NEC : to strengthen data center operations

*** For immediate use February 17, 2015

Tokyo, February 17, 2015 - NEC Corporation (NEC; TSE: 6701) announced today plans to globally augment its data center (DC) operations that serve as the foundation for its "Solutions for Society" businesses, aiming to advance social infrastructure through the application of information and communications technology (ICT). Details of the plans are as follows:

1. Augmentation/enhancement of DC operations in Japan
   In April 2016, NEC will establish a new NEC Kobe Data Center in Kobe City, Hyogo Prefecture, which will become a flagship DC alongside the NEC Kanagawa Data Center established in January 2014. The new DC will provide NEC Cloud IaaS and housing/colocation services, and, through the use of a hybrid combination of these services, will enable the overall optimization and improved operational efficiency of customers' systems as a whole. The floor area of the machine room of this DC will be 4,000m², and it will house 1,500 server racks.
   
   

   A) Facilities offering superior business continuity
   	The new DC will be approximately 1 hour from Osaka Station. It will be located over 9km away from the coast, and outside of any areas anticipated to incur damage from flooding, landslides or liquefaction as indicated on the hazard map defined by the local municipal authorities. As well as adopting a seismically isolated (earthquake absorbing) structure for the building itself, NEC will also be installing an electricity generator capable of up to 72 hours of continuous unrefueled operation at full occupancy, and implementing redundancy within the power-supply system.
   B) Adoption of face recognition systems etc., achieving a balance of both high-level security and user-friendliness
   	Unauthorized intrusions into the DC will be guarded against through the application of NEC's facial detection and matching engine, NeoFace(R) (), with its world-leading accuracy, and NEC's compact, high-precision infrared cameras. High-level security will also be achieved through the prevention of unauthorized operations by the utilization of features such as system login ID management and audit-trail management systems. In addition, high levels of convenience/user-friendliness will be achieved through technology such as walk-through face recognition, which enables smooth identity confirmation while individuals are on the move and can prevent "tailgating" when entering the DC building or machine room etc. Moreover, the DC will feature an entry management system that makes it possible to request entry in advance via the Web and then sign-in on arrival using a dedicated terminal at the entrance to the DC.
   C) Heightened efficiency of electricity-saving etc., achieved by the adoption of NEC's latest original technologies
   	The new DC will employ NEC's power-saving, high-density micro modular servers, which deliver a 75% reduction in both installation space and power consumption in comparison with NEC's conventional servers (), and allow for up to 700 servers to be mounted per rack. In addition to its application in these micro modular servers, NEC's phase change cooling unit-which enables efficient cooling due to the heat cycle arising when the coolant vaporizes and condenses-will also be employed in the cooling system for the entire machine room. In addition, external air cooled by passing it through the underground seismic isolation-layer (cold underground air) and solar power etc. will be utilized to increase cooling efficiency and reduce power consumption from lighting etc. In combination with this, NEC Energy Solutions' energy storage systems will be installed in the DC, and used to store and utilize surplus electrical power produced by solar power generation, cheap night-time rate electricity and others. Through these measures, NEC aims to achieve top-class power usage effectiveness (PUE) for a domestic DC, at a ratio of 1.18.

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3. Global deployment of DC operations

   A) Expansion and enhancement of international DCs
   	In addition to the DCs possessed by its international subsidiaries and joint venture companies formed by mergers with international corporations, NEC will also expand and enhance its DC locations in collaboration with its partner companies. NEC will also build and maintain a cloud reference system, based on the technology and knowhow acquired through the design, development and operation of NEC Cloud IaaS and the NEC Kanagawa Data Center. By utilizing this system, NEC itself will provide cloud infrastructure services internationally, while at the same time offering this system to its customers and partners, and achieving the early launch of a highly reliable and scalable cloud-based infrastructure service.
   B) Virtualization of global inter-DC networks
   	NEC will build and maintain inter-DC networks that tie together its own DCs and the DCs of its customers and partner companies internationally and virtualize these networks through the application of software-defined networking (SDN). This will enable customers to access ICT resources spread between multiple DCs, without the need for awareness about their location, and at lower cost and more rapidly than with conventional methods. NEC will also provide data backup and system recovery environments to improve business continuity.
   C) Provision of a globally unified operation management system
   	Through the utilization of globally standardized operating processes, NEC will unify operational management functionality internationally. By doing so, NEC will be able to offer high quality, low cost operation management services.

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*2: Comparison between one Micro Modular Server rack and a SIGMABLADE blade-server of equivalent performance. Calculated based on the annual power consumption when operating the servers at full capacity for 12 hours and in an idle state for 12 hours a day, every day for one year.