Facebook activated its newest data center – Luleå, Sweden, on the Gulf of Bothnia near the Arctic Circle.
Facebook said the new facility, which is powered by locally-generated hydro power, is averaging a PUE of 1.07 in early tests. The entire data center is based on Open Compute Project designs. Excess heat is used to heat staff offices.
https://www.facebook.com/luleaDataCenter
- The Open Compute Project (OCP), which was launched by Facebook in April 2011, has moved from early design work to seeing the first commercial products based on its specifications hit the open market.
Facebook’s original idea was to share its specifications for “vanity-free” servers using barebones AMD and Intel motherboards and optimized for low-power in highly dense data centers.
The Open Compute Project has evolved to challenge the industry to rethink all aspects of data center design, from motherboards, to storage, I/O, power, cooling and rack design.
A big focus is on “breaking the monolith” by developing a next generation “disaggregated rack”, where compute, network and storage are separate modules that can be scaled and upgraded independently of other server elements.
- Orange and NTT are the latest carriers to join the Open Compute Project.
- During the first 9 months of 2012, Facebook spent $1.0 billion for servers, networking equipment, storage infrastructure and the construction of data centers. Facebook is accelerating its data center operations to handle the data deluge from a billion users, its growing number of services, the widespread adoption of smartphones, and the fact that 82% of users are outside the United States while most of its data centers are domestic.
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In 2012, TeliaSonera International Carrier was selected to build and operate a new pan-European managed optical network for Facebook. The multi-terabit optical network will provide Facebook with connectivity between Internet exchange points in multiple European cities and their newest data center on the edge of the Arctic Circle in Luleå, Sweden.