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Facebook set to share server, data centre designs

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CIOL Bureau
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CALIFORNIA, USA: Social networking giant Facebook launched the Open Compute Project, an initiative to share the custom-engineered technology in its data centre in Prineville, Oregon.

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Facebook will be partnering with Advanced Micro Devices, Dell, HP and Intel to co-develop this technology. Moreover, Dell's Data Center Solutions business will design and build servers based on the Open Compute Project specification. Synnex Corporation will also serve as a vendor for Open Compute Project servers, offering integrated and tested solutions based on customers' specifications.

Also Read: Facebook: You say coal. How can then it be green?

"Facebook and our development partners have invested tens of millions of dollars over the past two years to build upon industry specifications to create the most efficient computing infrastructure possible," said Jonathan Heiliger, vice president of technical operations at Facebook. "Today we're launching the Open Compute Project, a user-led forum, to share our designs and collaborate with anyone interested in highly efficient server and data centre designs. We think it's time to demystify the biggest capital expense of an online business -- the infrastructure."

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Inspired by the success of open source software, Facebook is publishing technical specifications and mechanical CAD files for the Prineville data centre's servers, power supplies, server racks, battery backup systems and building design.

This technology enabled the data centre to achieve an initial power usage effectiveness (PUE) ratio of 1.07, compared with 1.5 for our existing facilities, which fall into the "best practice" category as defined by the US Environmental Protection Agency.

Facebook is releasing these designs as open hardware, aiming to encourage industry-wide collaboration around best practices for data centre and server technology.

Facebook claims that this will deliver 38 per cent increase in energy efficiency at 24 per cent lower cost for Facebook.

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