NTT Communications (NTT Com) announced today that it will offer virtual hosting as a free trial service and launch large-scale storage as a commercial service in Japan, both provided under NTT Com's BizCITY concept of providing secure access to enterprise services from anyplace at anytime.

The Green Hosting Basic virtual hosting trial will last from October 15 to March 31 next year, while the Green Storage service will be launched in December.

Corporations are beginning to use cloud-based services for the simplified introduction of ICT systems, as well as to reduce system-operating costs and lower the environmental impact of their ICT operations.

NTT Com helps customers achieve these objectives with reliable, high-quality cloud-computing services based on its vast experience as Japan's leading provider of trusted networks, proven VPN services and robust data centers linked directly to the company's Tier 1 backbone network. Green Hosting Basic and Green Storage will offer customers the following advantages:

1. High safety and security, thanks to the linkage of NTT Com's proven VPN services and robust data centers.

2. Highly available, one-stop operation due to network integration. Green Hosting Basic also will offer disaster-recovery measures to protect valuable data in the case of technical trouble.

3. Unlimited VPN traffic and low-cost operation: BizCITY's Application Gateway Service, which connects various applications to VPN, eliminates limitations on traffic volume within the VPN. The Application Gateway Service costs 7,350 yen (including tax) per VPN per month. Green Hosting Basic will provide secure network access to NTT Com data-center servers anytime and from anywhere.

Access either by VPN or Internet can be selected according to the customer's network environment and other needs. Server virtualization will enable one physical server to be operated efficiently as several virtual machines, resulting in high-cost performance and low-cost operation. Trial participants will receive a guest OS-installed virtual server and firewall provided via either the Internet or a VPN. The participants will be required to furnish their own middleware and applications.

Maintenance will be provided from 10:00 to 17:00 weekdays. If the trial goes as planned, NTT Com expects to commercialize Green Hosting Basic in April 2010, as well as consider offering other hosting services that utilize virtualization technology to overseas market.

Once Green Hosting Basic is launched commercially, the existing Green Hosting outsourcing service for server virtualization-based hosting will be renamed Green Hosting Enterprise, which will help to emphasize that this high-quality service is designed to work with enterprise backbone systems and information infrastructure. NTT Com also plans to virtualize Green Hosting Basic using Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) technology.

Working in collaboration with Red Hat, Inc., the plan is to introduce a pioneering commercial service that fully incorporates KVM technology for cloud-based virtual hosting. "We have collaborated with NTT Com to continue the development of Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization," said Mike Evans, Vice President of Corporate Development at Red Hat.

"We believe this is a game changer for the cloud, delivering exceptional performance, reliability, security and scalability." The second service announced today, Green Storage, will provide customers with network access to NTT Com's data-center file servers for data-storage capacity ranging from 100 gigabytes to 10 terabytes, available in 100-gigabyte increments.

In addition to being compatible with Microsoft® Active Directory® for authentication, the service offers backup and other functions normally associated with full-scale corporate file servers.

Easy storage and retrieval of ever-increasing business data, graphics and other data will be possible through the service for low monthly charges starting from 21,000 yen per 100 gigabytes. The service is expected to launch sometime this December.

Green Hosting Basic and Green Storage will be demonstrated at the NTT Communications Forum 2009, which will take place at the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo on October 29 and 30. Admission is free but advanced registration is required at www.ntt.com/forum (Japanese only).