Open Compute Project Facebook

A small team of Facebook engineers spent the past two years tackling a big challenge which was how to scale their computing infrastructure in the most efficient and economical way possible. Working out of an electronics lab in the basement of Palo Alto, California headquarters, the team designed the first data center from the ground up. 

Following acomplishment was accepted byt the Facebook data center managers and few months later the whole data center is buing built in Prineville, Oregon. The project, which started out with three people, resulted in Facebook building their own custom-designed servers, power supplies, server racks, and battery backup systems.

This particular data center  will use 38 percent less energy, while costing 24 percent less to build compared to other data centers. If a quarter of the data center capacity in the U.S. were built on Open Compute Project specs, Facebook says it would save enough energy to power more than 160,000 homes.

I had a priviledge to talk to some of the brightest minds in this world and to hear their whole story behind the project. Not only that they want to save money for the company but they also want to increase environmental awarness.