facebook data
Facebook Opens First Data Center in Prineville, Oregon
- Open Compute Technology Makes Data Center One of the Most Efficient in US -
Prineville, Oregon (April 15, 2011) – Facebook leaders joined state and local elected officials in Prineville, Oregon today to officially open the company’s first custom-built data center. The Prineville data center features leading energy-efficient technology, which Facebook recently shared with the industry as part of the Open Compute Project.
“This data center is built for energy efficiency and is a milestone for Facebook,” said Tom Furlong, director of site operations at Facebook. “The new computing capacity will enable us to offer great new social experiences, while setting new standards for environmental responsibility in data center design and operations.”
Furlong also thanked local and state officials for their support of the project. “We went from bare ground to serving users in 15 months,” said Furlong. “That doesn’t happen without the support of city, county and state leaders who have been so helpful in this first phase of the project.”
The Facebook Prineville Data Center, which sits on a 120-acre parcel, is being built in two phases. The first half of the building, approximately 150,000 square feet, is complete. The second half, again approximately 150,000 square feet, will be completed at the end of 2011 and will have servers installed in line with demand.
The Data Center is expected to become LEED gold certified, and includes features such as rainwater reclamation, a solar energy installation for providing electricity to the office areas and reuse of heat created by the servers to heat office space.
In addition, Facebook pioneered several new technologies in the design and operation of the data center, including: New energy efficient server designs; specialized software to optimize server capacity; and a low-energy evaporative cooling system, which make use of the low humidity climate of Central Oregon’s high desert setting to eliminate traditional air conditioners. Overall, the data center uses 38 percent less energy to do the same work as Facebook's exiting facilities.
“I am proud to welcome Facebook as the newest member of Oregon’s innovative technology community,” said Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber. “Facebook will be great addition to the community of Central Oregon and will no doubt serve as a stable economic presence for years to come.”
Over the course of the project, more than 1,300 people have worked on the site – an average of 250 workers a day. When completed, Facebook has committed to hire 35 full-time employees to run and maintain the data center.
“Facebook has brought diversity to the job market at a time when unemployment has ranged from 17-20%,” said Prineville Mayor Betty Roppe. “During the past year Prineville has seen a loss of nearly 1,000 in population according to the US Census. Facebook’s arrival has opened the market for other business recruitment. Their arrival has given the community a shot of OPTIMISM.”
Facebook has also committed to a $105,000 annual local grant program. To follow the progress of the Facebook Prineville Data Center, go to
www.facebook.com/prinevilledatacenter. For more information on the Open Compute Project, go to
http://opencompute.org.
About Facebook
Founded in February 2004, Facebook is a social utility that helps people communicate more efficiently with their friends, family and coworkers. The company develops technologies that facilitate the sharing of information through the social graph, the digital mapping of people's real-world social connections. Anyone can sign up for Facebook and interact with the people they know in a trusted environment. Facebook is a part of millions of people’s lives all around the world. Facebook is a privately-held company and is headquartered in Palo Alto, CA.
