Global Data Centers, a division of NTT, has kicked off construction of its Hemel Hempstead 4 Data Center, located close to London.

Hemel 4 will join NTT's other current UK expansion project, London 1 in Dagenham, and its five completed data centers in Hemel Hempstead and Slough.

Once fully built out, the facility will have 9,600 sq m (100,000 sq ft) of available data center space and support 24MW of IT load. The first phase is due to open in Q4 2021.

Growing on two fronts.

NTT's UK business is based around Gyron, a company which it bought in 2012, and expanded over the next seven years, building three data centers on the Hemel Hempstead site. NTT retired the Gyron brand last year, along with other international brands such as RagingWire in the US, to create its Global Data Centers brand.

NTT is investing a total of around $660 million (£500m) on these expansion projects in the UK market, giving it a London hub of data centers with a total capacity of 100MW.

NTT's other facility, London 1, will cover 54,000 sq m (580,000 sq ft) and will be located in the LondonEast-UK business park in East London. Approximately 20km (12 miles) from the city center and 16km (10 miles) from the London Internet Exchange (LINX), it will offer 25,600 sq m (275,000 sq ft) of IT space and more than 60MW of IT load.

All of NTT’s London facilities are interconnected with one another. This means each facility can offload storage to other facilities improving its resiliency and disaster recovery capabilities.

Florian Winkler, CEO EMEA of the Global Data Centers division of NTT Ltd, said: “We continue to expand to meet the demand from our clients for high-quality data center space and to protect the growing volume of their sensitive data.

“The UK is one of our fastest-growing markets and we are pleased that the expansion in Hemel Hempstead will offer our clients additional space to support their digital business.”