STME is in the process of deploying the region’s largest-ever networked storage infrastructure for Saudi Aramco’s seismic processing environment.

The massive storage deal, based on EMC’s Clariion technology, sets new records for both STME and EMC as the biggest regional deal for networked storage.

 The energy giant’s new storage strategy will enable Saudi Aramco’s Exploration and Petroleum Engineering Center, or EXPEC, to protect, manage and analyse all of the information generated daily during exploration and field development activities taking place over more than 1.5 million square kilometers in the Kingdom.

 The storage strategy enhances Saudi Aramco’s world-class supercomputing geoscience's center and enables the company to secure and manage key seismic data, including large reservoir-simulation models. Used in conjunction with complex reservoir modeling, the data is fundamental in determining where to drill exploratory wells and how to increase daily production.

The primary benefits that Saudi Aramco anticipates from its seismic progressing storage initiative are faster new-well drilling, improved management of existing reservoirs, reduced facilities-planning costs, lower total cost of IT ownership, increased oil and gas recovery, and faster exploration of new reserves.

 “Saudi Aramco’s new storage strategy significantly enhances Saudi Aramco’s decision-making process about exploration and field development, and makes the energy giant the Middle East’s chief end-user in leading-edge storage technology” commented Trevor Hutson, General Manager of STME.

 “Robust storage of data is a vital consideration in the oil industry, as it leads to increased cost savings and better utilization of resources in the field.  STME anticipates a long-term relationship with Saudi Aramco as the company’s amount of data expands over the coming months,” he added.

 Saudi Aramco is also EMC’s most significant SAN implementation in the entire Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region.  The EMC-based infrastructure brings Saudi Aramco. a significantly reduced total cost of ownership by requiring fewer staff and resources to manage more seismic data.

 “Saudi Aramco has one of the most data-intense environments in the entire Middle East.  As a result of its new storage strategy, Aramco can anticipate increased uptime and reduced maintenance costs, and the company can also instantly scale its infrastructure upward as new exploration occurs and data requirements grow,” commented Thierry Louesse, regional general manager for EMC.

 The new networked storage implementation gives Saudi Aramco an additional usable storage capacity of more than 160 terabytes, or the ability to store more than 160,000,000,000,000 bytes of exploration data.  The world leader in crude oil production can now store and manage immense files related to the latest oil exploration targets, including difficult-to-image, deep  nonassociated gas reservoirs.

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 About STME

 STME is the Middle East region's leading provider of best-of-breed enterprise storage solutions with a superlative 24x7 support. With 13 offices across the region and almost twenty years of experience, STME enables enterprises in the Middle East to build a robust, scalable information infrastructure and unlock millions in potential benefits.

Visit www.stme.com or e-mail info@stme.com

 About EMC

EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC) is the world leader in information storage systems, software, networks and services, providing the information infrastructure for a connected world. Information about EMC's products and services can be found at http://www.emc.com.

 For further media information on STME or EMC, please contact:

Wallis Marketing Consultants

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