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

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.

Fig. : Role of the IOWN Global Promotion Office

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.