Zuckerberg Discloses How They Keep Facebook Cool (Literally)

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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wants people to understand how advanced tech goes into operating the social networking site. On Wednesday, Zuckerberg declared that he will start sharing pictures on his profile about some of the new technologies that his company is building, beginning with a photo of one of their data centers in Europe, according to Mashable.

Using natural environment to keep data center cool

The Facebook CEO shared a series of pictures from their facility in Luleå, Sweden in his first post. Zuckerberg says it is an important part of their global infrastructure, adding that the facility uses a variety of local natural resources to save power and improve efficiency. Zuckerberg added that the temperature in the area is less than 50 degrees most days, so they use big fans to pull in the outside air to cool the thousands of warm servers naturally.

“A dozen hydro-electric plants operate on nearby rivers, providing a reliable and renewable power source. The whole system is 10 percent more efficient and uses almost 40 percent less power than traditional data centers,” the CEO said.

Zuckerberg’s post also discloses one of the ways they deal with the constant problem of data center cooling. Data centers use a lot of energy, and most of that energy is given off as waste heat. The social networking site is not the first tech company to use the natural environment to keep its processors cool. Microsoft is testing an underwater data center which uses seawater as a coolant, notes Mashable.

F8 kicks off April 18

In other Facebook news, the company’s most important event of the year, F8, now has an official date: April 18. Zuckerberg usedF8 2016 to make people understand his 10-year vision for Facebook, which includes WiFi-beaming drones, artificial intelligence and forays into virtual reality. He took a thinly-veiled shot at Donald Trump at this year’s event and rejected the idea of “distancing people” and “building walls.”

On Wednesday, the social media giant touted changes to its Analytics for Apps software. We can expect similar announcements and consumer-related announcements at F8 as the social network needs to keep software marketers and developers happy in order to keep making money.

For the first time, the conference will be held outside of San Francisco. F8 2017 is headed 50 miles south to the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, California, notes CNET. The social networking site gave no details on who will be speaking, but it can assumed that it will be Zuckerberg again.

Photo by Crunchies2009

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