by Angela Guess
According to a new article, “Facebook is making available the designs for its data center and servers in hopes other large data center operators adopt them. The designs include a 277-volt power supply that is 94.5 percent efficient as well as custom Intel and AMD motherboards.”
The article continues, “Facebook launched the Open Compute Project with a handful of members who plan to support the specs, including Dell which said it is already shipping compliant servers. If others adopt the specs, it would drive volumes up and costs down for the products, benefiting Facebook. So far, no other large commercial data center operators have joined the Facebook effort.”
Organizations tend to consider their data centers and server designs “part of their proprietary secret sauce. Microsoft already shares specifications for its data center servers with a handful of existing and potential vendors on a non-disclosure basis. Dileep Bhandarkar, the executive who manages Microsoft’s data centers, attended the Facebook event and praised the effort but stopped short of joining it. ‘We have been sharing our best practices openly for several years now, talking about rightsizing of servers by removing unnecessary components and increasing efficiencies of power supplies and VRMs,’ he said.”
photo credit: birgerking
