11
RDDC is the next step forward in
this process. It takes modular and
lean construction principles and
applies them at the scale of a
Facebook data center. We expect
the new approach to be a step
change in the efficiency of our
construction process: The RDDC
design will allow us to deploy
two data halls in the time it
previously took to deploy one, it
will greatly reduce the amount of
material used during
construction, and it should prove
to be much more site-agnostic —
something that provides valuable
flexibility as we work to connect
the next five billion people in the
world.
The RDDC design is based on
two key concepts. The first
concept is similar to assembling
a car on a chassis. A structural
frame is built before all the
components, from lighting to
cables, are attached on an
assembly line in a factory.
The entire construct is then
driven to the building site on the
back of a flatbed truck.
The second scheme is what
we’ve dubbed “the Ikea
approach.” Rather than assemble
the modules in a factory, the
pieces of the finished building
are tightly packed into a flat box.
Similar to what Ikea has done to
its furniture, the building
components of this RDDC
method are simplified to avoid
mistakes during assembly.
We are currently testing the
chassis approach at our second
building under construction at
our Luleå, Sweden, campus.
Spanning about 125,000 sq. ft., it
will be the first Facebook data
center building to feature our
RDDC design. The building
incorporates a number of
modular design elements,
including pre-fabricated
materials and on-site assembly,
to enable an increase in the
speed of deployment and
decrease material use. Sweden’s
long winters limit the
construction window we have,
and with RDDC, we can
accelerate our timelines and
standardize our building
practices, ensuring consistent
quality.
Of course, RDDC won’t be the
last time we iterate on a data
center design — we’ll continue to
evolve as we develop our data
center operations.
Openness and
Collaboration
Spur Innovation
We know that we’re not the only
one innovating in the data
center, and in the last three years
we’ve been working with
thousands of other people in the
industry to advance these
technologies more quickly.
We’ve done this through the
Open Compute Project (OCP), a
community-based initiative that
seeks to build more efficient and
sustainable infrastructure.
Launched in 2011, OCP takes
inspiration from the open source
software movement and applies
the same philosophy to compute
infrastructure. Three years after
OCP’s founding, it’s safe to say
that the industry has responded
with a level of commitment that
has surpassed everyone’s
expectations. Facebook was the
first member of OCP, and we
contributed everything from the
details of the cooling systems to
the technical specifications of the
servers used in Prineville. Since
then, the initiative’s membership
roster has grown to more than
150 companies, including AMD,
Arista Networks, ARM, Baidu,
Broadcom, Dell, EMC, Fidelity,
Goldman Sachs, IBM, Intel,
Microsoft, Quanta, Rackspace,
Salesforce, Seagate, and WD.
Collectively, this group has
already open-sourced dozens of
hardware and software specs.
“Simplicity
is at the
core of our
data center
design
philosophy”
