LinkedIn opened a massively scalable, next-generation data center in Oregon.
The facility, which is hosted by Infomart, is now fully live and ramped. The location benefits from a direct access contract for 100% renewable energy, network diversity, expansion capabilities, and talent opportunities. LinkedIn expects to achieve a PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) of 1.06 during full economization mode.
The network in the new data center uses LinkedIn’s own programmable switch design (Pigeon) based on Broadcom’s Tomahawk silicon and its own software stack.
https://engineering.linkedin.com/blog/2016/11/linkedin_s-oregon-data-center-goes-live
LinkedIn Develops its Own Data Center Switch
LinkedIn’s engineering team has developed its own data center switch to keep up with the rapidly growing traffic demands of its professional, social network.
The new switch, dubbed “Pigeon”, is a 3.2 Tbps switching platform that can be used as a leaf or spine switch. It uses Broadcom’s latest Tomahawk silicon (32X100G) and switch software developed in house.
In a blog post, Zaid Ali Kahn describes why the company decided to take on the difficult task of switching software code development rather than relying on an existing network equipment supplier. Key reason include ongoing bugs, unneeded features, lack of a Linux-based platform support tools such as Chef/Puppet/CFEngine, out-of-date monitoring capabilities, and the high-cost of scaling the software license.
The Pigeon switch will be deployed in LinkedIn’s upcoming data center in Oregon.
