Market Trends of Saudi Arabia Data Center Physical Security Industry
IT and Telecom to Hold Significant Share
- IT players see data center physical security as a major concern when moving to a third-party data center. Telecom data centers are owned and operated by a telecom or service provider company, such as Deutsche Telekom AG or AT&T. As they are primarily responsible for content delivery and facilitating mobile and cloud services, telecom data centers require very high connectivity and security.
- Telecom data centers are increasing in the country due to rising data traffic and networking. It is expected that with the increase in 5G deployment, the demand for data centers in telecom will increase significantly, leading to a major demand for physical security.
- In July 2023, Saudi Telecom subsidiary Center3 expanded one of its data centers in Riyadh. The company is increasing capacity at existing facilities in Riyadh and Jeddah and developing new data centers in Jeddah, Riyadh, Dammam, and other locations around the Kingdom.
- The arrival of 5G is expected to bring a major increase in speeds, low latencies, and an unforeseen level of network capabilities. This will set the stage for more advanced and novel applications, enabling everything to be more connected in real-time, all the time. Saudi Arabia maintained its ranking as the fourth-fastest country in the world in terms of 5G internet speeds, with an average of 264.7 Mbps. It was the seventh-fastest country overall for mobile internet speeds, averaging 109.48 Mbps in Q4 2020.
- In 2020, 5,358 new 5G towers were installed nationwide, bringing the total to 12,302 5G towers at the end of 2020. This number is expected to rise as the spectrum is allocated for commercial purposes and the demand for faster internet services rises. The industry's expansion can be attributed to the rising demand for physical security in the data center.
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Access Control Solutions to Register Significant Growth
- Access control is one of the most efficient, financially profitable, and scalable ways of securing data centers. Protecting the data center through smart access control systems for sensitive areas is currently a priority. Biometric access control systems that are hierarchical, scalable, and designed as bespoke solutions are the most efficient alternatives to comprehensively protect data centers.
- Saudi Irsal has experience providing design consultancy and implementation for data centers, covering security requirements, storage capacity, and disaster recovery resources. Its services have been utilized with telecom operators and commercial and industrial sectors. This includes physical security measures, such as controlled access to data center facilities.
- Although the hardware resides onsite, the software and servers are moved from a company’s premises and stored within data centers. Security as a service provider generally charges a monthly fee on a per-door or per-user basis. Since all the information is stored on remote servers, AcaaS (Access-Control-as-a-Service) is available at lower costs than legacy access control.
- ACaaS vendors offer partnership opportunities for integrators, value-added resellers (VARs), and managed services providers (MSPs), including training. Players such as Assa Abloy provide SMARTair offerings, which are access control systems for small- to medium-sized businesses that offer intelligent solutions.
- With increasing data center construction due to cloud deployment, the demand for access control solutions is expected to increase in the country. Under Saudi Vision 2030, foreign investment is encouraged, particularly in the technology industry. The implementation of the cloud-first strategy in 2019 also accelerated the uptake of innovative technologies such as AI for Industrial 4.0. The cloud computing regulatory framework, adopted by the Communications and Technology Information Commission, intends to improve cloud computing services in the country and promote regulatory openness.
