SUSTAINABLE AND RESILIENT DATA CENTER DESIGN FOR SAUDI ARABIAS EMERGING DIGITAL ECONOMY UNDER VISION 2030

Saudi Arabia's digital transformation is driving up the demand for cloud,AI, sovereign data and high availability computing infrastructure. The country's national energy transition is also leading to greater scrutiny of the environmental and resilience performance of new data centres. This paper reviews how the principles of sustainable and resilient data centre design can be applied to the Saudi context, specifically in relation to its hot arid climate and its Vision 2030 development path. A structured integrative review of 30 peer-reviewed studies published between 2020 and 2025 was conducted, covering the full range of relevant topics including energy efficiency, cooling, water use, renewable electricity, storage, waste heat recovery, thermal modelling, digital twins and infrastructure resilience. The findings demonstrate that there is no one-size-fits-all solution in terms of energy efficiency or cooling technology for the Saudi environment. A focus on low power usage effectiveness can in fact lead to increased water demand, while a very aggressive approach to water conservation can lead to increased electrical cooling loads. High density computing also undermines the long term viability of conventional air cooling and increases the value of direct liquid cooling, advanced heat rejection, workload aware controls and life cycle assessment.