Media News - Friday, October 28, 2011

Facebook’s ‘coolest’ data hub coming to Sweden

Facebook announced Thursday that it would immediately begin building a massive data centre - its third globally and first in Europe - in the Swedish town of Luleå, near the Arctic Circle. "After a rigorous review process of sites across Europe, we concluded that Luleå offered the best package of resources, including a suitable climate for environmental cooling (and) clean power resources," said the world's largest social media site, which counts more than 800 million users worldwide. The icy region was especially attractive due to its cool climate, "since cooling servers is a major issue for data centres," Facebook said, adding that Luleå also fulfilled its requirement that the data centre primarily run on renewable hydropower. The Luleå data centre will consist of three server buildings, each covering an area of around 28,000 square metres, Facebook said, adding that construction would begin immediately. The first building would be open for business within a year, it said, while the entire data centre was expected to be up and running by 2014. Swedish Enterprise Minister Annie Lööf meanwhile announced that the government would help subsidize the new data centre, pumping in SEK 103m (USD 16m). (The Local)

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