How Project Scorpio Reshaped China’s Data Center Rack Standards
This article chronicles the birth and evolution of China’s Project Scorpio—from its 2011 launch through Scorpio 1.0 and 2.0 specifications—highlighting its collaboration with Intel, its technical trade‑offs with Open Rack, and its impact on data‑center operations and standards.
2011: Project Scorpio Launch
In October 2011, Baidu joined the Open Compute Project (OCP) as a member, and shortly after Tencent and Baidu engineers met Intel to discuss Open Rack, leading to the creation of Project Scorpio (天蝎项目) with Intel as a technical advisor.
Project Scorpio was a joint effort by Alibaba, Baidu, and Tencent, aiming to develop a full‑rack server solution, promote open industry standards, lower operating costs, and accelerate deployment and maintenance.
BAT’s server procurement surge created pressure for infrastructure teams.
2012: Scorpio 1.0
After a technical workshop in Hangzhou with major server vendors, the Scorpio 1.0 specification was finalized on 6 April 2012 and announced at Intel Developer Forum in Beijing.
Key achievements included the definition of a Rack Management Controller (RMC) module, a unified CLI for rack management, and power‑bus separation that reduced cost and improved reliability.
RMC monitors temperature, power, fan status, and can update firmware or identify node placement.
Baidu contributed heavily, implementing a single‑point power backplane that decoupled control and busbar, reducing failure points.
Integration Trade‑offs
Unlike Open Rack, which only integrates power supplies, Scorpio 1.0 also centralized cooling and management, similar to Google’s early “corkboard” cabinets but with a more standardized approach.
Different node heat outputs require variable fan speeds, making a shared fan wall challenging.
Scorpio 1.0 adopted the 19‑inch EIA‑310‑D rack standard, rejecting the 21‑inch width of Open Rack due to concerns about load capacity and cost.
2013: Scorpio 2.0
Version 2.0, completed in October 2013, introduced taller 42U/46U racks, a unified 21‑inch internal width, 46.5 mm per‑U height, hot‑swap backplane, decoupled server nodes, and a standardized 140×38 mm fan module.
The project expanded to include China Telecom (2012) and China Mobile (2014), and its leaders joined OCP’s incubation committee.
Organizational Evolution
Personnel changes saw key figures move to cloud and infrastructure roles at Tencent, UCloud, and Baidu, reflecting the difficulty of gaining senior‑level support for infrastructure work within BAT.
In 2014, the Open Data Center Committee (ODCC) was formed, inheriting Scorpio’s work and adding a server, data‑center, and test‑certification workgroup.
Scorpio 2.0 added a top‑rack expansion slot for switches, and defined physical space requirements for data‑centers.
The ODCC published Scorpio 2.0 Rev 1.0, cementing its specifications as a de‑facto standard for Chinese data‑center deployments.
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