NTT Group to Launch Smart Cities Initiative with Dell Technologies

LAS VEGAS, May 1, 2018 – NTT Group (NTT, NTT DATA, NTT Communications and Dimension Data) has expanded its partnership with Dell Technologies to include smart city initiatives. The companies will be collaborating on the first smart city proof of concept with the City of Las Vegas as part of the city’s digital transformation.

NTT Group believes smart cities are the natural evolution in public safety that will make full use of next-generation sensors, ultra-high definition cameras and other forward-reaching technologies. Today, video situational awareness is a common practice used by local police and fire agencies to proactively alert public safety stakeholders and first responders to emergencies. However, expanding for future safety measures requires infrastructure and operating models that can analyze and store incoming multimedia data. These requirements are too expensive for most municipalities, limiting the public safety potential of smart city initiatives.

The new NTT Group solution is a secure, distributed platform that will create and deploy micro data centers in proximity to sensors around a city. These micro data centers will use advanced analytics for delivering real-time data to the locations where the data can provide the most value. Predictive and diagnostic analytics at the edge will only send data indicating an incident has occurred or needs investigation back to the core datacenter, minimizing data transport volume and time.

The smart city solution is built on NTT Group’s innovative Cognitive Foundation architecture, which enables remote creation, management and operation of information and communications technology (ICT) resources, from devices and networks to the cloud. It will also combine Dell EMC hyperconverged infrastructure and IoT gateways and VMware vCloud NFV platform hosting predictive analytics applications.

Once the proof of concept is complete, it will allow for proactive data analytics to improve safety. With a robust and scalable infrastructure supporting video situational awareness and sensor data, the city can take advantage of machine learning to improve response times for public safety incidents. After a successful proof of concept in the City of Las Vegas, NTT Group is planning to introduce additional similar initiatives in other U.S. cities.

“Our collaborative approach is unique, and we are delighted to partner with the city of Las Vegas and Dell Technologies to help ensure citizens are safe and critical resources are deployed when needed,” said Jun Sawada, CFO, NTT and CEO, NTT Security. "We’ve brought together NTT Group’s Cognitive Foundation and Dell Technology’s powerful micro data centers to focus on public gathering areas and event venues. This powerful combination facilitates effective and efficient rapid response services,” Sawada said.

“The Innovation District in downtown Las Vegas was designed to be a proving ground for new technologies, and this latest interest by NTT Group and Dell Technologies will continue our efforts to become a smart and connected community,” said Michael Lee Sherwood, Director of Information Technologies, City of Las Vegas. “By leveraging innovative technologies the city will be able to enhance service delivery while helping to keep the public safe and connected.”

“This proof of concept testing with NTT Group strives to improve, modernize and transform the infrastructure of our cities,” said Howard Elias, President, Dell Services, Digital and IT. “Leading–edge technology from Dell Technologies, together with NTT Group’s Cognitive Foundation, will help municipalities worldwide transform their infrastructure and improve public services for their residents and visitors.”

NTT Group is pleased to introduce the advanced Smart City solution for the digital society era at Dell Technologies World 2018.