Cooperative Assignment at Saudi Aramco: Insights into Enterprise Architecture

Cooperative Assignment at Saudi Aramco
EXPEC COMPUTING PLANNING & TECHNICALL DIVISION
Engineering Building, Building 728A
Dhahran 31311
Saudi Arabia
Cooperative Assignment
Arwa Alamri

Cooperative Assignment at Saudi Aramco 1
Acknowledgement
First I would like to thank the director of Fahad Bin Sultan University for giving me the
opportunity to do a co-op program within Saudi ARAMCO.
Secondly, I would like to thank the ECC management for giving me the chance to work in their
admin area. A special appreciation goes to ECTD management for their support to ensure the
assignment completed smoothly. Great thanks to all the people that I worked with in the
Enterprise Architecture Group for their patience and openness. It has been an invaluable
experience for me and I hope I was able to provide some value as well. As I move forward in my
professional endeavors, I will take with me all that I learned under their guidance.
This co-op program has given me new insights and motivation to pursue a career in Computer
Engineering approach. Also it helped me to experience many new things like project
management and business processes. It helped me to get back to my interest in Computer
Hardware Development and Evaluation and to have new plans for my future career.
At this period of time I learned how to prepare myself for a future career and how to improve
several things, so that I can be able to present and express myself more confidently.

Table of Contents
Acknowledgement 1...........................................................................................
1. Introduction 3..........................................................................................
2. ECC 5
2.1. Enterprise Architecture 6........................................................................
2.2. Enterprise Architecture in Saudi ARAMCO 9...................................................
3. Business Process Management 10....................................................................
4. Mega 10..................................................................................................
1. HOPEX Platform 11.....................................................................................
1. Key benefits of HOPEX 12.......................................................................
2. HOPEX platform services 12.....................................................................
5. SDLC 13......................................................................................................
5.1 Mega Training 13........................................................................................
5.2.Software Project Management Training 14.........................................................
5.3.Quality Assurance Training 14.........................................................................
6. Projects 14.................................................................................................
7. Activities within ARAMCO 19.............................................................................
1. UPDC 19
1. UPDC Areas 20
2. Safety Orientation 21..................................................................................
3. Information Security Essentials 21..................................................................
8. Technology Planning Group 23...........................................................................
1. Oracle 23
1.1. Oracle Validated Configuration program 24.................................................
1.2. Oracle Active Data Guard 24...................................................................
1.3. New Oracle Environment 24....................................................................
2. Storage 24
9. Conclusion 28..............................................................................................

1. Introduction
Saudi ARAMCO is the fully integrated, global petroleum enterprise of the Kingdom of Saudi
Arabia. The company has operations in exploration, production, refining, marketing and
international shipping, and is the world leader in production of crude oil and natural gas.
Saudi Aramco as an organization is further broken in Seven Business Lines as shown in the
figure. Those seven Business Lines are composed of 27 Administrative Areas and 20 General
Management represented by 163 Departments all over Saudi Aramco.
!
This co-op program report contains my activities that have contributed to achieve a number of
stated goals:
• To understand the functioning and working conditions of a governmental organization
• To see what is like to work in a professional environment
• To see if this kind of work is a possibility for my future career
• To use my gained skills and knowledge and to know what skills and knowledge I still
need to work in a professional environment

• To be provided with applied experience related to Computer Engineering that
complements classroom learning.
• To learn how to organize a project (planning, preparation, challenges, convincing …etc.)
• To enhance my communication skills; to interact, network and collaborate.
• To create opportunities for the exchange of ideas, research and expertise between me and
the people I am working with.
During my co-op program I had the opportunity to work under the upstream line in the
Petroleum Engineering and Development department.
!

I worked for EXPEC Computer Center (ECC) specifically in the Enterprise Architecture unit
(EA) that is serving under EXPEC Computing Planning & Technology Division (ECTD).
!
2. ECC
In 1981 the Exploration and Petroleum Engineering (EXPEC) Computer Center, known as the
ECC, started data processing activities to meet Saudi ARAMCO's goals of establishing the
kingdom's hydrocarbon potential and fully automating its oil production.
Saudi ARAMCO's data processing requirements have increased dramatically over the past
decade. The increase can be mainly attributed to the shift in exploration from 2D to 3D seismic
data processing and the growth in the number of cells and complexity of reservoir models. To
fulfill these requirements, Saudi ARAMCO has established state-of-the-art computing facilities
with supercomputers and high-end workstations along with their sophisticated graphical plotting
devices all connected through a powerful network. The high-end workstations are utilized for
interactive processing and visualization of data both in seismic processing and reservoir
simulation.
ECC has also expanded the throughput of the network to handle the explosion of data transfer
and promote the integration and effective utilization between the user friendly interface of the
workstation and the intensive number crunching capability of the supercomputers.
ECC has grown from a small shop with a single IBM 370/168 computer to a leading world class
petroleum industry computing center. It strives to employ the latest technology supercomputers,
data communication networks, workstations, and applications software available to provide state-

of-the-art computing technology capabilities and services to Saudi ARAMCO's Exploration,
Petroleum Engineering, and Producing organizations.
!
The Enterprise Architecture unit (EA) is serving under EXPEC Computing Planning &
Technology Division (ECTD).
!
2.1. Enterprise Architecture
The enterprise unit gives businesses the tools they need to obtain a comprehensive overview of
their organization, and help them design and implement agile IT systems, streamlined business

processes, and optimized operating frameworks aligned with their business strategies. Executives
can foresee the impact of their decisions and plan the right actions at the right time to manage
business transformation.
It provides solutions can help a company to deliver value and to transform its business at
minimal risk and cost.
!
2.1.1. Business architecture:
It gives managers a clear vision of their organization, their existing and future resources, and
how those resources will be engaged in change programs to meet their company’s strategic
vision.
Describing, understanding, and optimizing your organizational structure, business processes, and
assets which enables you to:
• Align business operations with your corporate strategy

• Track strategy implementation through capabilities
• Effectively govern organizational transformation
2.1.2. Information architecture:
It gives you the timely, in-depth information that your information and business architects need
to manage knowledge and data as an enterprise asset. It allows stakeholders to make
collaborative, well-informed decisions about information usage across various functions of your
organization.
This solution lets you architect enterprise information and assess and monitor its consistency that
enables you to:
• Understand and communicate your enterprise information model
• Ensure data consistency and quality throughout your organization’s process execution
• Make better informed decisions backed by timely, accurate, and relevant information
2.1.3. IT architecture:
It was developed to support IT architects and enterprise architects throughout the IT asset
rationalization and optimization process.
It covers all steps of the information system rationalization and optimization process, and can be
configured to suit the particular structure of your organization which leads you to describe,
structure, and optimize your information system architecture, enabling your organization to:
• Obtain a comprehensive understanding of your IT assets
• Set up effective IT governance principles
• Develop a target IT architecture and plan the necessary transformation
2.1.4. Application architecture:
This solution is underpinned by a model-based approach and requirement-oriented methodology.
It covers the entire application design and SAP integration process.

It lets you identify business needs, translate them into IT requirements, and automate the
production of the corresponding application specifications, enabling your organization to:
• Ensure that you have an accurate representation and documentation of your application
architecture
• Seamlessly integrate your application assets and SAP solutions into your existing IT
architecture
• Cut development costs and boost the productivity of IT system design projects
2.1.5. IT portfolio management:
It helps you identify which IT assets are used in your organization, and understand the business
outcomes and impact of each asset in order to:
• Simplify and lower the cost of your IT system
• Better manage risks and ensure information system compliance
• Tailor your application and technology portfolio to your business challenges
2.1.6. Technical Infrastructure:
It describes the structure and behavior of the technology infrastructure of an enterprise, solution
or system.
It covers the client and server nodes of the hardware configuration, the infrastructure applications
that run on them, the infrastructure services they offer to applications, the protocols and networks
that connect applications and nodes. It addresses issues such as performance and resilience,
storage and backup.
2.2. Enterprise Architecture in Saudi ARAMCO
The Enterprise Unit (EA) in Saudi ARAMCO is responsible to enhance ECC quality, efficiency,
and transparency by performing architectural analyses of ECC and Upstream business,
applications, and data technology domains managed in a unified and governed business
repository.

During my assignment with this unit I had the opportunity to work closely with an experienced
and professionals engineers in their field. I was exposed to different challenges and learn from
experienced engineers. I had a well-defined on-job training that helped me to apply the
theoretical studies to the real work environment. Throughout this experience, I managed to gain a
valuable work experience and explore professional paths and opportunities though my
contribution.
3. Business Process Management
Business Process Management (BPM) is a disciplined approach to identify, design, execute,
implement, improve, monitor, control, and measure both automated and non-automated business
processes to achieve targeted results aligned with an organization's strategic goals.
A Business Process Model is commonly a structural representation or a diagram representing a
sequence of activities. It typically shows events, actions and links or connection points, in the
sequence from end to end.
There are two main different types of Business Process Models:
• As-Is model or baseline model (the current situation)
• To-Be model (the intended new situation)
Both are used to analyze, test, implement and improve the processes.
4. Mega
Throughout my training program I had the opportunity to map some of the ECC business
processes using Mega since it is the EA tool.
MEGA is a business repository tool that is used to capture all aspects of business and to models
the dependencies between the different layers of the enterprise architecture.
It offers a comprehensive meta-model functionality, a strong repository, and good life-cycle
management. Based on an Enterprise Repository that encompasses both business and IT
architecture views, the MEGA Modeling Suite provides a simple and powerful Enterprise
Architecture solution for driving change.

MEGA helps in corporations and governments address business-centric challenges such as
corporate governance and business strategy execution, making sure their staff and resources are
continuously aligned with their business strategies and objectives.
It has developed a unique set of enterprise governance software and consulting services that can
boost operational effectiveness and efficiency – and improve your business performance for the
long term. This will let you optimize, transform, and govern your operating model.
Here is an example of a business scenario:
!
1. HOPEX Platform
It is a platform provided by Mega. It brings together industry-leading best practices in enterprise
architecture (EA), business-IT management (including IT portfolio management), and
governance, risk, and compliance (GRC).
HOPEX is the result of 22 years of experience in enterprise governance, built into a powerful
foundation that underpins our innovative solutions.

HOPEX solutions are web-based and offer a collaborative, multilingual workspace on top of a
single enterprise repository. All stakeholders get a unified, graphical user interface that provides
just enough of the tools and information they need to be effective in their roles.
Users receive support and guidance at every stage of their program through the HOPEX
platform’s services, repository administration, and technical configuration capabilities.
1. Key benefits of HOPEX
• Flexible: The platform can adapt to your organization, best practices, and business
environment.
• Scalable: The multi-user, multilingual workspace can be rolled out gradually as your
programs gain visibility and extend in scope across your organization.
• Easy to use and easy to learn: The user-friendly, web-based interface can be tailored to
each user profile while allowing unified access to common services.
• Reliable: The platform is based on proven market standards, with a repository that can
automate data consistency and audit trails.
• Secure: You can configure user access rights and confidentiality settings to meet your
organization’s needs.
2. HOPEX platform services
Productivity, interoperability, and collaboration are just a few of the benefits provided by the
unified services of HOPEX platform.
• A document generation engine covering standard and custom document template design
as well as automated document generation and circulation.
• A report engine that automates the design and customization of interactive dashboards
and reports. Its preconfigured, customizable dynamic reports with striking data
visualization features can facilitate both communication and decision-making
• A web rendering engine based on a code-free description of the workflow makes it easy
to personalize the graphical user interfaces and deliver optimal user experiences

• A questionnaire-based assessment engine that designs and deploys campaigns and
automates result consolidation and analysis. It can natively apply to your organization,
risks, controls, and IT assets
• A graphical, diagram-based modeling engine that describes and documents your
organization and assets, including business processes, information, risks, controls,
applications, technology, data, and their dependencies. It provides birds-view maps that
let you drill down to the details
• A workflow engine that automates policies and procedures such as validation, assessment,
and governance, and allocates tasks to users depending on their roles and profiles.
• A task planner to automate workflow processing with reminders before and after
milestones, rule-based workflow launches, and batch processing
5. SDLC
A Software Development Life is a process used by IT analysts in order to develop or redesign
high quality software system which meets both the customer and the real world requirement
taking into consideration all associated aspects of pros and cons of software testing, analysis and
post process maintenance.
The intent of a SDLC process is to help produce a product that is cost-efficient, effective, and of
high quality. Once an application is created, the SDLC maps the proper deployment and
decommissioning of the software once it becomes a legacy.
5.1 Mega Training
Mega training is required at the different aspects of the SDLC. Below is a minimum list of
training needs in Mega:
• Business Analysis using Mega
• Software Design using Mega
• Project Planning, Monitoring and Control using Mega

5.2. Software Project Management Training
The following trainings are for all project managers:
• Agile Project Management: covering project initiation, release planning, and iterations
(sprints) planning, size estimation, velocity estimation and adaption to change.
• IT Risks Management: covering risks identification, qualification, mitigation planning,
management and control.
5.3. Quality Assurance Training
Training for all quality assurance should be based on the Quality Assurance Body of
Knowledge and covers the following areas:
• Managing Software Quality
• Quality Assurance Concepts
• Software Quality Models
• Lifecycle Practices and Quality
• Establishing Quality Assurance Function
• Industry Best Practices
• Software Measurement and Analysis
During my contribution I had the chance to validate SDLC processes, ensure having a complete
set of roles and responsibilities of each process and to ensure that each process are mapped
correctly to re-map it again using Mega standards.
6. Projects
Here is our project description through EA. In this project, a commitment for delivery in two
months’ time (32 working days) has already been made to the customer, and the team leader has
already furnished an update to the customer and senior management that the project is on track.
During this time frame, our team is on the hook for delivering two high-priority projects. Various
engineers have been asked to put in extra time to get us over the hump.
In this project we managed to have our ECC business processes validated to finalize our project
documentation for ECC business process & SDLC processes taking in consideration the below
actions to be taken:

• Validate all business processes
• Capture all applications used in each process
• Capture all data typesobjects for each process
• Ensure having a complete rolesresponsibility for each activity list
• Ensure having a complete organizationsroles for each organization
• Ensure we have the right structure of ECC processes
• Develop a business process reports that:
1. Business process with its details
2. Rolesresponsibilities report
3. Organizationsroles report
• Ensure having process ownerprocess users
This is a snapshot of my project initiation document

!

This is a snapshot of our ECC validation list
!
We also had our eyes on the software development life cycle processes. We had several meetings
with the exploration group and drilling group to ensure having the right and complete business
processes.
After that we managed to re-map all of the SDLC processes according to our frame of work
using Mega tool.
Taking in consideration the actions below:
• Ensure that each process template is matching the process description in the SDLC
document.
• Each process is mapped correctly to the right roles and organizations.

SDLC validation list below
!

7. Activities within ARAMCO
1. UPDC
During my assignment I had the opportunity to visit the Upstream Professional Development
Center (UPDC) which provides many new and updated learning opportunities to build employee
skills from hiring to the end of career.
!
The training in the center covers eight job families: Geology, Geophysics, Drilling and Work
over, Petro physics, Reservoir Engineering, Production Engineering, E&P Facilities Engineering
and Computer Science and Engineering Support.
UPDC is designed to be a state-of-the-art practical learning center. The major purposes are to
shorten the time required for new graduates to achieve full professional competency in their
field, and to use intensive and immersive training techniques to efficiently bridge the gap
between academic knowledge and Saudi Aramco work practices.

1. UPDC Areas
• High-Tech Classrooms: The center is equipped with 18 modern classrooms that
incorporate large wall-to-wall viewing screens, LCD touch screens, and 3D capability.
• Collaborative Learning Environment Centre: This facility is designed to promote
interaction and collaboration, with mobile furniture, portable technology, and open
common areas, which allows flexibility to meet the objectives of courses, seminars, or
team-based development activities.
• Drilling Simulator: The Drilling Simulator consists of a driller and assistant driller
stations, 4 large screens (5m x 3.75m), a “doghouse” and an observation platform. It also
has an instructor station to control simulation sessions. Users are able to practice with a
Blow-Out Preventer (BOP) panel, choke control panel, standpipe manifold and choke
manifold. From the driller stations, participants are able to perform various rig operations,
complex well controls; and predict, mitigate, and resolve down-hole problems.
• Cave Automated Virtual Environment (CAVE): The CAVE is a four-sided immersive
virtual-reality display that allows UPDC students to experience the locations, equipment,
and concepts of upstream oil and gas operations and processes. Students experience
environments such as virtual rock outcrops/field visits, virtual well site visits, vertical
seismic profile (VSP) simulation, reservoir simulation scenarios and modelling, well
logging, and seismic acquisition. They also learn to visualize complex concepts like
borehole environment, multiphase fluid flow, acoustic wave propagation, neutron
thermalization, reservoir management, and geophysical scales.
• Upstream Information Centre: The Upstream Information Centre (UIC) is a valued
source for upstream professionals to access resources and information relevant to
upstream activities.
• Library: This accommodates a large print collection of industry specific books and
journals. It has a dedicated study area on the mezzanine level; armchair alcoves for quiet
and uninterrupted professional reading; an audio-visual room for viewing discipline
specific recordings; and a study room for group sessions and seminars.

2. Safety Orientation
This orientation is designed to give the employees a General overview of the safety expectations
while working on Saudi Aramco facilities/project sites.
I was introduced to the following topics briefly
3. Information Security Essentials
Employees, customers and contractors are all connected as never before, across a multitude of
technologies. Yet these sprawling and overlapping networks pose daunting security challenges.
During my training I have attended an Information Security Essentials course.
The purpose of this course is:
1. To ensure that all users of Saudi Aramco’s computer resources understand the Computer
Acceptable Use policy.
2. To ensure that all users understand their role and responsibility towards the use of
Information Assets.
3. To guide users to maintain confidentiality, integrity and availability of the organization’s
information assets.
• Safety responsibilities
• Department office layout and exists
• Emergency response instructions, alarms
• Assembly points
• Office safety rules and housekeeping
• Vehicle safety rules (seat belt, speed limit)
• Reporting of unsafe conditions
• Reporting of injuries, incidents, Near miss
• Off-the-Job Safety (home and outdoor safety)
• General Safety Rules

4. To promote an information security corporate culture.
The course covers the following topics:
• Introduction to Information Security
• Information Security Policies
• Data Leakage
• Social Engineering
Here is a snapshot of my score after taking the exam:
!

8. Technology Planning Group
During my summer program, I was giving the chance to work with one of the critical groups,
Technology Planning, that is responsible for the followings:
• Handling the Capacity Planning for short, mid, and long term to accommodate dynamic
business requirements and enabling agility
• Developing short, mid and long term Technology Strategies by partnering with computer
industry and academia to optimize applications performance and optimizing energy
efficiency.
• Handling the capital planning for the 3 years period by working closely with Upstream
users and other departments within Saudi ARAMCO such as finance and facilities
planning
• Infrastructure equipment procurement such as Enterprise Servers, High Performance
Clusters, High performance Storage, General Purpose Storage, Networking, Data Backup
infrastructure, special operation rooms equipment.
This group has its own challenges of business, such as:
• Sudden huge increase in user requirements at short notices. Such unplanned increase
requires more time to justify allocating the required fund to procure the HW.
• Delay in procurement process due to uncontrolled factors from other departments or
vendors. The delay in providing the right HW in the right time can have a severe impact
on the upstream users by delaying their projects.
• Facilities (Power, cooling, space) constraints due to limited power and cooling. However,
the organization is working on addressing this challenge by building new data center.
1. Oracle
Oracle database is a relational database management system (RDBMS). Oracle DB is one of the
most trusted and widely-used relational database engines. The system is built around a relational

database framework in which data objects may be directly accessed by users through structured
query language (SQL).
1.1. Oracle Validated Configuration program
Organizations face the ongoing challenge of protecting their most sensitive information from
being leaked. The Oracle Validated Configuration program provides the tools necessary for
hardware partners to validate server and storage configurations with Oracle Database running in
on Oracle Linux or Oracle VM environment.
1.2. Oracle Active Data Guard
Oracle Active Data Guard is the most comprehensive solution available to eliminate single points
of failure for mission critical Oracle Databases. Successful high availability (HA) architectures
prevent downtime and data loss by using redundant systems and software to eliminate single
points of failure.
1.3. New Oracle Environment
There are 4 physical clusters configured as follows:
1. Production Cluster, broken into 4 separate logical sub clusters
2. Data Guard Cluster
3. Sandbox Test Cluster
4. Sandbox Data Guard Cluster
2. Storage
Aramco has three main data centers ECC, CDC, and RSC.
I. ECC: EXPEC Computer Center which is the main data center.
II. CDC: Corporate Data Center which has been established recently.
III. RSC: Record Storage Center which is the emergency storage center.
ECC, CDC, and RSC are connected through dark fibers. These centers are highly available,
resilient and must accommodate any hardware or connectivity failure scenarios. The distance

between the ECC and the CDC should be less than 10KM. Each process that’s done over ECC or
CDC is mirrored in the RSC in order to keep a record for a future reference in case of
emergency.
!
Each center has about 134 racks, each has 24 compute nodes.
!
Server rack density is steadily increasing with advanced technology and computing power
requirements. The average rack in a typical data center is less than 2 kW.
Dense deployment of blade servers (8 > KW per rack) would greatly exceed the power and
cooling ability of the typical data center. A conventional data center layout with one vented tile
per rack simply cannot cool racks over approximately 6 KW per rack over a sustained area.
ARAMCO data centers are designed to overcome this problem by distributing the nodes into
racks in a way that each rack does not exceed 8KW.

!
Each data center has 3200 nodes distributed in 135 racks (24nodes per rack)
• These nodes are interconnected with QDR Infini-band Switch.
• Each node is equipped with:
– Intel Xeon Processor X5675 3.06GHz (Dual-socket, 6-cores, 12M cache)
– 48GB of RAM
– Two Nvidia Fermi GPGPUs (Tesla M2070Q) which are capable of running
OpenGL applications and rendering large-scale visualizations.

!
The main challenges are to deliver what is expected
• User requirements based on hardware, but more important is the functionality.
• Time is always a challenge.
• Knowledge transfer issues.
• Matching hardware with the end-user’s requirements.
• There is no formula that will work for all cases. Therefore, working out the correct
combination is one of the biggest challenges.

9. Conclusion
On the whole, this co-op program was a useful experience. I have gained new knowledge, skills
and worked in a professional area. I achieved most of my learning goals and I got insight into
professional practice.
The co-op program increased my knowledge, productivity and built great future plans.
During this time I have learned how to apply my theoretical studies into practical projects. I
learned how to lead a project and how to interact, communicate, and collaborate with people.
Now I can present and express myself more confidently.
At last this experience has given me new insights and motivation to pursue a career in my field.
This co-op program gave me so much to remember and so much to apply in my life.

Cooperative Assignment at Saudi Aramco: Insights into Enterprise Architecture

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