Miriam Murphy, CEO of NTT Europe, talks the company’s future

Written by Harry Menear

As the incoming CEO of NTT in Europe, Miriam Murphy is taking the reins of a sizable data centre operator at a pivotal time for the industry. At the outset of her role, we sat down with Miriam Murphy to find out where she (and NTT) stand on the company’s future in Europe.

What are your priorities for the new role, Miriam? Are there any challenges or opportunities in Europe that you want to focus NTT's efforts on?

One of the key priorities for me as I get stuck into the new role is to accelerate the integration of NTT, bringing the reality of the vision to our clients in Europe. The aim is to grow our business across the region, connecting with our clients to ensure our capabilities of enabling business transformation are understood.

NTT has very strong core propositions. With an industry-leading digital backbone, a secure multi-cloud platform and a broad portfolio of global services, the key to our success will be working with our clients across our full portfolio, both in Europe and from a global standpoint.

You've got an impressive tech resume. Are there lessons you've learned over the course of your career that you apply no matter where you go?

I believe that every role provides a series of learnings, and there are a few that stand out the most for me. I’ve learnt that listening and understanding are crucial when stepping into a new role, and it’s very important to be available to meet the teams and hear their views and input. Clarity of mission and quality of communication, to the management team and wider business, are also important.

We should also strive to help build skills and develop people. The technology industry is an ongoing journey and it’s not just about developing digital skills, but business skills too.

Finally, honesty and humility are fundamental skills; you have to be open with individuals about the business objectives, the strengths and the areas for improvement. You also need the humility to know you need to work as a team to achieve the goals. Nothing can be achieved alone, which is why this very closely aligns to clarity of the mission and open communication. 

How would you characterise NTT's current position in Europe's data centre and connectivity markets?

Currently, we are the third largest data centre company globally. In Europe, NTT has a strong position - we are the number one data centre company in Frankfurt, which is in the top data centre markets in Europe.

We are expanding aggressively across Europe, with a 40% increase between 2021 and 2023, including launching into Madrid in Spain, as well as growing in Germany (Frankfurt, Munich, Berlin and Rhine Rhur), Amsterdam, Vienna, Zurich and significantly in the UK.

Are there any broader industry trends you see poised to shape the direction of Europe's data centre industry in the near future?

In industry terms, the move to digital means we’re continuing to see significant demand from the big cloud providers. In the enterprise space the journey to cloud continues to grow at pace, resulting in continued growth in Hybrid IT solutions as part of the discussion with our clients.

Security, while certainly not a new trend, continues to grow in importance and impact to a business and its workforce every day as new threats emerge. Finally, the importance of sustainability is continuing to rise. Data centres are a large carbon footprint for IT because it's where IT resides. 

What can we expect to see from NTT over the coming months?

In short – a lot. We will continue to work with our clients across our full portfolio, helping companies achieve digital transformation by leveraging leading edge technologies and decisioning, real-time intelligence and insights, and the pervasive use of AI, all in a secure environment.

We will be opening our new Data Centre in Spain in late Spring and holding our second iNTTerconnected thought leadership event in March, this time with Connected Industries as the theme. In July, we will see our most public example of digital transformation in a business – our partnership with the A.S.O. at the Tour de France. As the event’s official technology partner, NTT is implementing a technology roadmap to provide a rich digital experience for fans on site and remotely. Much more news to come on this as we approach the race start.