Mark Zuckerberg reveals how Facebook literally stays cool
Mark Zuckerberg wants you to know just how much advanced technology goes into operating the social media giant that is Facebook.
He announced on Wednesday that he'll begin to share photos on his Facebook profile about some of the new technologies Facebook is building, starting with a look at one of its data centers in Europe.
In his first post, Zuckerberg shared series of photos from Facebook's facility in Luleå, Sweden. He says, "It's a key part of our global infrastructure, and it uses a variety of local natural resources to increase efficiency and save power."
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He goes on to explain,
The temperature in the area is below 50 degrees most days, so we use large fans to pull in the outside air to naturally cool the thousands of warm servers that line the center’s broad hallways. A dozen hydro-electric plants operate on nearby rivers, providing a reliable and renewable power source. The whole system is 10 percent more efficient and uses almost 40 percent less power than traditional data centers.
Zuckerberg's post reveals one of the ways Facebook deals with the persistent problem of data-center cooling. Data centers consume vast amounts of energy, and much of that is given off as waste heat. Facebook isn't the first to use the natural environment to keep its processors cool: Microsoft is testing an underwater data center that uses seawater as a coolant.
What will Zuckerberg share with us next? Perhaps photos of the army of robots that now control trending topics?
Topics Facebook
