Equinix Japan (President: Kuniko Ogawa, hereinafter "Equinix"), NTT East Corporation (Headquarters: Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, President: Naoki Shibuya, hereinafter "NTT East"), which provides communication infrastructure such as landline phones and fiber optic lines in the eastern Japan area, and Sakura Internet Inc. (Headquarters: Osaka City, Osaka, President: Kunihiro Tanaka, hereinafter "Sakura Internet"), a provider of digital infrastructure services, have begun exploring a joint Proof of Concept (PoC) utilizing the APN (All Photonics Network) based on IOWN (Innovative Optical and Wireless Network) technology, scheduled to commence in the latter half of 2026. This initiative will leverage NTT Group's IOWN as a core technology, utilizing the communication infrastructure provided by NTT East to connect Sakura Internet's Ishikari Data Center with Equinix's Tokyo facilities. The PoC will examine use cases including distributed processing and AI workloads. In recent years, with the widespread adoption of generative AI and the acceleration of DX, there has been a growing need to distribute data and computing resources between urban and suburban areas from the perspectives of land use and power consumption. While low-latency, high-capacity connectivity is essential, operational burdens are also increasing. This initiative aims to leverage the characteristics of IOWN APN, which enables low-latency, high-capacity communication through optical technologies, to verify performance in a real-world environment connecting Hokkaido and Tokyo, and to outline a path toward future implementation and commercialization. *1: IOWN (Innovative Optical and Wireless Network) is a concept for a network and information processing infrastructure, including terminals, that aims to optimize individuals and the whole based on all information, utilizing innovative technologies centered on optics to provide high-speed, high-capacity communication and vast computing resources. For more details, please