NTT: Connectivity with continuity, compliance and security
NTT Ltd. is an integral part of the global growth story of Nippon Telephone and Telegraph (NTT) - one of the largest telcos and ICT companies in the world. In the Americas, NTT Ltd. employs more than 7,500 people in a diverse and dynamic workplace. As part of a larger global organization, they have a footprint that spans 57 countries while delivering services in over 200 countries and regions.
“Being the number three data center provider with one of the largest networks in the world, and providing over 50% of global internet traffic, puts us in a unique position to provide our clients with an unparalleled solution set of infrastructure, network, and security allied to application expertise,” explains Kirk Compton, Vice President Cloud & Enterprise Application Managed Services, Sales, Americas, NTT Ltd. “Being a global SAP and Oracle partner, allows us to provide full-stack services for our clients connected globally with all of our low latency networks from marine cables linking Asia to the US market.”
Client Centricity
Compton credits the successful disruption of companies like Uber for ushering in a business climate where if you’re not digitally transforming you could get left behind. “We've had to adjust how we support our clients so we can help them with their design of the future,” he responds, noting that NTT’s clients today are looking for more than servers, storage and network capacity. “Our clients want business outcomes. They're looking for ways to be nimble, and really execute against their digital transformation strategies… Whether it's growth within the US market, growth globally, or being able to interact with a more customer-centric offering shifting from what used to be B2B2C to a more B2C approach as supply chains are disrupted.”
Banking, retail and manufacturing, to name just a few, are all sectors responding to, and ripe for, disruption following the impact of the global Covid-19 pandemic. Compton believes this very pressure is expediting the kind of business transformations a purpose-led organisation like NTT excels at. “In current circumstances, it's a more powerful change than ever, being able to manage your workforce, whether it's working from home or managing them safely in a manufacturing facility,” he says. “In supporting those points of contact we've become the number one cybersecurity company in the world capable of adapting to meet our customers’ needs.”
Continuity, Compliance & Security
The fundamental elements of connectivity are network and security Compton says. “At every organization, the way their application workloads are structured - whether they're on premise, inside their four walls, co-located in another data center, or if they're using Software-as-a-Service applications (SaaS) - the data is spread across a multitude of networks along with the users,” he notes. “One of the biggest issues in the market today is data latency. We start at ground level making sure your network is secure and your data is not disrupted. SaaS is a great opportunity for most organizations to transform, but being able to utilize data effectively and make sure our clients are performing at an optimal level really starts at the data center and the network.”
“To deliver this continuity, NTT Ltd. has experts on hand across the Americas working to the highest-level certifications across multiple verticals “whether it be Federal government, PCI or HIPAA” to guarantee a reliable infrastructure for its customers.
Hybrid Cloud
“Traditionally, you had to buy the infrastructure to be able to grow your data platforms,” remembers Compton. “And now you can get those on demand. When we look at hybrid cloud… we're a data center company. We've got private clouds for our customers, but we also support the hyperscalers.”
NTT recently announced a strategic relationship with Microsoft with the company moving much of its internal workloads to the Azure cloud. “As part of that agreement, Azure is inside our data centers,” reveals Compton. “This creates a unique opportunity for us to provide our clients with a dedicated private environment in the same data center where we're providing hyperscaled services.” Compton explains that being able to cross connect the environments inside the same facilities provides an optimal performance platform where digital latency is significantly reduced.
“Having this network acumen and expertise really puts us in the forefront of hybrid cloud,” he adds. “We can bring all of our other services - whether it be application workload, security, wide area network or network-as-a-service - in a combination that’s unique in the market via a platform our customers can trust.”
Partnering for Success
A key component in NTT’s global success and building that trust over the past 23 years has been the company’s alliance with Cisco. “We have enjoyed an extensive partnership over the years,” confirms Compton. “What’s been really exciting is how we’ve grown together. My experience with Cisco began when we were building our cloud platforms for SAP workloads. They helped us design and build the cloud infrastructure for our Africa and Asia operations. And then as the market matured, and the shift in digital transformation occurred, Cisco has been a great partner in regards to how they build their networking services, and how we’ve been able to leverage their IoT capabilities.”
Cisco’s solutions, including recent acquisitions Appdynamics and ThousandEyes, are helping NTT manage workloads from a top to bottom perspective with their networking capabilities and monitoring prowess. “With our stack we provide the network and security around Cisco’s UCS (Unified Computing System) infrastructure which, in tandem with offerings from the likes of Pure Storage and Cohesity, creates a unique opportunity where we can really drive a lot of these solutions together paired with ERP applications to realize the outcomes our clients are looking for,” assures Compton.
2021 and beyond…
NTT remains focused on maintaining secure networks and giving its customers the ability to scale to support increased demand. While organizations look to meet the challenges of the ‘new normal’ triggered by a global pandemic leaving millions working from home, NTT are on hand to deliver the right collaboration tools to allow them to thrive. Looking beyond to a post-COVID world, the company is working with SAP on the deadline to migrate its customers to the new S/4 HANA solutions.
“As hybrid cloud and digital transformation become a top priority for companies, we've got the automation and the capabilities to help them really drive growth and transform,” pledges Compton. “We've been developing the security and migration automation tools for our customers. I think we're at a time of transition where the maturity in the market - and the way Cisco has matured through application performance - allows us to bring a full solution; it’s the customer journey we’re focused on. Infrastructure isn’t the critical question now, it’s how your applications perform, how your revenue strategies are growing and how you’re transforming your own organization. We're now in a unique position to be able to drive all that for our customers and execute like never before.”