Facebook Doubles Size of Data Center in Oregon

Facebook first told us about their plans for building a data center in Oregon back in January this year, a data center more than 13,000 square meters big. They have now decided to add another 14,000 square meters to it, according to IDG News Service.

First part of the construction is scheduled to be finished in the beginning of next year and the second part to be finished in the beginning of 2012.

Facebook says the construction work will provide 150-200 workplaces and the actual data center will provide 35 permanent workplaces.

Maybe the reason for the expansion is the growth of users Facebook are having? Back when the data center was announced they had around 400 million users – and now they’re up to 500 million users. Or maybe they need more processing power for future features such as Questions?

Greenpeace is not happy about the expansion though, saying that the data center will primarily receive electricity from coal based power plants. Facebook picked Oregon because of its dry and chill climate. IDG News Service also reports that, according to Facebook, this new data center will be the most energy efficient data center in the world.

While a 28,000’ish square meter certainly is a big data center, it’s not as big as the 65,000 square meter data center that Microsoft recently opened up near Chicago. Apple is also building a big data center, 45,000 square meters big, in North Carolina. Companies are really gearing up for more cloud computing in the feature – and here’s the top 9 reasons why cloud computing is the future of software.