With 25 years of experience in the data center industry, Doug Adams, CEO and president of NTT Global Data Centers, welcomes us into 2025 by featuring in our DCD>Talks series. He reflects on NTT’s remarkable growth and shares the company’s vision for the future.
From RagingWire to global leadership
The early 2000s were marked by technological innovation, cultural shifts, and significant global events. Amid this dynamic backdrop, Adams and his business partners founded RagingWire, one of the earliest data center providers in the US: “We lived through the dot-com boom, we saw the ups and downs – we were one of the fortunate ones that actually made it through that very tumultuous period within our industry,” said Adams.
A strategic sale and acquisition in 2013 bolstered NTT’s US expansion, with Adams stepping in to lead its American operations as the company continued to grow its presence across Europe, India, and Asia. By June 2023, Adams had taken on a global leadership role as CEO and president, overseeing all of NTT’s operations.
Four entities, one coherent vision
As Adams explains, NTT Global Data Centers operates across four major regions: EMEA, India, Asia, and the US. Over the past 18 months, he and his team have worked to foster cohesion among these regions, focusing not only on governance and standardization of roles and responsibilities but also on promoting active communication to create alignment.
This alignment, Adams emphasizes, helps employees connect with and support the company’s overarching vision.
“They need to understand strategically where you're going as a company, why that's important, and the role they play in it so they can be part of the solution,” says Adams. “I cannot emphasize enough – after 25 years in this industry, the most important lesson I’ve learned is that alignment within your teams is everything. They need to understand the vision, their place in it, and how they can contribute to its success.”
Growth and strategic focus for 2025 and beyond
Reflecting on NTT’s journey to becoming one of the few truly global data center organizations – achieving 25 percent growth year-over-year – Adams ponders the trends predicted to shape operations in 2025, from AI advancements to critical sustainability commitments.
“Scale and standardization are the key pieces to the data center business,” he explains. “Scale provides low costs and operational efficiencies, and standardization is how you achieve that.”
Adams highlights NTT’s direct-to-chip liquid cooling efforts as a prime example of scaling and standardizing operations globally. As data centers adapt to support AI workloads, traditional air cooling faces efficiency and performance challenges at high densities, making liquid cooling essential for large-scale deployments.
“We currently have over 250MW of direct-to-chip liquid infrastructure capacity in the US alone,” Adams shares.
While liquid cooling technology is still relatively new, efforts are underway to standardize it, with the view for it to become a repeatable, efficient, and cost-effective solution at scale.
“We work side by side with some of the largest AI and chip providers in our portfolio, adopting and creating standards for liquid-to-chip cooling,” Adams says. “These collaborations have provided us with invaluable insights into optimizing this technology.”
To emphasize the growing interest in the topic, DCD’s CEO and host of the DCD>Talks episode, Dan Loosemore, reveals that readership on liquid cooling stories increased by 600 percent in 2024 versus the year prior.
Harnessing global R&D
With global backing from NTT Global Data Centers' parent company, a massive organization with 315,000 employees, Adams is confident that the substantial funds dedicated to R&D – ranging from cryptography to liquid cooling – ensure the Japanese company is well-positioned to continue investing in new and upcoming services that meet clients' needs.
“We not only service the hyperscalers and AI providers, but we also, especially in Asia and Europe, have a very strong retail and enterprise presence and our customers are able to enjoy all the services from the entity portfolio of customers around security and asset management,” says Adams.
Real-world sustainability
While it's commendable, it’s not unusual or unheard of for data center companies to pledge their sustainability support through 2030 carbon neutrality commitments. What Adams sees as a standout, however, is NTT Holdings Company's commitment to donate a million person-hours to support sustainability, backed by a $3.7 billion green bond.
Adams emphasizes that social responsibility is also a key part of NTT’s ethos:
“I just got back from a trip to India, where we've created water retention ponds for areas that were arid and had water shortages. We planted thousands of trees in a deforested area in India. We provide lunches to many, many students in underprivileged areas. We have a truck that travels around India to different schools to explain sustainability and technology, helping educate younger children. So, we’ve made a commitment to the environment and the communities we operate in.”
Loosemore concludes the talk by supporting NTT’s commitments, noting that the company was a finalist in DCD’s Community Impact Award for its “Maharashtra Water Resilience for Communities and Agriculture” project. He adds that at a time when the industry is under greater scrutiny, we must be better stewards of the communities we serve, and NTT’s project is a fantastic example of that.
To watch the full DCD>Talks episode, click here.
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