Riyadh Dry Port's Transition to Virtual Environment Ensures Uninterrupted Operations
Customer Company Size
Large Corporate
Region
- Middle East
Country
- Saudi Arabia
Product
- Navis N4
- SAP
- VMWare
Tech Stack
- Virtualization
- Data Center Infrastructure
- Backup and Recovery Systems
Implementation Scale
- Enterprise-wide Deployment
Impact Metrics
- Productivity Improvements
- Customer Satisfaction
- Digital Expertise
Technology Category
- Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Data Management Platforms
- Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Computing
Applicable Industries
- Transportation
Applicable Functions
- Logistics & Transportation
- Business Operation
Use Cases
- Predictive Maintenance
- Fleet Management
- Remote Asset Management
Services
- System Integration
- Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services
About The Customer
Riyadh Dry Port (RDP), located in Riyadh, the capital city of Saudi Arabia, is owned and operated by Baas International Group. It is the only dry port in Saudi Arabia that handles an import container volume of over 300,000 TEUs each year. RDP is connected to the Sea Port of Eastern Province in Dammam and is a rail facility, transporting containers by rail from Dammam Sea Port to Riyadh Dry Port. Since being taken over by BIG, RDP has achieved an average growth of 9.75% annually in import volumes. It is the only logistics hub in the Kingdom to implement and run on Navis N4 2.3. RDP values reliability and efficiency, having experienced firsthand the effects of unforeseen events. The port has continued to evolve with Navis N4 to maintain efficient, scalable, and flexible operations.
The Challenge
On October 5th, 2016, Riyadh Dry Port (RDP) faced a major electricity breakdown that brought all operations, systems, and technical departments to a standstill. This unexpected issue severely affected customers and stakeholders, as the port environment requires continuous operations. Every minute of system breakdown can have catastrophic side effects. However, the N4 system was the only one still operational, with no data loss at both sites. The data centers were supported by generators and a robust UPS system, allowing the primary and secondary data centers to run smoothly. Because N4 continued to operate, port operations were unaffected by the electricity impact. The BIG IT team emerged unscathed from the 7-hour electricity shutdown due to the robust and reliable IT infrastructure set up inside the port. The N4 systems remained stable and consistent, supporting other systems.
The Solution
Riyadh Dry Port (RDP) migrated their physical N4 systems to a virtual environment and set up secondary data centers to ensure 24/7 availability of their N4 2.3.10 system. The transition was smooth, with N4 adapting easily to the VMWare environment. RDP had two data centers, allowing data synchronization and replication at both sites. The transition was completed in approximately six to eight hours of downtime on a Friday, after which the physical servers for Navis and SAP were efficiently migrated to the VMWare virtual environment. RDP conducted appropriate unit testing and integration testing for both applications over three weeks, with all routine maintenance pre-scheduled upon confirmed downtime. The proven reliability of N4 in the event of a system breakdown has led to consistent growth for RDP. Navis N4 2.3 runs 24/7, 365 days a year with no downtime due to the backup site. N4 easily integrates with other applications, and running N4 and SAP together has leveraged operational efficiency to another level. The SAP Billing module retrieves its data from N4, and the front-end N4 application is scalable and easy to understand. N4 is the backbone of port operations at RDP, streamlining operational activities and improving gate and yard operations by more than 75%.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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