Facebook has announced that it will build its first data center for Europe in Lulea, Sweden. One wonders if this is to be close to Saint Nick since the city is so close the North Pole. The DC is designed to handle all the European traffic for Facebook.
The Lulea Data Center will consist of three server buildings with an area of 28 000 m2 (300 000 ft2) each, and will be built in three phases. Construction will begin instantly and the first building will be operational within a year. The entire facility is scheduled to be completed by 2014. About 300 full-time positions will be required for during the first three years.
All technology in the data center is designed and developed by Facebook’s own team of engineers. The technology is derived from Facebook’s The Open Compute Project, which started in 2009 with the goal to create the most efficient computing infrastructure available by removing everything extraneous, and minimize impact on the environment. Through The Open Compute Project design innovations, Facebook has realized a 38 percent gain in its power efficiency, compared with other existing data center infrastructure, and a 24 percent lower server acquisition cost.
This is Facebook’s first data center outside the United States, and the third the company will build, it will be made up of three server buildings and the project is expected to be completed by 2014.
