support business creation for IOWN in overseas markets.
Specifically, the IOWN Global Promotion Office will work to develop business cases for IOWN globally. Offices will initially be established in North America and EMEAL, which have large markets and well-developed infrastructure, with gradual expansion to other regions planned for the future.

The IOWN Global Promotion Office will have the following three main responsibilities.

• Raise awareness of the IOWN concept in overseas markets
  The office will present the IOWN concept and related technologies at events and customer seminars around the world to raise awareness of IOWN overseas.
• Determine customer needs regarding the IOWN concept and technology
  By introducing the IOWN concept to customers, the office will acquire partners to co create businesses for a new society brought about by innovative technologies.
• Generate IOWN use cases and business examples
  By applying IOWN technology to solve the problems facing overseas customers, as well as for NTT DATA’s own solutions implemented overseas and customer services, the office will generate use cases that enhance the value provided to customers, and accumulate business examples.

At the end of fiscal 2023, NTT Limited Japan Corporation plans to connect multiple data centers in different locations through an All-Photonics Network (APN)^*2 that transmits low-latency, large-capacity, and high-quality data, which is expected to demonstrate that information processing can be conducted in multiple locations comparable to a single data center.

Future Plans

NTT DATA Group plans to train 600 IOWN technology experts globally by the end of FY2025, with the aim of full-scale implementation of IOWN.
In addition to APN, NTT DATA will utilize various technologies related to IOWN, such as Digital Twin Computing (DTC)^*3 and Data-Centric Infrastructure (DCI)^*4, overseas to enhance the value provided to customers, and address the various societal issues in each region.

Notes

*1EMEAL: Europe, Middle East, Africa, and Latin America
*2The All-Photonics Network is a next-generation communications technology in which the communication network is monopolized by optical communications to achieve large capacity, low latency, and low power consumption.
*3By developing the conventional concept of digital twins and freely combining the digital twins of various industries, things and people, this technology will allow for highly accurate reproduction of complex combinations that could not be handled comprehensively until now, such as humans and automobiles in cities, and facilitate predictions for the future.
*4Data-Centric Infrastructure (DCI) is a technology that aims to provide an environment for running applications by combining distributed, multiple different computing resources (CPU, memory, FPGA, GPU, etc.) with a network that provides various types of QoS.

About NTT DATA

NTT DATA – a part of NTT Group – is a trusted global innovator of IT and business services headquartered in Tokyo. We help clients transform through consulting, industry solutions, business process services, IT modernization and managed services. NTT DATA enables clients, as well as society, to move confidently into the digital future. We are committed to our clients’ long-term success and combine global reach with local client attention to serve them in over 50 countries. Visit us at nttdata.com.