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Facebook to Build Its Own Data Centers
A look at the fully-packed racks inside a Facebook data center facility.
Facebook has decided to begin building its own data centers, and may announce its first facility as soon as tomorrow. The fast-growing social network has previously leased server space from wholesale data center providers, but has grown to the point where the economics favor a shift to a custom-built infrastructure.
“Facebook is always looking at ways to scale our infrastructure and better serve our users,” said Facebook spokesperson Kathleen Loughlin said last week. “It should come as no surprise that, at some point, building a customized data center will be the most efficient and cost effective way to to do this. However, we have nothing further to announce at this time.”
UPDATE: Facebook has confirmed that it will build a 147,000 square foot data center project in Prineville, Oregon.
Not Google or Yahoo
The data center is being built by Vitesse LLC on behalf of an unidentified tenant. But Vitesse has said Company X is not either Google or Yahoo. Data center industry chatter suggests the tenant is a large social networking site – which usually means Facebook.Facebook’s move to build its own data centers was foreshadowed by its plans to implement custom servers and an innovative power path design, which will allow the company to reduce the energy loss during power distribution from the current 35 percent to about 15 percent.
Designed for Efficiency
The new design foregoes traditional uninterruptible power supply (UPS) and power distribution units (PDUs) and adds a 12 volt battery to each server power supply. This approach was pioneered by Google, which last year revealed a custom server that integrates a 12 volt battery, which the company cited this design as a key factor in the exceptional energy efficiency data for its data centers.Facebook’s extraordinary growth has forced the company to continually invest in its infrastructure. The social network, which recently crossed the 350 million user barrier, has expanded by leasing space from “wholesale” data center landlords,including Digital Realty Trust, DuPont Fabros Technologies and Fortune Data Centers.
Since the beginning of 2009, Facebook has signed two leases for additional space in the ACC5 data center in Ashburn, Virginia operated by DuPont Fabros. The company has also added a data center in Santa Clara operated by Digital Realty, and from Fortune down the road in San Jose.
Switch From Wholesale Approach
Wholesale providers build the data center, including the raised-floor rechnical space and the power and cooling infrastructure, and then lease the completed facility. The tenant pays a significant premium over typical leases for office space, but is spared the large capital investment to construct the data center. This has positioned Facebook to continue growing rapidly without having to build its own facilities.But Facebook has now decided to join the club of huge Internet companies that build their own data centers, a group which includes Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, eBay and Oracle. This typically requires a larger up-front investment in construction and equipment, but allows greater customization of power and cooling infrastructure.
The Appeal of Hydro Power
The Prineville site is several hours from an existing Google data center in The Dalles and a Boardman site where Amazon is said to be resuming construction on a major data center project. The Prineville site is located near the Prineville Airport in an enterprise zone, which allows the city to waive property taxes for eligible projects.The project is the latest indicator of the growing appeal of the Pacific northwest as a destination for companies seeking the lowest operating costs for their data centers. The region’s abundant supply of affordable hydro power is a major factor in its appeal, as are tax incentives like the tax exemption being discussed in Prineville.
About Rich Miller
Rich Miller is the founder and editor-in-chief of Data Center Knowledge, and has been reporting on the data center sector since 2000. He has tracked the growing impact of high-density computing on the power and cooling of data centers, and the resulting push for improved energy efficiency in these facilities.
If it is Facebook then they deserve congrats. It is a very smart move at their scale. The eastern slopes of the Cascades are a near-ideal location to build and operate datacenters. It is a shame our legislators in Washington have hobbled the further development of datacenters here by overturning the status of manufacturing facilities. Oregon has a leg up on us tax-wise when it comes to building (no sales tax), but long-term costs may favor Washington.
Finally, Prineville is a GREAT little town, my wife was born there!
How exciting – Prineville is a great place – 35 jobs – wow we can sure use them… welcome to what ever company it is – hope Oregon treats you well
Facebook plans to build their own Data Centers
Posted January 21st, 2010[...] an interest over a data center projects which is being constructed in Prineville, Oregon. A post in Data Center Knowledge have written [...]
Facebook Begins Building Its Own Data Centers
Posted January 21st, 2010[...] as the company scales its user base, Facebook is deciding to develop their own data centers according to Rich Miller of Data Center Knowledge. The news comes at a time when Facebook is racing toward 400 [...]
a "local"
Posted January 21st, 2010A tax exemption is a bad idea. This is why the rest of us bear the unnecessary financial burden to fund welfare and other heavily exploited programs, as well as endangered educational programs. We already have to deal with shortened school weeks, overfilled classrooms, lost funding, and lost teachers. Nevermind the increased taxes small business owners are possibly facing, if measures 66 & 67 pass. Increasing taxes during this economic recession is a very bad idea. And giving businesses that tax exemption puts that financial burden on the rest of us. Bad Prineville, bad.
Kim Staack Read
Posted January 21st, 2010Kudos to Facebook! Prineville is an excellent location. Central Oregon can certainly use the jobs and recognition for possible additional Data Centers,,,lots of tech savvy folks living in the area.
Facebook Building Its Own Data Centers
Posted January 21st, 2010[...] foot datacenter is set to employ roughly 35 individuals.We’ll update as we learn more.[ via Data Center Knowledge ]Tags: data center, datacenter, facebook, google, oregon, servers, vitesse, website, yahoo This [...]
Enough Of Wholesale Data Centers! Facebook Will Its Own Data Centers | Startup Meme - Unofficial Facebook Guide
Posted January 21st, 2010[...] the Data center Rich Miller has confirmed that the new tenant for the servers is in no way associated to Google or Yahoo. Talk [...]
Shane
Posted January 21st, 2010Sadly, the post above is pretty typical of Central Oregon. For “a “local”", if it wasn’t for the tax exemptions, this facility wouldn’t be built at all. This project will supply local construction jobs as well as permanent, skilled jobs. The C.O. economy cannot thrive on minimum wage service jobs.
Once FB is up and running, others could well follow. This could make Prineville. Kudos to the city for taking this initiative.
Facebook Building its Own Data Center in Oregon
Posted January 21st, 2010[...] having rented out data center space in Silicon Valley and elsewhere for years, Facebook is now building its own data center in scenic Prineville, located in central Oregon. It’s a symbolic [...]
Facebook Building its Own Data Center in Oregon
Posted January 21st, 2010[...] After having rented out data center space in Silicon Valley and elsewhere for years, Facebook is now building its own data center in scenic Prineville, located in central Oregon. It’s a symbolic [...]
Facebook Matures, Will Build Its Own Data Center – GigaOM
Posted January 21st, 2010[...] data center won’t open until the middle of next year, and it will still lease data center space in other parts of the country, but for the site with 350 million users, it has clearly reached a point where it can plunk down [...]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, January 21, 2010
Posted January 21st, 2010[...] Facebook to Build Its Own Data Centers, Data Center Knowledge [...]
Facebook Gets Into Customized Data Centers
Posted January 22nd, 2010[...] Rich Miller reported yesterday, "Facebook has decided to begin building its own data centers, and may announce its first facility as soon as tomorrow. The fast-growing social network has previously leased server space from wholesale data center providers, but has grown to the point where the economics favor a shift to a custom-built infrastructure." [...]
Facebook bouwt eigen datacenters | Niet nuttig, of wel?
Posted January 22nd, 2010[...] geleased, maar zou nu de stap zetten naar een eigen infrastructuur. Het nieuws wordt gemeld door Datacenterknowledge, dat wijst naar een datacenterproject in de Amerikaanse staat Oregon dat deze week nog wordt [...]
Great to see that social networks are evolving.
Also on our end at Bloghology Network for Bloggers we are in the proccess of designing our own Datacenter to serve our companies users, partners etc.
The first Datacenter willbe localted in Iasi, Romania to cover our European users needs.
This is some pretty cool news. I don’t fully understand how to manage servers and all that, but I do know Facebook gets enough traffic where it should be running it’s own Data center at this point.
Facebook is a company who is growing its user base at an alarming rate and should be a significant player in our future. Facebook is deciding to develop their own data centers is a very smart move on their part…Two thumbs up!
Data Centers: For When The Cloud is Not Enough « SafaHosting
Posted July 23rd, 2010[...] centers after initially relying on third-party providers. Facebook is building a new data center in Prineville, Oregon, while Twitter this week unveiled plans for a custom data center near Salt Lake [...]
Facebook, Microsoft Scale Back Ad Relationship — paidContent
Posted April 5th, 2012[...] growing ambitions: Facebook plans to begin to build its own data centers, instead of leasing space, according to a report today from Data Center [...]
Facebook Begins Building Its Own Data Centers - AllFacebook
Posted April 10th, 2012[...] as the company scales its user base, Facebook is deciding to develop their own data centers according to Rich Miller of Data Center Knowledge. The news comes at a time when Facebook is racing toward 400 [...]
RESOURCE LINKS:
Building A Cloud-Savvy Model for TCO and ROI
How Storage is Shaping The Cloud Data Center
Bringing Colo to the Customer: Modular Gets Local
Microsoft’s $1 Billion Data Center
January 20th, 2010