Market Trends of Saudi Arabia Data Center Storage Industry
IT and Telecom to Hold Significant Share
- The rollout of 5G networks is expected to strengthen the nation's digital economy and increase demand for high data center storage infrastructure. The arrival of 5G is expected to bring a major increase in speeds, low latencies, and more network capabilities, setting the stage for even more advanced and novel applications that are connected in real-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.
- The country topped the list for average 5G download speeds with up to 377.2 Mbps, while South Korea registered the second spot. The sector's expansion can be attributed to the rising demand for rack-optimized servers and data center storage, which are being used to improve data centers by offering resilience, scalability, and performance for crucial applications.
- 5G is close to seven times better in terms of throughput compared to 4G, at 10 Gbs compared to 1.45 Gbs. With NVMe or SSD over HDD, such enterprise-level technology allows significant I/O throughput. The demand for NVMe is increasing for SSD servers and storage appliances, which is expected to drive the market during the forecast period. This communication interface and driver provide a command set and feature set for PCIe-based SSDs with the objective of efficient performance and interoperability across a wide variety of corporate and client systems.
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All-Flash Storage to Witness Significant Growth
- All-flash arrays are evidently revolutionizing data center storage, offering cloud-like application consolidation and enhanced agility. The growth in data generated by enterprises and the adoption of cloud technology are expected to drive the market studied.
- Rapid cloud-based technology adoption will help hasten the country's digital transition while protecting mountains of data. With enticing investments from cloud providers such as Google and Oracle, the data center business has started to pick up steam. For instance, Oracle will work with NEOM Tech & Digital Holding Co. as the first tenant in the hyperscale data center at NEOM to serve Saudi Vision 2030. The data center will house Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), which would offer a high-performing, resilient platform for cloud services.
- Under Saudi Vision 2030, foreign investment is encouraged, particularly in the technology sector. 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, which was adopted by the Communications and Technology Information Commission, intends to improve cloud computing services in the country and promote regulatory openness.
- The lagging storage performance, slowed response times on key member-facing applications, and legacy storage became complex to manage and difficult to expand. After the deployment of all-flash arrays, customer-facing applications saw a 70% improvement in response times. Storage-related capital and operating costs were reduced by over 50%. Downtime and disaster recovery risk (DRR) for SQL servers and private cloud workloads were eliminated. Physical space requirements for storage were slashed from 40 to 7 rack units. These advantages of all-flash storage cater to the major market growth expected during the forecast period.
