We all know, you’ve seen a lot of Zuckerberg and crew here lately, and the Facebook news just keeps rolling in. This time the social networking giant is performing some sharing of an additional sort by offering public access to the specifications and best practices behind its new, more efficient data center in Prineville, Oregon. In accordance with the corporate, the heart, in-built collaboration with AMD, Dell, HP, and Intel, has boosted energy efficiency by 38 percent while lowering cost by 24 percent. The info now available during the Open Compute Project includes technical specs and mechanical CAD files for everything from servers to building design. Basically, as a way to erect your individual multi-million dollar Facebook-style data center, you’ve got the go ahead. Full PR after the break.
Facebook Launches Open Compute Project to Share Custom-Engineered, Highly Efficient Server and knowledge Center Technology With the WorldPALO ALTO, Calif., April 7, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Looking to transform the energy efficiency of worldwide data centers, Facebook today launched the Open Compute Project, an initiative to share the custom-engineered technology in its first dedicated data center in Prineville, Oregon. This advanced technology delivered a 38 percent increase in energy efficiency at 24 percent lower price for Facebook, and the specifications and best practices behind those gains will now be available to companies around the industry.
“Facebook and our development partners have invested millions of greenbacks over the last two years to construct upon industry specifications to create the most productive computing infrastructure possible,” said Jonathan Heiliger, vp of technical operations at Facebook. “These advancements are good for Facebook, but we predict they can benefit all companies. Today we’re launching the Open Compute Project, a user-led forum, to share our designs and collaborate with anyone excited by highly efficient server and knowledge center designs. We expect it’s time to demystify the largest capital expense of an internet business — the infrastructure.”
Inspired by the success of open source software, Facebook is publishing technical specifications and mechanical CAD files for the Prineville data center’s servers, power supplies, server racks, battery backup systems and building design. This technology enabled the knowledge center to succeed in an initial power usage effectiveness (PUE) ratio of one.07, compared with 1.5 for our existing facilities, which fall into the “best practice” category as defined by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency*. Established by the fairway Grid in 2007, PUE is a hallmark of knowledge center energy efficiency, and the lower the number, the higher.
Facebook is releasing these designs as open hardware, aiming to encourage industry-wide collaboration around best practices for data center and server technology.
Advanced Micro Devices, Dell, HP and Intel are many of the companies that co-developed technology with Facebook. Moreover, Dell’s Data Center Solutions business will design and build servers in keeping with the Open Compute Project specification. Synnex Corporation may also function a vendor for Open Compute Project servers, offering fully integrated and tested solutions in response to customers’ specifications.
For Facebook’s data center in Prineville, Open Compute Project hardware delivered:
Energy savings-The info center uses 38 percent less energy to do the similar work as Facebook’s exiting facilities. If 1 / 4 of the knowledge center capacity inside the U.S. were built on Open Compute Project specifications, it might save enough energy to power greater than 160,000 homes.
Cost savings-Besides the energy savings, Open Compute Project hardware means data center infrastructure costs 24 percent less to construct out than Facebook’s existing data centers.
Materials savings-Servers use an arrogance-free design with out paint, logos, stickers, or front panel – and are freed from all non-essential parts. This protects greater than 6 pounds of fabrics per server. In a normal data center**, this will likely save greater than 120 lots of material from being manufactured, transported, and, ultimately, discarded.
Facebook is publishing specifications and mechanical designs for Open Compute Project hardware, including motherboards, power supply, server chassis, and server and battery cabinets. As well as, Facebook is making available its data center electrical and mechanical construction specifications.
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