As Facebook looks around the world to build new data centers in order to handle the demands of its 1.23 billion (and still growing) users and hundreds of thousands of advertising clients, it’s identifying more partners to help out.
Data center infrastructure provider Emerson Network Power revealed May 8 that it is working with Facebook to design and deploy the company’s sixth data center and second facility in Luleå, Sweden.
It will be built next to Facebook’s first building in Luleå, which came online in June 2013. When completed in 2015, Luleå 2 will be one of the most efficient and sustainable data centers in the world, powered by 100 percent renewable energy and featuring the latest in Open Compute Project server, storage, mechanical and electrical designs.
Data center No. 6 will be Facebook’s second outside the United States. The other facilities are in Forest City, N.C., Prineville, Ore. — which consists of two huge facilities — and Altoona, Iowa.
Luleå 2 will be the pilot for Facebook’s new rapid deployment data center, which was designed and developed in collaboration with Emerson Network Power’s data center design team.
Facebook’s RDDC incorporates a number of modular design elements, including prefabricated materials and on-site assembly, to enable an increase in the speed of deployment and reduction in material use.
Luleå 2 will span approximately 125,000 square feet. Emerson said it will deliver more than 250 shippable modules — including power skids, evaporative air handlers, a water treatment plant and data center superstructure solutions.