The Suit Magazine

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was not satisfied with the IT industry’s standard servers, so one year ago the company began designing its own servers and the data centers in which they would be housed.  On Thursday, Facebook unveiled the specifications of its server, making the information public so that other company’s could follow suit.  The media release is part of a project Zuckerberg has dubbed ‘Open Compute’.
 
The Open Compute information includes specs, schematics and basic instructions for building a server and data center in the style of Facebook’s new hardware.  Head of Operations Jonathan Heiliger said that it has taken three people to get the data center and its servers to reach the desired efficiency and cost-effectiveness.  “It is time to stop treating data centers like Fight Club, and demystify them.“  Facebook’s new servers will be attending to over 500 million users.
 
The key to the new server is its power efficiency.  The server chassis itself has been whittled down, using 22 percent less materials than traditional servers.  The extra height of the server, at 1.5u, allows for taller heat sinks and larger fans, thereby utilizing power more efficiently,  And most importantly, the need for air conditioning in order to cool the servers has been replaced by a water-misting throughout the data center.  That water-misting system also enables hot air coming off the servers to be redirected to other buildings, providing heat.  The data center also uses 480-volt electrical distribution centers throughout the building.
 
Facebook notes that their new servers are 38 percent more efficient than the data servers the company used to buy, resulting in an overall 24 percent reduction in costs.  “Use it, improve it and adapt it. Take our philosophy and adopt it in your own business.” Heiliger adds.

 

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