10

CONNECTING THE WORLD DATA CENTER TRENDS20 Smart Cities EDGE ECOSYSTEMS32 Rising Tides at the Edge SUBSEA WAVES40 Subsea Trends of 2019 TERRESTRIAL FIBER48 When Dark Fiber Meets the Sea INTERCONNEXION & CLOUD50 Data Centers Set Their Sights on the Enterprise via the Cloud

FACES OF THE INDUSTRY70 One-on-One with Dean Nelson CEO DIARIES66 How Going Global Changed Our World. By Doug Adams74 Marathons Man. By Mike Tobin Entrepreneur, Philanthropist, Maverick80 Internet Exchange, a Critical Part of the Internet Infrastructure. By John Souter84 Subsea Grassroots Initiative. By Larry Schwartz86 Above the Clouds with Tim Kiser

LUXURY LIFESTYLE90 Monaco Live It-Up in Monte-Carlo106 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race

STORY TO TELL118 A Behind-the-Scenes Look at Vantage Ashburn126 The African Data Center and Connectivity Landscape130 St. Helena, a British Island Capitalizing on Remoteness to Get Connected

InterGlobix | Issue 1

Contents 66

130

20

90

96

Volume 1, Issue 1, 2019

FOB_Contents.indd 2 04/02/19 9:09 PM

67

Thanks to NTT’s acquisition of RagingWire, my perspective on data centers has truly evolved. What used to be a purely U.S.-

based point of view has grown to full-spectrum global awareness. That’s what happens when your company becomes part of a $106 billion, 283,000-employee organization with 140 data centers in 20 countries and regions.

I’ve been with RagingWire since 2001, so for a long time I’ve had a front row view of the outstanding people and solutions that grew this company into one of the most successful colocation data center operators in the U.S.

While I knew all the strengths of RagingWire, my international understanding of data centers was limited. When NTT acquired 100% ownership of RagingWire and I was named President in 2016 and CEO in 2017, I really wasn’t sure what I would find when I first started meeting with executives at NTT data centers around the world. Would their facilities and processes be similar to ours? Would they be different? Would they need to adapt to us, or vice versa? How difficult would that be?

A WHIRLWIND, WORLDWIDE TRIPTo start my journey around NTT’s data center universe. I purchased a special “round-the-world” airfare ticket, which I had never done before. Over seven days, I went literally around the world, starting from San Francisco and going to various parts of Asia and Europe, then to New York and back to San Francisco.

And I saw the most amazing data centers I’ve ever seen.

I found that NTT has put together a portfolio of data centers that are of extraordinary quality. As for the questions

I had wondered about, I found that some aspects of RagingWire and other NTT data centers were the same. However, there were differences that could be ironed out in order to offer a real benefit to our customers in the form of consistent best practices employed by every NTT data center.

Since that first trip, myself and other RagingWire executives have had the privilege of returning to sit down and work with leaders of NTT data centers in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Germany, India, the UK, China and Singapore. We have hammered out global standards for NTT’s data center designs, operations, business

By joining NTT’s international family of data centers, RagingWire has seamlessly connected customers to markets around the planet. By Doug AdamsPresident and CEO, RagingWire Data Centers

HOW GOING GLOBAL CHANGED OUR WORLD

PHO

TOG

RA

PHS:

DO

UG

AD

AM

S

RagingWire’s Dallas TX1 Data Center

Issue 1 | InterGlobix

Faces of the Industry

CEO DIARIES

Doug Adams with Terracota Army in Xi’an, China

InterGlobix | Issue 1

68

models, pricing and contracts. In addition, we have solved the challenge of shifting digital workloads from site to site in order to balance data center capacity as needed.

Looking to the future, we’re excited that later this year RagingWire will be even more aligned with NTT’s other data centers. NTT will be forming a new global holding company which will contain NTT Communications (which includes RagingWire), Dimension Data and NTT Security. By combining these entities, we will create an even more seamless international experience for our customers while also enabling easier access to expertise across global markets.

MEETING OUR NEW DATA CENTER SIBLINGSSince NTT is headquartered in Japan, I spent a lot of time on my trips meeting with executives at 10 NTT data centers across Japan, including stops in Osaka and Tokyo to learn about the base isolation systems in place at those data centers. Those systems combine with other technologies

to make data centers essentially immune to the effects of earthquakes, which have caused massive damage in that area throughout history. Building earthquake-proof data centers in Japan is a remarkable engineering achievement, especially given that these are all multi-story buildings that

are five, six, seven stories high and wouldn’t figure to withstand much shaking. We’re proud to use that same base isolation technology as we build our new four-story SV1 Data Center in Santa Clara, Calif., which will be the first seismically-resistant data center in Silicon Valley.

Hong Kong has always been a strategic market but recently has really become a key gateway to the rest of Asia. I found that NTT’s three Hong Kong facilities are

artistically built and extremely successful. There are more than 7,000 racks in their Tier 4, financial-grade data center, which is trusted by the financial industry to keep their services 100% available and secure all the time.

In Germany, NTT’s data centers across Frankfurt, Berlin and Munich

impressed me for their massive scale and extremely well-

crafted engineering. One particularly memorable

aspect of the Munich data center is that it generates cooling

functionality from a subterranean river that runs underneath the data

center. Those German data centers, as well as others in Austria and Switzerland, are run by e-shelter, a top European data center provider that NTT acquired in 2015.

In India, NTT acquired Netmagic, a leading IT service & technology solutions provider, and one of the largest data center operators. I’ve visited their massive new data centers in Mumbai (six stories) and Bangalore (eight stories), they are the

TRAVELING WITH DOUG ADAMSTourist gift that my family appreciated most: Miniature terracotta warriors from China – everyone loved them.Best packing tip: I do consider myself an expert packer. With as much as I travel, I have to be! I use lots of different packing and folding items from Eagle Creek.

Best local meals: I’ve really enjoyed curries in Thailand, sashimi in Japan (in fact, Japanese food in general is wonderful), and lamb dishes with naan and butter curry in India. The most surprisingly good meal was in a little hole-in-the-wall place right outside of the terracotta warriors museum in China. They had this noodle dish that was just unbelievable quality.Most unexpected sight on a trip: When I got off the plane in China, right there in the airport was a life-size cardboard cutout of Golden State Warriors basketball star Stephen Curry. It was not exactly the place you would figure to see such a large ad for the NBA. The trip I’ll never forget: On my trip to China to see NTT’s Shanghai data center, I visited the Great Wall – where the heat index was 127 degrees! I’ve never felt heat like that in my life, but it was worth it to see one of the true wonders of the world.

highest tier data centers available in India. Similar to Netmagic in India, NTT

acquired a top data center provider in the United Kingdom which operates a very large data center campus in Hemel Hempstead, which is less than an hour’s drive from central London. I noticed that those UK data centers are extremely resilient, highly efficient, and have a Power Usage Efficiency (PUE) as low as 1.15.

In China, I was quite impressed by NTT’s beautiful, three-story data center that is just a 25-minute drive from central Shanghai. Historically, China has been a very difficult market for companies to gain access to. NTT has been able to successfully address those issues in China, enabling companies to connect to this attractive market from around the world.

NTT’s Singapore data centers are standout facilities in that area, which is a well-known technology hub. Those three Singapore data centers have sophisticated green features that help keep power costs down, and an ultra low latency network connection that customers value greatly.

Of course, NTT has so many more data centers that I have yet to see. Places like Switzerland, Malaysia, Taiwan, Indonesia, Australia, Vietnam, the Philippines, France, Spain, South Africa, the Netherlands and Austria all host NTT data centers too.

Building earthquake-proof data centers in Japan is a remarkable engineering achievement

I THINK TO MYSELF … WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLDBy going on these trips, I found that all of the data centers I visited are run to NTT’s highest quality standards. They have similar levels of high availability, tight security, efficient operational approaches and modern capabilities -- even in greatly diverse countries with different cultures.

In between the data center visits, I’ve been able to appreciate first-hand some of the most historic sights of the world. I’ve experienced the Great Wall of China, the Taj Mahal, and a German Oktoberfest celebration just to name a few.

I’m thankful that by becoming part of NTT, RagingWire has become a truly global company. We now have the ability to provide complex global solutions for our customers, which is something that we flat out could not do before when our reach only extended across the U.S.

And most importantly, RagingWire customers have been able to capitalize on the innovation of other NTT companies. We can then reciprocate in turn to provide solutions for customers of other NTT companies. We’ve all become better and stronger for it.

Doug Adams at the Taj Mahal in Agra, India

Doug Adams and his favorite noodle dish

Faces of the Industry

PHO

TOG

RA

PHS:

DO

UG

AD

AM

S

InterGlobix | Issue 1 Issue 1 | InterGlobix

Doug Adams and family in Japan

Faces of the Industry

CEO DIARIES CEO DIARIES

69