Ports and terminals are entering a new stage of digital transformation. As smart terminals, automated yard operations, unmanned transportation, and port autonomous driving continue to develop, IT infrastructure is becoming more directly connected to production continuity and operational efficiency.
SmartX ECP provides a modern infrastructure foundation for ports and terminals to meet both requirements in stability and agility. By combining native virtualization, distributed storage, Kubernetes services, and distributed firewall capabilities, SmartX helps ports and terminal-related customers explore cutting-edge innovations, advancing Information Technology Application Innovation (ITAI), while keeping core production services stable.
Smart Terminals Need Modernized IT Infrastructure
Ensuring Core Business Stability
Port production systems have very low tolerance for interruption. Applications such as TOS/BTOS, intelligent yard control, and database platforms are closely tied to vessel operations, cargo handling, and on-site coordination.
Based on self-developed distributed storage, SmartX ECP helps customers consolidate and host core business systems on a resilient infrastructure foundation, improving business continuity through replicas/erasure coding (EC), active-active deployment, and disaster recovery & backup capabilities.
VMware Replacement and ITAI Transformation
VMware replacement has become a practical infrastructure priority for many organizations. In the port industry, this often occurs together with ITAI transformation, requiring support for domestic CPU platforms and independently controllable technology stacks.
With SmartX native virtualization, ELF, and flexible hardware compatibility, customers can replace VMware or other legacy virtualization platforms, migrate existing VMs, and build ITAI-ready infrastructure without compromising the stability required by production workloads.
Automation and Intelligentization Upgrade
Smart terminal initiatives are expanding the scope of infrastructure requirements. Automated quay cranes, unmanned container trucks, and big data systems require both traditional VM workloads and cloud-native applications to run reliably.
SmartX supports VM-container converged infrastructure, allowing customers to host virtualized applications, containerized systems, databases, middleware, and development/test environments on a unified platform. This helps accelerate application delivery and supports faster iteration of intelligent terminal systems.
Virtual Network Security Protection
As more workloads move into virtualized and Kubernetes environments, east-west traffic security becomes increasingly important. Traditional perimeter-based security is insufficient for protecting communication between VMs/pods and applications inside the data center.
With Everoute’s distributed firewall capabilities, customers can strengthen traffic protection within virtualized environments, reduce risks related to data leakage and virus attacks, and build more granular security controls across both virtualized and containerized environments.
Customer Stories
A Large International Deep-water Terminal in Zhejiang
This large international deep-water terminal in Zhejiang replaced Hyper-V with SmartX ECP and deployed more than 30 nodes based on SmartX native virtualization, ELF. The platform now hosts core business systems including TOS, yard automation control, and a big data platform, providing a unified foundation for production workloads that require high stability and consistent performance.
Beyond virtualization replacement, the customer also deployed a distributed firewall via Everoute to secure virtualization data traffic. With SmartX ECP as the modernized infrastructure foundation, the terminal has advanced its Smart Terminal transformation, supporting intelligent management, sensing, and control across key operational scenarios.
Zhanjiang Port Group
A deep-water port serving as a pivot of the Maritime Silk Road
Zhanjiang Port Group adopted SmartX ECP to replace vSphere with SmartX native virtualization, ELF, while implementing ITAI transformation based on Hygon C86. The deployment provides an infrastructure foundation for core production services and helps the port move toward an independently controllable technology stack.
The customer also uses SKS to host the containerized core BTOS system, including its middleware and databases. By deploying an active-active HCI cluster, Zhanjiang Port Group achieves RPO=0 for critical production services and can enable second-level business recovery and minute-level load recovery even in rackroom-level failure scenarios.
A Deep-water Terminal in the Yangtze River Delta
This deep-water terminal in the Yangtze River Delta replaced VMware virtualization with SmartX ECP to host core business systems such as TOS and a big data platform. To support the transition, the customer used SMTX Migration Tool to independently migrate more than 200 VMware VMs to the ELF platform, reducing migration complexity while preserving continuity for existing workloads.
The customer also introduced Everoute to build a distributed firewall for VM data traffic protection. By replacing all-flash centralized storage with a hybrid-flash HCI cluster, the terminal reduced hardware procurement costs by more than 30% while maintaining the performance required by core production services.
A Fully Automated Terminal in Zhejiang
As a fully automated terminal, this customer uses SmartX ECP to host core production systems such as instruction automation and unmanned container truck control. These applications are directly connected to automated terminal operations, making infrastructure reliability and predictable performance essential.
The deployment is based on a heterogeneous cluster using both Intel and AMD architecture servers, giving the customer greater flexibility in hardware selection. With Everoute distributed firewall capabilities, the customer also protects east-west traffic among VMs, strengthening security for automated production workloads.
A Smart Terminal Solution Provider
This smart terminal solution provider replaced VMware with the SmartX ECP ITAI platform in a Hygon-based environment. The platform hosts BTOS and related databases, supporting the provider’s delivery of smart terminal solutions while advancing its ITAI transformation.
By selecting hardware on demand and deploying a hybrid-flash cluster, the customer built an infrastructure environment that balances cost efficiency and production readiness. The deployment helps reduce costs, improve efficiency, and provide a stable foundation for core systems used in smart port scenarios.
Utopilot
A leader in port autonomous driving solutions
Utopilot built a VM-container converged infrastructure with SmartX ECP to host MySQL/Redis databases and the containerized application of FMS (Fleet Management System). This architecture supports both traditional workloads and cloud-native applications, providing a unified foundation for port autonomous driving services.
By deploying container services with multiple replicas, Utopilot enables second-level traffic switchover and strengthens business continuity. The converged infrastructure also accelerates FMS platform iteration, improving launch speed from hours to minutes and supporting faster delivery of autonomous driving capabilities in port scenarios.
Conclusion
Across these practices, ports, terminals, and solution providers are using SmartX ECP to address a shared set of infrastructure priorities: stabilizing core production systems, replacing legacy VMware virtualization platforms, advancing ITAI transformation, protecting virtualized traffic, and supporting the next generation of smart terminal applications.
As smart terminal construction continues to deepen, infrastructure modernization will remain a key enabler. With SmartX ECP, customers can build a resilient, flexible, and secure foundation for both current production workloads and future intelligent operations.
Learn more about transportation enterprises’ digital transformation stories in our latest blog:
3 Large Airline & Railway Groups Replace VMware and Advance ITAI with SmartX ECP
