NTT Data South Africa is repositioning for a new era of artificial intelligence (AI)-driven infrastructure, shifting away from owning data centres, and instead focusing on becoming a full-stack managed services and infrastructure provider.
The renewed strategy follows the Japanese multinational IT services provider and consultancy’s sale of seven South African data centres to Open Access Data Centres (OADC) in a sale-and-leaseback transaction completed in February.
The data centres are in Bloemfontein, Cape Town, East London, Bryanston and Parklands in Johannesburg, Gqeberha and Umhlanga.
As part of the agreement, OADC purchased the data centres and leased them back to NTT DATA SA, which will remain the primary point of contact for clients and continue delivering all services from these facilities.
Speaking to ITWeb TV, Amantha Naidoo, managing executive of NTT Data South Africa, said the transaction reflects a broader strategic shift towards an asset-light operating model, while enabling the company to focus on delivering greater value across customers' entire technology environment.
According to Naidoo, while the move marked the end of NTT Data South Africa's ownership of those facilities, the company remains committed to delivering co-location, hosting and managed infrastructure services to customers.
The renewed strategy, she noted, is no longer centred on owning physical infrastructure, but on integrating data centres, cloud, connectivity and managed services into a single offering that helps organisations modernise their IT environments and prepare for AI.
"We've taken the view that data centres remain core to our go-to-market strategy, but it's more around the co-location and managed services that we provide to our end clients. We don't necessarily need to own and operate the facilities ourselves to deliver those services.
“That was the rationale behind the sale-and-leaseback transaction, where OADC owns the facilities and we lease back the space required to continue servicing our customers."
She emphasised that clients should experience no disruption as a result of the transaction.
"We still manage the services. We still manage the co-location on behalf of our clients, having leased back the data centre space. From a customer perspective, our role and the services they receive remain unchanged."
The move also aligns SA more closely with NTT Data's broader global operating model.
Naidoo pointed out that the group continues to own and develop data centres globally through its specialist data centre business, including the Johannesburg 1 hyperscale facility, from which NTT Data South Africa leases capacity to support local customers.
"Our global data centre business continues to invest heavily in developing facilities for hyperscalers and enterprise customers. Johannesburg 1 remains a fully-operational flagship facility, and we lease capacity from that business in exactly the same way we lease capacity from OADC. It allows us to remain focused on delivering services, while leveraging world-class infrastructure."
Naidoo explained that controlling the end-to-end customer experience is becoming increasingly important as organisations demand outcome-based partnerships instead of traditional technology contracts.
"If we only provide one component of the technology stack, we become a transactional service provider. By bringing together data centres, cloud, connectivity and managed infrastructure, we're able to become a strategic partner that can sign up for value-based engagements and help customers achieve business outcomes rather than simply supplying technology."
The company also believes the asset-light approach creates greater commercial flexibility.
"Not owning the facilities allows us to remain focused on service experience, while ensuring our propositions remain commercially attractive. It also allows us to build resilience and redundancy into our offerings without being constrained by ownership."
Rethinking cloud strategies
NTT Data South Africa's renewed strategy comes as South African organisations rapidly accelerate investments in AI and cloud technologies, creating new demand for digital infrastructure.
According to Naidoo, AI has become the catalyst for a fresh wave of cloud adoption, with many businesses reassessing earlier infrastructure decisions as they determine where AI workloads should reside.
"AI is driving organisations to revisit their cloud strategies because the technology requires organisations to think differently about infrastructure. Customers are asking whether workloads belong in the public cloud, private cloud or on-premises, and those conversations are happening far more frequently than they were a few years ago. AI is fundamentally changing how organisations think about their technology environments."
Local and international data centre operators have been increasingly setting up presence in SA, investing billions of rands as demand for cloud computing, AI and digital services accelerate.
This has seen SA emerge as Africa's leading data centre market, as major operators − including Teraco, Africa Data Centres, AOADC and Digital Parks Africa − have continued expanding capacity in recent years, as local firms increasingly require secure, low-latency infrastructure to support AI workloads and cloud migration.
Although NTT Data South Africa has reduced its owned infrastructure footprint, Naidoo confirmed data centre expansion across the Middle East and Africa remains a future possibility.
"Our global data centre business continues to evaluate growth opportunities across different regions. Mapping out what that acquisition and expansion strategy looks like for the Middle East and Africa remains very much a work in progress, but it is still a core capability for the group."
People drive AI success
While AI is transforming infrastructure strategies, Naidoo believes SA’s greatest obstacle is not the technology itself, but preparing people for an AI-enabled economy.
She said organisations continue to invest in AI platforms, cloud infrastructure and specialist technical skills, but many have overlooked the human side of digital transformation.
"We're still talking about AI largely in technology terms, yet AI only comes to life through the people who use it. There is still a great deal of fear because many employees believe embracing AI means working themselves out of a job. If organisations want meaningful adoption, they need to invest just as heavily in helping people become more adaptable, as they do in the technology itself."
Naidoo argues that organisations first need strong data foundations before expecting AI to generate meaningful business value.
"If you don't have quality data, AI simply won't produce meaningful outcomes. Organisations need trusted data, good governance and responsible AI practices before they can scale AI successfully. At the same time, experimentation should be intentional and focused on areas that genuinely improve customer experience, efficiency or growth."
Beyond specialist AI skills such as data scientists and AI architects, she believes businesses must rethink workforce development more broadly.
"We're seeing organisations invest in AI architects and data scientists, and we're seeing more employees being trained to use generative AI tools productively. The next challenge is much bigger − helping entire workforces become more adaptive, whether that's people working in finance, marketing, customer service or any other function. Those behavioural and adaptive skills will become increasingly important."
The company is applying the same philosophy internally, while continuing to invest in long-standing initiatives, such as its Saturday School programme, which has helped learners improve mathematics and science results before progressing into higher education and, in many cases, careers within the company.
Fourteen months into her role as managing executive, Naidoo says her long-term ambition extends beyond revenue growth.
"Our ambition is to create meaningful impact through how we [NTT Data] show up, how we communicate and how we deliver. That also means creating more jobs in South Africa by leveraging our position within a global organisation and exporting South African skills to the rest of the world."
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