NTT Ltd’s £500 million UK investment programme reached another milestone with the opening of the company’s new Dagenham data centre which will be called ‘London 1’.
This latest investment will create up to 100 jobs in Dagenham and is near to the new film production complex being developed by US property investors Hackman Capital Partners. Dagenham is fast becoming a digital media and innovation hub as it is a cost-effective alternative to one of the UK’s main internet hubs in nearby Docklands.
London 1 will more than triple NTT Ltd’s UK data center footprint and joins a portfolio of five other NTT Ltd data centres in the UK. The company’s seventh UK data centre is currently being built in Hemel Hempstead and due to open in 2021.
Jason Goodall, CEO, NTT Ltd commented: “This milestone data center and large investment shows our commitment to the UK market as well as the demand from our customers for sustainable, secure and scalable data center.” Goodall reiterated that the UK, where the company has its HQ, is “fundamental” to its growth plans. Goodall is due to retire in mid 2021, but will remain a board director of NTT Ltd and strategic advisor to NTT Venture Capital.
The leader of the local authority, Cllr Darren Rodwell, was understandably delighted at the new data centre opening. “This latest addition will help support East London’s emerging technological industries and provide local jobs focused on digital skills,” he said, branding the area as “Digital Dagenham”.
London 1 will be part of NTT Ltd’s Global Data Centers division which incorporates 160 data centres in more than 20 countries. NTT Ltd is a wholly-owned subsidiary of NTT Inc, and provides network, security and data services to large enterprises across the globe.
The new data centre will be in close proximity to the planned film studio being built by Hackman Capital Partners and due to open in 2022. According to Advanced Television, the studio will create 1,200 jobs and add around £35 million a year to the East London economy. And this isn’t the first time NTT Ltd has invested in this way. In 2018 it built a PoP into Equinix’s data centre in Manchester’s media district.
Omnisperience view
Buried in this announcement are some really interesting messages:
- NTT Inc is messaging its strong commitment to the UK market – Brexit or not. It has based its global enterprise division and HQ in London, and is investing £500 million in the UK market
- This is a good news announcement after a hard year on the jobs front. Here’s a UK-based tech firm creating 100 jobs immediately plus more to follow when the next data centre comes online in 2021. But, even more importantly, this extra capacity will underpin the UK’s digital and internet economy going forward to create even more jobs.
“The UK’s digital economy has a strong and vibrant future. Investments like that of NTT Ltd show that the sector is Brexit-proof and COVID-resistant. In fact, COVID-19 has accelerated digitalisation – boosting the need for connectivity, cloud, data services and security. The new data centre capacity at London-1 that NTT Ltd is announcing today will not only create jobs directly, but provide a platform for wider, indirect job creation. The investment also suggests a major technology player is confident in the potential of the UK’s digital economy going forward.” Teresa Cottam, Chief Analyst, Omnisperience
[…] As an industry, it’s also proven to be relatively COVID-proof. While some sectors – such as cinema, live music and events – have been challenged, many others have boomed as demand shifted to digital alternatives, further driving demand for ICT services, storage and network capacity. On the B2B side of the industry, COVID stimulated a shift to remote production, opening up a range of new opportunities for service providers. This has been boosted by major investments such as those planned for MediaCity Manchester and the new film studio being built in East London. […]