NTT Communications Corporation (NTT Com), a subsidiary of the NTT Group, has launched its fifth data center at Nishi-ku, in the heart of Osaka, Japan. Called Osaka 5, the facility offers approximately 3,500 sq m of white space, equivalent to 1,600 racks. It is conveniently located 60 minutes away from Kansai International Airport.

The new data center comprises eleven floors and is the latest addition to NTT Com’s Nexcenter service, which combines disaster countermeasures and customized network environments.

The network environment

To ensure that customers have uninterrupted access to a high-quality, low-latency network, the Osaka 5 data center is connected directly to NTT Com’s main data center in western Japan, which accommodates Internet exchange (IX) via optical fiber.

In addition to NTT Com’s high-volume Internet backbone and network services, including the Arcstar Universal One virtual private network, customers can use the data center to build seamless ICT environments, connecting third-party cloud providers with data centers worldwide.

It is planned that, from this March, a new secure, low-latency data center connection service will enable customers to use NTT Com’s five data centers in Osaka city as if they were one facility. It will offer up to 10Gbps circuits or optical fibers.

Trying out new cooling solutions to reduce PUE

To reduce the facility’s PUE, NTT Com is using a ’cooling wall’ which blows cold air into the server room, in addition to using indirect outside air cooling.

In the last few years, the company has expanded its data center estate and related services in the Tokyo metropolitan area to meet the growing demand for IT infrastructure. At the same time, customers have been increasingly seeking backup sites in western Japan, which are far enough from Tokyo to serve business continuity purposes in the event of a natural disaster.