Construction of a $1.5 billion Facebook data center underway in Iowa, according to reports
Facebook Announces Massive $1.5 Billion Data Center Project in Iowa
In a significant move, tech giant Facebook has revealed plans for a new data center development project in Iowa, codenamed "Project Catapult". The project, spanning 1.4 million square feet, was first reported earlier this month and is expected to cost an estimated $1.5 billion.
The news comes after the Des Moines Register reported that Facebook is behind the data center development project, a fact that was previously unknown. Prior to this, it was not clear which company was involved in the project.
The Iowa data center, like Facebook's existing data center in Lulea, Sweden, will primarily rely on renewable energy sources. This commitment to sustainability is a testament to Facebook's ongoing efforts to reduce its carbon footprint.
James Hamilton, an infrastructure engineer at Amazon Web Services, has reported that Facebook operates approximately 180,000 servers as of August 2019. The Iowa data center is likely to house a significant portion of these servers, contributing to Facebook's growing server infrastructure.
Facebook's Project Catapult is an initiative aimed at improving the performance and efficiency of its server infrastructure. The project involves the development of custom silicon technology integrated within the data centers. This technology is designed to accelerate data processing and networking tasks, offloading certain tasks from general-purpose CPUs to specialized hardware.
The development of such data centers is a substantial investment, typically costing hundreds of millions or billions of dollars. However, exact cost figures for the Iowa project are not publicly detailed. Competitors in this space include other hyperscale cloud and social media providers such as Google, Amazon, and Microsoft, all of which also invest heavily in custom hardware and data center infrastructure.
The state of Iowa competed fiercely with Nebraska to be the chosen destination for the data center development project. Facebook's decision to locate the data center in Iowa is a significant win for the state, bringing jobs and investment to the region.
Facebook’s innovations through Project Catapult have been pivotal in influencing modern data center designs by enabling greater control over hardware and improving energy efficiency. This could potentially reduce operating costs and increase computational throughput.
For more authoritative, up-to-date, and detailed specifics about the Iowa project, including exact costs and competitive positioning, targeted industry reports, company press releases, or technology case studies would be the best sources.
Facebook's current major data center is located in Prineville, Oregon, and its secondary facility is in North Carolina. The Iowa data center is expected to play a crucial role in Facebook's growing global data center network.
The tech giant Facebook's latest project, Project Catapult, focuses on improving the finance of its server infrastructure by developing custom silicon technology within the data centers, aiming to accelerate data processing and networking tasks. This substantial business investment in technology is expected to contribute to Facebook's growing server infrastructure, particularly in the Iowa data center, which will primarily rely on renewable energy sources as part of the company's commitment to sustainability.
