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Saudi Arabia has officially launched an ambitious digital infrastructure development initiative worth 2.7 billion USD (9.9 billion dirhams) with the announcement of the Hexagon Data Center project, positioned as the worlds largest government data center and a pillar project within its Vision 2030 framework. Download Saudi Arabian leaders and officials tour/launch SDAIA data projects in Riyadh. Rated Tier IV - the highest international standard for reliability, the Hexagon facility is designed to support the rapid expansion of digital services in the public sector and promote Saudi Arabias transition to a data-driven economy. The project is part of Riyadhs commitment to ensuring technological sovereignty over national data, while promoting economic diversification. economy outside the oil sector. The Center will deploy advanced technologies to serve key development areas, in a context where data is becoming the main driver of socio-economic transformation globally. Download The Center will deploy cutting-edge technologies to serve key development sectors, as data is becoming a key driver of socio-economic transformation globally. Located in Riyadh, with a total area of more than 30 million square feet and a capacity of 480 megawatts, Hexagon is expected to make Saudi Arabia an advanced digital infrastructure center of the world. Designed according to world-leading standards, the Hexagon Center applies applications Smart cooling and energy-saving technology, including direct liquid cooling and hybrid cooling systems, to reduce power usage factor. Renewable energy sources are also integrated, helping this facility to be classified as one of the largest green data centers in the world, achieving LEED Gold certification from the US Green Building Council. Saudi Arabias Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) said that since 2018, the agency has integrated the data of nearly 200 state agencies onto the Deem cloud computing platform, where data from more than 250 data centers are stored. Centralized storage and retrieval. Projects like Deem Cloud, which centralizes most government data in a single place, shows that Saudi Arabia is in need of huge storage capacity and data processing power, thereby explaining Hexagons scale. Download SDAIA - the agency in charge of the Hexagon project and national data strategy. According to expert Carrington Malin, the strong deployment of the Internet of Things (IoT) from devices and sensors to traffic monitoring applications such as the Saher system in 8 major cities uses cameras to monitor traffic, record violations and follow vehicles, causing the amount of data generated, especially real-time video processing, to reach petabytes per month. The public transportation system in Riyadh alone has about 14,000 active cameras, creating significant pressure on the data processing infrastructure. Expert Mohammed Soliman, senior researcher at Saudi Arabias Institute for Middle East Regional Studies, said the scale of 480 megawatts shows that this is not just a project to clean up the governments old information technology system but is a preparation step for a period of boom in cloud computing demand in the future. public sector. According to Mr. Soliman, the Saudi Government is considering actor systems, integrated national databases and workloads that cannot be placed on foreign cloud platforms. Once the data sovereignty platform is established, a portion of Hexagons capacity will likely be opened in a controlled manner for use by the private sector, leading enterprises and strategic programs. Download Chart on the development of Saudi Arabias data and digital infrastructure. National data center network and ambition to become a global digital hub. The project was announced in the context that Saudi Arabia is leading the world in many indicators, including the governments strategy according to the Global AI Ranking. Data centers have developed strongly since the 1950s, when they were just air-conditioned rooms containing primitive supercomputers. Their role grew with the Internet boom of the late 1990s and continued to expand after the advent of cloud computing in the mid-2000s. By 2020, governments around the world had made data infrastructure a strategic priority, a trend that was accelerated as artificial intelligence increased the need for computing power. Since its founding in 2019, SDAIA has played a central role in national strategy. Saudi Arabias data and AI expert, managing the fields of data governance, big data and AI development and regulation, thereby making the country an important actor in the global digital economy and a destination for international technology investment in the region. With the support of SDAIA, Saudi Arabia has built the most advanced integrated data ecosystem in the region, providing innovative digital products with great socio-economic impact. The agency also completed a comprehensive legal framework, including the Personal Data Protection Law, standards for generative AI,deploying AI and international best practices to protect privacy and data integrity. Hexagon data center will be the foundation for a nationwide network of interconnected facilities, part of SDAIAs expansion strategy to meet the growing demand for digital infrastructure, while ensuring the system operates with the highest availability. Saudi Arabias efforts do not stop at technical infrastructure but also expand to initiatives such as Humain - a newly established company. Established with the support of the National Public Investment Fund and Aramco Petroleum Group. Created to serve the ambition of artificial intelligence, Humain aims to put Saudi Arabia among the top three countries in the world in AI infrastructure, next to the United States and China. An Binh See more DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION: Indonesia builds a digital Culture Portal See more DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION: Every 4 Singaporean workers have one 3 people use AISee moreDIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
