Facebook Pioneer Data Center Investments in The Node Pole
Today, the 27th of October, Facebook announced that the social network will locate its new data center in The Node Pole. The data center will be Facebook’s third, and the first one outside the US. It will also be the northernmost of its size in the world.
Facebook is the number one social media site in the world with more than 750 million users around the globe. People spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook and users upload 100 million photos each day.
The Luleå Data Center will consist of three server buildings with an area of 28 000 m2 (300 000 ft2) each, and will be built in three phases. Construction will begin instantly and the first building will be operational within a year. The entire facility is scheduled to be completed by 2014. About 300 full-time positions will be required for during the first three years.
– The establishment marks the beginning of a new and digital industrial era for our region, says the Luleå Mayor Karl Petersen, an enthusiastic Facebook user with more than 1300 friends on the social network.
Luleå holds a combination of ideal inherent qualities for data storage; technological competence, an extremely stable electricity infrastructure, natural cooling all year round and renewable hydropower – which will fully power the new data center that requires 120 MW.
“Luleå is one of the best places on earth to locate a data center”, says Tom Furlong, Director of Site Operations at Facebook.
Part of The Open Compute Project
All technology in the data center is designed and developed by Facebook’s own team of engineers. The technology is derived from Facebook’s The Open Compute Project, which started in 2009 with the goal to create the most efficient computing infrastructure available by removing everything extraneous, and minimize impact on the environment. Through The Open Compute Project design innovations, Facebook has realized a 38 percent gain in its power efficiency, compared with other existing data center infrastructure, and a 24 percent lower server acquisition cost.