Project Case Study: Containerized Outdoor Data Center for Saudi Aramco

—Smart Modular Solution, Rapid Deployment, Comprehensive Integration

1. Project Background and Challenges

Client: Saudi Aramco, the world's largest oil production company.
Requirement: To rapidly deploy a high-performance, highly reliable outdoor data center (IT Edge Data Center) at a remote oil exploration site in eastern Saudi Arabia. This facility needed to support critical on-site operations including geological data processing, production automation monitoring, and communication relay.

Severe Challenges Faced:

1. Extreme Environment: The site, located on the edge of a desert, experiences ground temperatures exceeding 50°C in summer and frequent sandstorms, demanding exceptional cooling, sealing, and corrosion resistance.

2. Urgent Deployment: Traditional brick-and-mortar data center construction (typically 6-12 months) was too slow to meet the urgent business launch timeline.

3. Unmanned Operation: The remote location required a highly automated solution with robust remote monitoring and management capabilities.

4. Complex Integration: Multiple systems—power distribution, uninterruptible power supply (UPS), precision cooling, environmental monitoring, and fire suppression—needed to be seamlessly integrated within a limited space to ensure stable and coordinated operation.

5. Stringent Standards: Compliance was required with Saudi Aramco's own technical specifications as well as international safety and energy efficiency standards.
   Core Challenge: How to achieve an unprecedented fast-track delivery while guaranteeing the highest quality standards?

2. The Solution: "Aramco QuickDeploy DC" Smart Modular Shelter

As the prime contractor for design and system integration, we proposed an innovative "fully prefabricated, modular, rapid-deployment" containerized data center solution. In partnership with the world's leading container manufacturer—CIMC Group—we delivered a benchmark product excelling in both speed and quality.

1. Core Design Philosophy:

• Modular Assembly: Utilizing six standard 40-foot high-cube shipping containers, all subsystems were pre-integrated and pre-tested in the factory.

• "Lego-style" Combination: Through specialized engineering, the six containers were designed for rapid on-site assembly into a seamlessly connected, structurally robust "shelter-style" data center space.

• Unified Integration & Concurrent Engineering: We provided end-to-end integration services from top-level architecture design and equipment selection to interface management and final system commissioning. The key breakthrough was employing a deeply concurrent project management and engineering approach, overlapping design, procurement, manufacturing, and pre-integration phases to lay the foundation for ultra-fast delivery.

2. Container Functional Layout:

3. Key Integrated System Highlights:

• Power System: Dual utility power feeds with ATS for automatic switching. Modular UPS provides a minimum of 2 hours backup, with lithium-ion batteries reducing maintenance and excelling in high temperatures.

• Cooling System: A hybrid design featuring in-row cooling paired with indirect evaporative cooling. Compressor-based cooling handles peak desert heat, while highly efficient evaporative cooling activates in milder seasons, significantly reducing PUE. The entire system is designed for sand and dust protection.

• DCIM & Monitoring (Our Core Integration Value):

  • Comprehensive Integration: Aggregates data from temperature/humidity, smoke, water leak, door access, video, micro-module PDU, UPS, air conditioners, power distribution, and batteries.

  • Intelligent Linkage: Automatic shutdown of air conditioners and activation of gas suppression upon fire alarm; prioritization of critical loads during power events; automatic adjustment of cooling strategy based on temperature anomalies.

  • Unified Platform: Provides local display and global remote access via Web/iOS/Android, enabling Saudi Aramco headquarters to centrally manage the edge site with "eyes from afar."

• Fire Suppression System: Total-flooding FM-200 (or equivalent) gas fire suppression system protecting the IT and Power Modules, with early warning and integrated control.

• Container Structure (Manufactured by CIMC):

  • High-standard anti-corrosion (C5-M), thermal insulation, and sealing.

  • Internally reinforced load-bearing structure to support rack weight and seismic requirements.

  • Pre-fabricated professional cable and pipe penetrations for true "plug-and-play" inter-container connection.

3. Project Execution & Milestone: Setting a 17-Week Delivery Record

The most notable achievement of this project was setting a new industry benchmark for the delivery speed of large-scale, integrated infrastructure. The total time from contract signing to completion of integrated testing, packing, and delivery of all containers to the port for loading was only 17 weeks (approximately 4 months).

1. Breakdown of the Rapid Execution Process:

• Phase 1 (Deep Collaborative Design & Procurement, Concurrent Kick-off, 5 weeks): We established a joint project team with CIMC and key equipment suppliers. Using standardized interfaces and a collaborative platform, we concurrently finalized detailed engineering design, locked in equipment purchases, and froze manufacturing drawings.

• Phase 2 (Factory Prefabrication & Parallel Integration, 10 weeks): While CIMC performed container fabrication and basic fitting, we delivered all subsystem equipment directly to CIMC's factory. As each container section was completed, equipment installation and cabling for that section began immediately, achieving seamless overlapping of manufacturing and integration. All subsystems underwent unit and interface testing in the factory environment.

• Phase 3 (Final Assembly & Commissioning, 2 weeks): All six containers were positioned on a dedicated assembly platform for final inter-container piping, conduit, and bridging connections. A comprehensive 72-hour continuous simulated operation test was conducted to verify all design parameters were met.

• Phase 4 (Packing & Shipment, Immediate): Upon successful testing, immediate protective packaging and scheduled shipment to the port for loading commenced. The total cycle time was firmly locked at 17 weeks.

2. Key Project Outcomes:

• Record-Setting Delivery Speed: 17 weeks from contract to port delivery, reducing timeline by over 60% compared to traditional data center builds, securing a critical window for the client's business launch.

• Exceptional Reliability: The system meets Tier III availability standards and has operated flawlessly for over 12 months, withstanding the harsh environment.

• High Energy Efficiency: Achieved an annual average PUE of below 1.45 in desert conditions.

• Intelligent Operations: Enabled 100% remote monitoring with over 95% fault prediction accuracy, drastically reducing the need for on-site intervention.

• Flexible Scalability: The modular design allows for rapid horizontal expansion by adding container modules.

4. Client Value & Project Significance

This project delivered not just infrastructure, but validated a new generation delivery model with speed as a core competitive advantage.

1. Maximized Time-to-Value: The 17-week rapid delivery directly translated into Saudi Aramco's ability to launch revenue-generating services faster, gaining a crucial edge in a competitive industry.

2. Strategic Agility: Provided a rapidly deployable, standardized "infrastructure-as-a-product" solution for global edge operations, significantly enhancing the client's agility in responding to market changes.

3. Optimized Total Cost of Ownership (TCO): The drastically shortened deployment cycle reduced time costs, capital tie-up, and project risks. Combined with efficient operations, it resulted in industry-leading TCO.

4. Controlled Quality & Risk: Factory prefabrication and integration ensured the highest quality standards. Deep concurrent engineering minimized risks associated with complex projects.

5. A New Benchmark for Partnership: Successfully established an efficient collaborative model of "Top-tier Design & Integration (Us) + Premier Manufacturing (CIMC) + Super-Client ", proving that achieving both "fast and excellent" in complex projects is possible.

5. Conclusion

This project is a definitive success story for containerized data centers in the energy sector's extreme environments, simultaneously achieving "extreme speed" and "top-tier quality". Through our company's innovative holistic design, deep integration capabilities, and advanced project management methodology, combined with CIMC Group's high-quality modular manufacturing and close collaboration, we jointly set a new delivery standard for major infrastructure projects for Saudi Aramco. "17 weeks from contract to port" is not just a number—it represents our firm commitment to creating core time-value for our clients and empowering their business agility. This project has become a benchmark case in the global modular data center industry.