Facebook to build a server farm: Q & A
What exactly is a server farm?
A server farm brings together hundreds of thousands of servers - the core of a normal personal computer - stacked in a rack, connected by a router, powered and cooled and concentrated. Until about a decade ago, the servers are kept in special rooms in their respective companies. But with the growth of the web, companies like Google, Facebook, Apple and Amazon have begun to build a giant centralized server farms, each containing hundreds of thousands of computers. As more and more people store their data online in the 'cloud', rather than on their home computer, there is a growing need for more server farms.
How many servers are there out there?
Web company closed about how many servers they run (and hence the power they use and they emit greenhouse gases). According to this year's report from Data Center Knowledge, Google can now operate more than one million servers, five times in 2005 an estimated 200,000. With 800m users, Facebook can not be far behind.
A server farm brings together hundreds of thousands of servers - the core of a normal personal computer - stacked in a rack, connected by a router, powered and cooled and concentrated. Until about a decade ago, the servers are kept in special rooms in their respective companies. But with the growth of the web, companies like Google, Facebook, Apple and Amazon have begun to build a giant centralized server farms, each containing hundreds of thousands of computers. As more and more people store their data online in the 'cloud', rather than on their home computer, there is a growing need for more server farms.
How many servers are there out there?
Web company closed about how many servers they run (and hence the power they use and they emit greenhouse gases). According to this year's report from Data Center Knowledge, Google can now operate more than one million servers, five times in 2005 an estimated 200,000. With 800m users, Facebook can not be far behind.