Semiconductors have increasingly become a key driving force for global economic development. The IT systems used in the segments such as semiconductor design, manufacturing, packaging & testing, and materials/equipment differ, leading to varying demands for IT infrastructure:
- The semiconductor design field requires a flexible, scalable IT infrastructure that supports containerized environments for core design platforms and Dev/Test.
- The semiconductor manufacturing sector demands a highly stable and performant IT infrastructure to run critical production systems like MES and EAP.
- The semiconductor packaging & testing industry focuses on the ability of IT infrastructure to enable multi-factory collaboration, unified management, and rapid scaling.
- The semiconductor materials & equipment, as upstream elements of semiconductor manufacturing, also have stringent requirements for the performance and stability of IT infrastructure.
As a full-stack enterprise cloud solution, SmartX ECP allows semiconductor enterprises to meet the full range of needs with a single platform, including core production operations, R&D, VDI, multi-factory management, cloud-native transformation, and disaster recovery.
Currently, more than 50 semiconductor companies have adopted SmartX ECP to build their own cloud platforms, supporting mission-critical systems and advancing VMware alternatives, driving rapid industry development with modernized IT infrastructure.
SmartX ECP in Semiconductor Design: Supporting Core Design Platforms, VDI R&D, and Cloud-Native Applications
A chip IP design and service provider: Building a VM-container converged infrastructure for containerized R&D and VM-based VDI
With the rapid growth in business demands, a leading chip IP design and service provider has seen a significant increase in the scale of its Dev/Test environment and virtual desktops.
Initially, the company relied on a “centralized storage + vSphere” architecture to support virtualized and containerized applications, with physical machines used for virtual desktops. However, challenges such as resource isolation difficulties, performance fluctuations, and long process times started to emerge, creating an urgent need for an efficient and flexible alternative solution.
After thorough comparisons, the company chose SmartX ECP (SMTX OS+SKS+CloudTower) to build a VM-container converged infrastructure to meet the diverse needs of Dev/Test and VDI. Additionally, the company smoothly migrated dozens of VMware VMs to SmartX’s native hypervisor – ELF, achieving cost reduction and efficiency improvement.
- Hybrid deployment of VMs and containers to improve resource utilization.
- Replacing VMware and traditional storage to reduce software and hardware costs.
- Batch creation of Windows 10 VMs and remote desktop protocol (RDP) connections to virtual desktops, saving on VDI construction costs.
Since this transformation, the company’s business operations and IT O&M efficiency have significantly improved:
- Office desktops have shifted from shared to dedicated, greatly enhancing the office experience.
- Delivery cycles have been reduced from hours to minutes, significantly shortening delivery times.
- Management has shifted from fragmented to centralized, greatly reducing management complexity.
A semiconductor R&D and manufacturing company: Migrating dozens of VMware VMs to support office and R&D operations
A semiconductor R&D and manufacturing company originally adopted a combination of VMware virtualization platform and domestic centralized storage, supporting internal office and some R&D systems. With the adjustment of VMware’s subscription models and the growing demand for IT resources, the company urgently needed to find a high-performance, highly stable alternative.
After rigorous testing, the user ultimately chose SmartX ECP to support internal office systems and R&D system components.
- High performance and large capacity: SmartX ECP, using a 5-node NVMe mixed-flash architecture, is configured with 25GB network cards and RDMA networking. Each node’s raw capacity reaches 120TiB, ensuring high performance while significantly reducing hardware procurement costs.
- Seamless migration: Using the SMTX Migration Tool, dozens of VMware VMs were smoothly migrated to the ELF platform, eliminating the complexity involved in business redeployment.
- Full-stack management: By introducing SMTX Backup and DR, VM data can be backed up to external NAS storage. CloudTower enables unified management of virtualization, storage, network, and backup with a single control plane. This completely replaces the original VMware + CommVault solution, while simplifying operational complexity.
SmartX ECP in Semiconductor Manufacturing: Replacing VMware to Support Core Production Systems Including MES and EAP
BOE: Supporting smart factories, the CTO Center, and the CIO Center, enabling self-service IT resource management
As a global leader in semiconductor display and IoT innovation, BOE has a large-scale smart factory with high demands for IT infrastructure stability and performance. Initially, the company deployed a small-scale SmartX ECP cluster (SMTX OS + ESXi + XenDesktop) for VDI use cases, which was expanded multiple times and has grown to over 20 nodes supporting more than 1,000 virtual desktops.
As the use of scope expanded, BOE extended SmartX ECP clusters from the smart factory to the CTO Center and CIO Center, with a total deployment scale of over 80 nodes.
- No lag during peak usage of virtual desktops, with boot times reduced from 5 minutes to 60 seconds, significantly improving the R&D user experience.
- Built self-service IT resource management based on SMTX OS and CMP platform. R&D teams can directly request resources, with resource delivery completed within minutes.
- Storage and compute resources are managed on the same platform, making operations more convenient. Advanced monitoring allows for trend tracking and forecasting. Additionally, compared to traditional three-tier architectures, SmartX ECP significantly reduces storage-layer operations pressure, eliminating the need to maintain multiple Datastores and preventing repeated migrations across storage pools, enabling intelligent operations and maintenance.
The system has been expanded multiple times and now supports various scenarios, including virtual desktops, IoT, core production applications, and Dev/Test, across the headquarters and multiple branches nationwide. The simple architecture and powerful, user-friendly operations management have significantly reduced IT infra O&M costs for R&D at the headquarters and factories across the country.
A well-known PCB manufacturer: Replacing VMware with SmartX ECP to Support Core Systems and Enhance Business Continuity
The manufacturer originally used a traditional IT infrastructure with VMware virtualization and SAN storage. However, the server hardware and storage devices had been in operation for several years and faced issues such as insufficient resources and inflexible expansion, preventing them from supporting newly deployed business systems like MES.
As a result, the manufacturer sought to transition from the “siloed traditional architecture” to a more stable and flexible “enterprise cloud.” After multiple rounds of solution comparisons, the manufacturer ultimately chose SmartX ECP to replace the traditional VMware architecture.
Following the project implementation, the manufacturer gradually migrated core production systems such as MES, WPT, quoting, EAP, and APS to SmartX ECP. Moving forward, facing the disaster recovery needs, the manufacturer plans to upgrade the current ECP clusters to an active-active architecture, enhancing business continuity and further ensuring the stable operation of the factory production lines.
Guoyu Electronics: Running All Core Business Systems on SmartX ECP and Driving Business Upgrades
Yangzhou Guoyu Electronics originally relied on the physical environment to host core applications such as MES, ERP, OA, and database systems. Any host failure would lead to long business interruptions. After evaluating multiple technical solutions, SmartX ECP demonstrated excellent stability and reliability in both standard and customized scenario tests. As a result, Guoyu Electronics deployed SmartX ECP to support core applications and database systems, including MES, ERP, and OA.
- Seamless migration: Using SMTX CloudMove, the company successfully migrated business systems from physical machines to the ELF virtualization.
- Stable operation: No production incidents have occurred during several years of operation. All core production and edge business systems were moved to the ECP cluster, ensuring stable operations of the electronic production line and meeting the high-performance and high-elasticity requirements for data storage.
- Simplified maintenance: IT staff can manage multiple clusters through a unified interface, reducing the operational workload.
SmartX ECP in Semiconductor Packaging & Testing: Unifying IT Architecture Across Factories to Support MES and R&D Environments
A leading semiconductor packaging and testing company: Replacing vSphere with SmartX ECP to Support Critical Business Operations Across Factories
As a global leader in semiconductor assembly and testing, this manufacturer long relied on physical servers and VMware virtualization. However, aging hardware, inconsistent infrastructure standards, and a fragmented mix of heterogeneous servers across sites made unified management increasingly complex. Seizing the opportunity of a new business system rollout, the company committed to a comprehensive IT infrastructure transformation and modernization.
Following extensive technical evaluation, the company selected SmartX for its deep expertise in supporting MES within the manufacturing sector and its proven track record of seamless migrations from VMware. The solution replaces VMware vSphere with SmartX’s native hypervisor – ELF to host all core applications—including MES, SAP, and OA—across branch factories, with the exception of SAP HANA. Utilizing SMTX migration tools ensured a stable transition of business services, while the deployment of CloudTower enabled centralized management across all sites, significantly enhancing operational efficiency.
Ultimately, SmartX ECP enabled rapid implementation, reducing factory cluster setup time to under two days. This solution not only ensures the stable operation of mission-critical systems but also provides the scalability for on-demand investment, offering the company greater flexibility for future infrastructure expansion.
Semiconductor Materials & Equipment: Driving Efficiency and Cost Optimization for Core Systems
Leading Semiconductor Equipment Manufacturer: Migrated from Public Cloud and Unified Data Storage
A leading semiconductor equipment manufacturer, renowned for its self-developed front-end IC fabrication tools, previously hosted its supplier-facing systems—including non-standard component management, cloud-based schematics, and smart factory platforms—on the public cloud. However, rapid business growth led to escalating cloud costs and heightened data security risks.
Consequently, the company launched a “public cloud exit” initiative. When selecting a private deployment solution, the challenge lay in simplifying the architecture while addressing diverse storage and backup needs: the smart manufacturing platform required high-performance file storage for massive unstructured data storage and high-concurrency access, while the portal’s ERP services, built on MySQL, necessitated daily backups of structured data.
Ultimately, the company decided to migrate its smart manufacturing platform from public cloud to SmartX ECP. By leveraging a stack of SMTX OS (HCI software), SFS (distributed file storage), and CloudTower (management platform), complemented by Aishu for database backups, the firm successfully addressed its requirements for high-performance computing, versatile storage, data backup, and unified O&M.
- Efficiency & Cost Optimization: The integrated deployment of file storage and virtualization reduced hardware procurement costs by 20%. Schematic access latency dropped from milliseconds to microseconds, boosting supplier collaboration efficiency by 50%.
- Architectural Upgrade: By upgrading to HCI architecture, the company efficiently consolidated its storage resources, addressing the storage and backup requirements for both structured and unstructured data.
- Architecture Modernization: By replacing VMware with an independent HCI and integrated virtualization, the company established a high-value blueprint for semiconductor firms seeking technology stack autonomy and modernization.
San’an Semiconductor: Deploying SmartX ECP for VMware Migration and Data Backup
As a leading player in optoelectronics and wide-bandgap semiconductors, San’an Optoelectronics operates its subsidiary, San’an Semiconductor, to focus on the R&D and manufacturing of advanced semiconductor materials, epitaxial wafers, chips, and devices. Previously, the company’s headquarters and production sites utilized VMware virtualization paired with centralized storage. However, as the business expanded, this legacy architecture began to reveal significant limitations:
- The fragmentation of storage brands and models across different sites significantly increased operational and maintenance complexity.
- A lean IT team at headquarters struggled to manage a heavy workload under the remote, unified-operations model.
- Following Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware, diminishing technical support and the shift toward a subscription-based model have led to higher costs and greater asset uncertainty.
In response, San’an Semiconductor evaluated several alternative solutions. Following rigorous testing, the SmartX ECP was selected for its superior performance and stability. The company deployed a new ECP cluster using SmartX’s native hypervisor – ELF to support core production line systems, Equipment Automation Programming (EAP), and Oracle databases. To further enhance availability, SmartX ECP was integrated with the existing Zabbix monitoring system, while the built-in backup and disaster recovery modules were utilized to secure full virtual machine backups to local NAS storage.
The system has been operating stably for over a year. Building on this success, the company plans to further phase out its legacy VMware environment, leveraging the SmartX ECP to drive full architectural upgrades and complete its transition to an autonomous, modernized infrastructure.
Learn more about manufacturers’ use cases of SmartX ECP:
SmartX ECP in Manufacturing: Providing Full-Stack Infra Capabilities for Core Applications
SmartX ECP in Manufacturing: Supporting ROBO, Dev/Test, and VMware/Nutanix Alternative
Three Manufacturing Customers Share Their Insights on SmartX HCI Disaster Recovery Solutions
Baosight: IT Infra Upgrade Driven by SmartX HCI and Distributed Storage
Smart, Simple and Stable: Modernize Remote Factory IT Infrastructure with SmartX HCI
