The Saudi Telecom Company has opened a new data center in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Prince Mohammed bin Khalid Al-Faisal Al-Saud, chairman of the board of directors, and Haitham Al-Ohali, Deputy Miniser of Communications and Information Technology (CIT), attended the opening ceremony.

Digital dreams

Riyadh at night
Riyadh at night – Getty Images

With the facility’s opening, STC says it now has the highest data center capacity in the Middle East. Set in the Al Ra’idah Digital City district, the new facility is an Uptime Institute certified Tier IV data center, listed as ITCC Data Center (Information Technology Communication Complex).

STC also operates a Tier III facility in Sulaimaniyah, Riyadh, another data center elsewhere in the city, and one in Dammam in eastern Saudi Arabia. Subsidiary Viva Bahrain also operates a data center in Bahrain.

STC Group CEO Nasser Sulaiman Al Nasser said at the opening that the data center will support STC in delivering digital services to the private sector, highlighting cloud computing, cyber security, data analytics and smart cities as key areas, adding that they line up with the Kingdom’s Vision 2030. 

The Vision 2030 plan is an ambitious modernization drive headed by the heir apparent, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, which hopes to diversify Saudi Arabia’s income sources, and turn the desert nation from a petro-state into a technology hub.

But the Vision 2030 plan remains in its early stages, a mixture of promise, hype and potentially grand, record-breaking infrastructure projects. 

This story has been updated to clarify that it is Uptime Tier IV rated, under the name of ITCC Data Center.