Home
tech
Take A Tour Through Facebook's Gorgeous Data Centers

Take A Tour Through Facebook's Gorgeous Data Centers

The interior of Facebook's data center in Forest City, North Carolina. The company launched this center in 2010.

Take A Tour Through Facebook's Gorgeous Data Centers

Facebook began construction on its data center in Lulea, Sweden, last August.

Facebook began construction on its data center in Lulea, Sweden, last August.

Here's a rendering of the finished Lulea data center.

Here

Inside Lulea's data center, you can see Facebook's "vanity free" approach to design, since there are no plastic bezels in front of its servers — something commonly found in other data centers — to allow those servers to draw in more air.

Inside Lulea

In the Lulea data center, web server and storage designs use snaps and spring-loaded catches to hold components in place.

In the Lulea data center, web server and storage designs use snaps and spring-loaded catches to hold components in place.

Lulea's rapid deployment data center (RDDC) design is all about being lean, which allows Facebook to deploy two data halls in the time it previously took to deploy one, thus reducing the cost of construction.

Lulea

This is Facebook's data center in Prineville, Oregon, which is the first data center deployed using the company's Open Compute Project designs.

This is Facebook

Facebook used 1,560 tons of steel to build its Prineville data center, which is the equivalent to 900 mid-size cars.

Facebook used 1,560 tons of steel to build its Prineville data center, which is the equivalent to 900 mid-size cars.

Facebook's Prineville data center also uses a lot of wires and cables. In fact, there are 950 miles worth of wires and cables in this data center alone, which is roughly the distance between Boston and Indianapolis.

Facebook

The Prineville data center also has a ton of concrete: 14,254 cubic yards, to be exact. Imagine a sidewalk that's 24.3 miles long.

The Prineville data center also has a ton of concrete: 14,254 cubic yards, to be exact. Imagine a sidewalk that

Thanks to Facebook's unique server design, technicians, like this one working in Prineville, don't have to spend time finding the right tools and unscrewing multiple components every time they need to replace a failed component.

Thanks to Facebook

With the efficiency gains afforded by the unique server designs, Facebook has reduced the average repair time to swap parts by more than 50%.

With the efficiency gains afforded by the unique server designs, Facebook has reduced the average repair time to swap parts by more than 50%.

Facebook's rapid data center deployment is similar to assembling a car: The structural frame is built before all of the components, which are attached on an assembly line in a factory. The entire structure is driven to the building site on a truck.

Facebook

Here you can see technicians delivering server racks to the Lulea data center. Facebook takes "the Ikea approach," in which pieces of the finished constructs are packed together in a flat box, simplifying the assembly process to avoid any mistakes.

Here you can see technicians delivering server racks to the Lulea data center. Facebook takes "the Ikea approach," in which pieces of the finished constructs are packed together in a flat box, simplifying the assembly process to avoid any mistakes.

As a result of these unique data centers, Facebook can handle 6 billion daily "Likes," as well as the 400 billion photos and 7.8 trillion messages that have been sent since Facebook was founded a decade ago.

As a result of these unique data centers, Facebook can handle 6 billion daily "Likes," as well as the 400 billion photos and 7.8 trillion messages that have been sent since Facebook was founded a decade ago.

Now that you've looked inside Facebook's data centers ...

Now that you

See what cars Mark Zuckerberg (and 14 other tech millionaires and billionaires) are driving these days >>

View Other Slidelists

Advertisement