KEY TAKEAWAYS
  • As our world becomes more interconnected, the rise of data-driven, connected, digital and secure technologies becomes ever-more critical. At NTT, this frames our approach to ‘intelligent innovation’.
  • R&D is the source of the NTT Groupʼs growth potential: with approximately 2,300 researchers engaging in a wide range of activities under the vision of developing cutting-edge technologies that contribute to the advancement of society, science and industry.
  • But partnership and collaboration is crucial – the answers to our global challenges will not be found alone. NTT has strategic partnerships with multiple global industry leaders, including Microsoft, Google, AWS, Cisco, Dell, SAP, Intel and many more. 
  • From the environmentally-friendly network of the future, IOWN (Innovative Optical Wireless Network), to space technology that allows us to proactively adapt to extreme natural phenomena on Earth, NTT’s innovation and research labs are changing how individuals and communities – local and global – interact with the world.

We see ‘intelligent innovation’ as a core value. The word ‘intelligent’ means data-driven, connected, digital and secure. Increasingly we are looking at a world that is connected, but it’s not just about physical connections; it’s about human connection. Connection for us means people, systems and data. A connected society is inherently a better society.

If you think about our day-to-day interactions, everything is digital. Technology is driving systems, so everything has to be secure by design – intrinsically secure. 

‘Data-driven’ has particular relevance when we talk about telemetry: collecting data at such a high fidelity from the data platforms we are building, giving us insights that we have never had before. When you get that level of fidelity in data, you can make scientific predictions and provide insights based purely on data. The world ultimately becomes a more intelligent place, because it’s all being data-driven. As we engage with clients and partners, you see that intelligent innovation comes through in our thinking, brought to life through our Open Innovation Framework to drive transformative change in business and society.

“Innovation is the only sustainable form of differentiation.”

– Ettienne Reinecke, Chief Technology Officer, NTT Ltd.

For any organization, innovation is the only sustainable form of differentiation. But partnership and collaboration is crucial – the answers to our global challenges will not be found alone. Through its R&D efforts, NTT is implementing wide-ranging and multifaceted research based on the ideal of creating world-leading technologies and contributing to the progress of society, economy and academic disciplines. 

From basic research through to research to realize practical implementation aimed at business expansion, we’re facilitating the creation of new value through open innovation and collaboration with corporations, universities and research institutions, with an emphasis on the realization of highly competitive advanced technologies.

That we have been able to develop the scale and scope of technological solutions across so many different sectors is in large part due to our Open Innovation Framework, which enables us to combine our insights and expertise with those of external partners – Microsoft, Cisco, Intel, AWS, Hitachi and SAP amongst others – to create cutting-edge products, services, and solutions.

NTT and Cisco, for example, have worked together to set the standard in fields such as smart buildings and telemedicine. With ASHRAE, NTT and Cisco retrofitted a 41-year-old building as an intelligent and green work environment, using networking, collaboration and IoT technology to integrate building management systems and optimize the employee and visitor experience. And for Siriraj Hospital in Bangkok, NTT assembled a solution involving Cisco collaboration and wireless technologies to enable doctors to diagnose and treat patients remotely, delivering better, faster treatment to stroke victims, saving precious time and lowering the risk of death and disabilities.

“I was really impressed with the breadth and depth that NTT R&D brings to bear.”

– Leslie Rosenberg, Research Vice President for Network Consulting and Infrastructure Services, IDC

Under the NTT R&D vision of developing cutting-edge technologies that contribute to the advancement of society, science and industry, NTT has approximately 2,300 researchers engaging in a wide range of activities, from basic research to R&D that supports the business development initiatives of operating companies. R&D is the source of the NTT Groupʼs growth potential. 

In pursuing a society in which people achieve sustainable development and recognize diverse concepts of values, we need to realize a smart world in which there is a dramatic change in people’s lives, and the relationship between people and technology – a world in which everything is interconnected. To make this happen, we need to establish a communication infrastructure capable of handling an enormous volume of information, and to enable people to benefit from it without conscious effort.

In support of these endeavors, one key development is the Innovative Optical and Wireless Network (IOWN), a future communication infrastructure that makes it possible to provide ultimate safety, security, and reliability – and achieve environmentally-friendly sustained growth and diversity-tolerant local and global optimization. It will be brought about through two types of transformation: digital to natural and electronics to photonics.

(Read more about IOWN here or watch an overview from NTT DATA UK’s Chief Technology Officer Tom Winstanley in this video.)

If we are to create new value by making the most of our research results, we need to cultivate not only the ability to master leading-edge technologies but also the ability to work with partners to combine our strengths. By enhancing these two abilities, we’re contributing to the development of industries around the world, and of society at large.

Can innovation create a sustainable future?

For some, the galloping pace of technological advancement can be daunting. But for us it is exciting, because of the great promise and potential that new technologies have in service of people, society and the planet.

From keeping citizens safe in smart cities to protecting endangered animal species, the work that NTT R&D ecosystem is doing across the globe is putting us on the path to realizing a resilient society.

One of the newest research labs, NTT’s Space Environment and Energy Laboratory (established in 2020), is specifically tasked with revitalizing the global environment and realizing a sustainable and inclusive society. Here, a variety of research is conducted by analyzing Earth from the dynamic perspective of outer space, in order to proactively respond to catastrophes caused by recent weather extremes and other crises such as pandemics.

Amongst the developments from this lab, next generation energy technologies are being tested and deployed, including:

  • Optimized nuclear fusion and space solar power – for clean and inexhaustible energy,
  • Virtual supply-and-demand control systems – for an energy network system that reduces environmental impact,
  • CO2 conversion and green genome editing application technologies – for sustainable system technology that reduces environmental loads from zero to negative.

In addition, NTT is working on future forecasting technologies that will stimulate revitalization, such as super-wide atmosphere and ocean observation, weather and climate recovery modeling, ecosystem recovery modeling and global environment recovery simulation.

And to realize planet-friendly changes to our environment, NTT is working on technologies that proactively adapt to extreme natural phenomena on Earth and in space, including lightning control and charging, and cosmic-ray barrier technology.

So, from the perspective of looking beyond our own lifetimes – to the world that future generations will inhabit – and even beyond our own planet, to space technologies, we are not only differentiating NTT and its partners through innovation, but helping to shape the very nature of our reality.

Innovation is about being creative and bold in ways that have a positive impact on how people go about their daily lives. And every day at NTT, we are looking for opportunities to do incredible things by creating new technologies that make the world a better place.

 

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