{"id":181040,"date":"2016-09-29T15:30:30","date_gmt":"2016-09-29T13:30:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=181040"},"modified":"2016-09-29T15:32:00","modified_gmt":"2016-09-29T13:32:00","slug":"inside-facebooks-astonishing-data-centre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/cloud-hosting\/181040-inside-facebooks-astonishing-data-centre.html","title":{"rendered":"Inside Facebook’s astonishing data centre"},"content":{"rendered":"

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has published details and photos of their Lule\u00e5 data centre, which is located in the forests of northern Sweden.<\/p>\n

The Lule\u00e5 data centre is a key part of Facebook\u2019s global infrastructure, and it uses a variety of local natural resources to increase efficiency and save power.<\/p>\n

It\u00a0is around 110km south of the Arctic Circle, and Facebook said the temperature in the area is below 10 degrees Celsius most days.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe use large fans to pull in the outside air to naturally cool the thousands of warm servers that line the centre\u2019s broad hallways,\u201d Zuckerberg explained.<\/p>\n

A dozen hydro-electric plants operate on nearby rivers, providing a reliable and renewable power source.<\/p>\n

The whole system is 10% more efficient and uses almost 40% less power than traditional data centres.<\/p>\n

Inside, the main building is the size of six (American) football fields, Zuckerberg said. Nearly all the technology in the facility, from the servers to the power distribution systems, is based on Facebook\u2019s Open Compute Project designs.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou probably don’t think about Lule\u00e5 when you share with friends on Facebook, but it’s an example of the incredibly complex technology infrastructure that keeps the world connected,\u201d said Zuckerberg.<\/p>\n

The photos below, with descriptions, were posted by Zuckerberg as part of his \u201crare photos of the most advanced technology Facebook is building around the world\u201d.<\/p>\n

\n

Data Centre Idea<\/h3>\n

The data centre is huge, but the idea that launched it began on the back of this paper napkin. Late one night, while traveling, engineer Jay Park sketched his vision for a system that streamlined the way power moves from the local utility grid to our servers.<\/p>\n

\"idea\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Data Centre Exterior<\/h3>\n

The centre opened in 2013, and was Facebook\u2019s first outside the US. Wherever possible, Facebook used the beautiful wood and art of the area to showcase local craftsmanship.<\/p>\n

\"wood\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Building Exterior<\/h3>\n

The building’s exterior was made to “reflect the innovative designs inside”.<\/p>\n

\"exterior\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Massive Fans<\/h3>\n

These enormous fans draw in the outside air to cool the tens of thousands of servers in the data hall. In the winter, when temperatures plunge to -30 degrees the situation is reversed, and the heat from the servers warm the massive buildings.<\/p>\n

\"fans\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Inside The Data Centre<\/h3>\n

About 150 people work here, but the data centre’s halls are frequently empty. Because of the way it is designed, Facebook needs only one technician for every 25,000 servers.<\/p>\n

\"inside\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Main Data Hall<\/h3>\n

The main hall of the data centre is so big that engineers move around on scooters.<\/p>\n

\"main<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Equipment<\/h3>\n

The equipment is reduced to its basics so it runs cooler. It can also be easily accessed and repaired quickly. A few years ago, it took an hour to repair a server hard drive. At Lule\u00e5, that\u2019s down to two minutes.<\/p>\n

\"equipment\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Hard Drives Crunched<\/h3>\n

Old and obsolete hard drives are crunched, forever protecting privacy. Christer Jonsson is in charge of this important task. \u201cI must be very careful,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\"hdd<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

More on Facebook<\/h3>\n

Social media in South Africa: Facebook vs Twitter<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

SuperSport to live-stream on Facebook<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

The best time to post on Facebook in South Africa<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has published details and photos of the company’s Lule\u00e5 data centre, located close to the Arctic Circle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":181054,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[447,161,35,39116,1767],"class_list":["post-181040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cloud-hosting","tag-data-centre","tag-facebook","tag-headline","tag-lulea-data-centre","tag-mark-zuckerberg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181040"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181040"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181040\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":181082,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181040\/revisions\/181082"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}