Facebook unveils Open Compute Project

By unveiling the Open Compute Project as a stand-alone foundation, Facebook is hoping to further standardize the market for data centre equipment, thereby reducing costs and vendor lock-in, reports PC World.

The social networking giant has revealed that it has set up the Open Compute Project (OCP) as a stand-alone standards foundation. Executives from a number of IT companies, including Intel, Dell, Rackspace and Red Hat, have joined the governing board.

The company first unveiled the Open Compute Project in April, in order to share the best practices in data centre efficiency.

According to Cnet, the company has already released its custom specifications for gear, such as motherboards, rack designs, and an efficient power delivery system that can handle both AC and DC.

The basis for these specifications is Facebook's data centre in Prineville, Oregon, which has a power usage effectiveness ratio of 1:07, compared to 1:5 for its older ones.

Facebook stands to benefit from any enhancements the group makes on its designs and specifications, potentially getting access cost-effective efficiency improvements faster than its competitors.

Energy consumption from running computer equipment and cooling is one of the biggest fixed costs of data centres, which as a group are consuming more energy each year.

ZDNet states that the facility can run workloads using up to 38% less energy than its counterparts at a 24% cost reduction, according to the Open Compute Web page.

“This isn't just important for the environment, it is green for the bottom line,” says Frank Frankovsky, director of technical operations for Facebook and chairman for the Open Compute Project.