Saudi telecommunications firm STC is gearing up to enter Phase 3 of its data centre project, which is the largest data centre construction in the region at one time.
The announcement follows the completion of the project’s Phases 1 and 2.
Launched in December 2020, the project is part of a $267 million investment. The Tier III enhanced data centres have a maximum capacity of 125 MW in computing power. It has an area of more than 180,000 sqm and is part of STC’s broader ambition and overall strategy to provide enhanced digital and telecommunication services across the Kingdom.
The STC Data Centre’s programme constitutes of 16 data centres that include 17,000 racks, which will be incorporating eight parallel projects distributed across multiple zones within six cities.
The programme will create critical digital availability zones that will provide a full range of services, security, service management and safety measures of assets across key cities such as Riyadh, Jeddah, and Dammam.
According to STC, the new data centres have a modular smart design, are fully hyperscaler-compliant and deliver highly resilient infrastructure availability. Phase 3 of the project is expected to be completed in 12 months.
“We have big plans for our Data Centers to become a gateway for the MENA infrastructure,” said Haithem Alfaraj, STC Chief Technology Officer. “STC is geared up to grow on-demand with its unique data centre solution by easily replicating a standardised design, that could exceed 300 MW of our current computing power capacity by reacting quickly to the market.”
Mohammed Alabbadi, STC Chief Wholesale Officer, said, “These data centres are vital components of our premier digital hub offering that STC announced towards the end of 2020. Aligned with the Saudi Vision 2030 goals, it enables Saudi Arabia as a centre of digitalisation, attracting local and foreign direct investments. The digital hub will be available, as a one-stop-shop experience, to all customer segments including local, regional and global, in a carrier-neutral environment. Enabling a locally hosted eco-system of hyper-scalers, cloud, content, and enterprises, providing the best customer experience. We envision future growth driven by evolution to cloud 4.0 and subsequently to Industry 4.0.”
The first two phases of the programme have enabled STC to lead edge digital products and services to the MENA region like never before and contribute to positioning the Kingdom as a major international technology hub.”
