Facebook Data Center

Summary

Facebook, valued at over 100 billion dollars, serves more than a billion users, storing their profiles, photos, and messages on a massive scale. The company's data center in Prineville, Oregon, spans 300,000 square feet, housing cutting-edge servers and memory banks connected by 21 million feet of fiber-optic cable. With constant growth, the site handles over a hundred petabytes of data daily, requiring state-of-the-art cooling systems and backup power to ensure uninterrupted service for its nearly 600 million daily users.

Takeaways

• 🚀 Facebook is a global phenomenon, valued at over 100 billion dollars with over a billion users.
• 🏢 Founded by Harvard students in 2004, Facebook's headquarters in Northern California has a unique, youthful atmosphere.
• 📈 Facebook's growth rate is staggering, with 100 million new users every six months.
• 🔍 The site operates at an unprecedented scale, with one engineer for every 1 million users.
• 💾 Storage is a massive challenge, requiring data centers the size of football fields and costing hundreds of millions to build.
• 🌐 Facebook's data centers are equipped with cutting-edge servers and massive memory banks, interconnected by miles of fiber-optic cables.
• 🔌 The data centers consume 30 megawatts of electricity, with diesel generators as backup to prevent data loss during power failures.
• 🌡️ Cooling is critical; Facebook uses a state-of-the-art natural air-conditioning system to prevent servers from overheating.
• 📈 Social networking's popularity is growing, with almost 600 million users logging in daily, requiring constant expansion of server capacity.
• 🛠️ Technicians like David Gaylord are tasked with maintaining the vast infrastructure, replacing failed components swiftly.
• 📈 The scale of data is immense, with petabytes of photos and videos growing daily, far exceeding the capacity of a standard PC.

Q & A

What is the value of Facebook and how many users does it have?

Facebook was valued at over 100 billion dollars and has over a billion users.

How was Facebook started and by whom?

Facebook was invented by Harvard students in 2004.

What is the rate at which Facebook was growing at the time of the script?

Facebook was growing at a rate of 100 million new users every six months.

What is the scale of Facebook's operations in terms of user to engineer ratio?

Facebook operates with one engineer for every 1 million users on the site.

What is the size of the data center in Prineville, Oregon?

The data center in Prineville, Oregon, is 300,000 square feet.

How does the data center in Prineville store and process information?

The data center stores information in cutting-edge servers and massive memory banks, with data flying between them at the speed of light through over 21 million feet of fiber-optic cable.

What is the backup power solution for the data center in case of a power failure?

In case of a power failure, huge diesel generators stand by as a backup to ensure continuous operation.

How does the data center manage the heat generated by the technology?

The data center uses a state-of-the-art natural air-conditioning system that cools the servers with chilled air from the high plains of Oregon.

What is the scale of electricity consumption at the data center?

The data center has 30 megawatts of electricity on tap and uses 14 diesel generators that can each generate up to three megawatts.

How much data does Facebook handle in terms of photos and videos?

Facebook handles over a hundred petabytes of photos and videos that are growing every single day.

What is the capacity of each server rack in terms of memory?

Each server rack contains 500 terabytes of memory.