AWS and NTT Data's Bid to Transform AI and Cloud Strategies

AWS and NTT DATA have signed a multi-year Strategic Collaboration Agreement (SCA) designed to accelerate enterprise cloud modernisation while addressing the infrastructure demands of AI, data sovereignty and regulated industries. 

At its core, the agreement brings together AWS’ hyperscale cloud platform and global data centre footprint with NTT DATA’s experience in cloud-native transformation, managed services and agentic AI.

The collaboration is positioned as a response to growing enterprise pressure to modernise legacy systems, deploy AI at scale and do so on infrastructure that meets strict requirements for security, compliance and locality. For data centres, this translates into increased demand for resilient cloud regions, sovereign architectures and industry-specific platforms that can be deployed consistently across geographies.

“Cloud and AI are central to enterprise transformation,” says Abhijit Dubey, President and CEO of NTT DATA. 

“Through our Strategic Collaboration Agreement with AWS, we are helping clients move beyond experimentation to scale AI impactfully and responsibly. This collaboration underscores our commitment to deliver secure, industry-specific solutions that create tangible business value for our clients worldwide.”

Four pillars shaping cloud infrastructure demand

The Strategic Collaboration Agreement focuses on four priority areas that each carry implications for how cloud data centres are designed, deployed and operated.

• AI-driven cloud transformation is aimed at migrating and modernising on-premises workloads using generative and agentic AI combined with automation and data platforms. This approach increases reliance on scalable compute and storage capacity within AWS regions, while driving demand for high-availability architectures capable of supporting AI workloads across large organisations.
  
  
• Industry cloud solutions on AWS centre on NTT DATA’s Industry Cloud portfolio, which includes more than 500 pre-built business components and domain-specific AI agents. These solutions are designed for regulated sectors such as financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, retail and the public sector, all of which place specific requirements on data centre location, resilience and compliance.
  
  
• AI and data innovation for managed services extends the partnership into customer experience platforms. By leveraging AWS services such as Amazon Connect, NTT DATA plans to expand AI-driven contact centre modernisation. This pushes more real-time analytics and automation workloads into cloud data centres, increasing the need for low-latency processing and predictable performance.
  
  
• Digital sovereignty and regulated cloud directly addresses data centre strategy in Europe. NTT DATA will deliver sovereign-by-design architectures on the AWS European Sovereign Cloud, enabling governments and enterprises to meet data residency and operational autonomy requirements without compromising performance or security.
  
  

“This collaboration will help more enterprise organisations unlock the potential of the cloud and AI to modernise their operations and accelerate innovation,” says Greg Pearson, VP of AWS Global Sales. 

“Through industry-aligned architecture platforms, agentic AI ecosystems, AI-driven customer experience and support in meeting evolving regulatory requirements through the AWS European Sovereign Cloud, we’re enhancing their ability to transform legacy workloads and build the next generation of digital experiences on AWS.”

Talent, co-development and operational scale

To support delivery at scale, NTT DATA has established a dedicated AWS Business Group aligned with AWS’s own sales and delivery model. 

Nearly 11,000 AWS-certified professionals will staff the unit, with a further 10,000 certifications planned over the next three years. This talent pool is intended to support rapid deployment of cloud workloads that depend on consistent data centre capacity and operational standards.

The partnership also places emphasis on co-innovation. Dedicated innovation environments and sandboxes on AWS will allow both organisations to co-develop and test enterprise-grade solutions before scaling them globally.

This model supports more predictable capacity planning by validating workloads ahead of full production rollout.

Enterprise adoption in practice

Honda Trading Asia provides an example of how the collaboration translates into operational change. 

Headquartered in Bangkok, the company plays a central role in the Honda Group’s supply chain, handling the import, export and distribution of raw materials and components.

“Migrating to the AWS Cloud with the expert support of NTT DATA has been an essential step in modernising our systems and infrastructure and provides us with a powerful foundation for AI innovation,” says Somya Mayuraskoon, Director of Honda Trading Asia. 

“NTT DATA were always available to address our technical questions and worked closely with us to stay within our timeline and budget. Their expertise and support ensured a smooth transition, unlocking exciting growth possibilities through AWS.”

For AWS and NTT DATA, the agreement reflects a shared focus on aligning cloud services with the physical realities of data centre infrastructure. 

As enterprises push AI workloads, regulated data and mission-critical systems into the cloud, the collaboration positions both companies to deliver platforms that are not only scalable but designed around sovereignty, resilience and long-term operational certainty.