Facebook Announces Plans To Build ‘Ikea-Style’ Data Center

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Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) has just announced plans to build a new data center in Lulea, Sweden. This new building will be located in the second building of the current data center, also known as the same location of Facebook’s first international data center.

Facebook Announces Plans To Build 'Ikea-Style' Data Center

Facebook offers a preview of RDDC

During the 2014 Open Commute Project, Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) did a preview for the RDDC design. The social media giant claims this new approach will make it easier to build and use less material during construction. The entire concept uses large manufacturing blocks which are shipped from a remote factory to the building site. Both Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) have used this design approach in the past. There are a sizable number of data center companies that use it to build data centers.

Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) believes the new data center design concept could prove to be a site-agnostic design. The company wants to develop the unitized data center which could go anywhere in the world. The company also hope to reduce on-site impact with pre-engineered unitized modules that reduce the number of on-site waste.

How this center takes a cue from automotive manufacturing

Facebook Announces Plans To Build 'Ikea-Style' Data Center

The center of the entire concept is the “chassis”. The automotive industry uses a similar concept with a standard chasis frame, then the assembly line attaches components to the chassis. Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)’s design engineer Marco Magarelli shared the details of the design plan in a blog post. He explained, “These chassis support all the services that are found overhead above the racks…Unlike containerized solutions, which are a full volumetric approach that includes a floor, this idea focuses solely on the framework that exists above the racks, to avoid shipping the empty space that will eventually be occupied by the racks.”

Up until this recent announcement, Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) built data centers similar to their first data center in Prinville, Oregon. Facebook has about six versions based on that design.

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