30,000 servers, 25tb of log data per day - all so your mum can poke you

Sawell · 15 Oct 2009 at 11:24

http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2009/10/13/facebook-now-has-30000-servers/

It's amazing how big facebook has got. Although I'm inclined to believe that most of the traffic is due to Bejeweled Blitz or Farmville.

Mark Zuckerberg's net worth is estimated to be about $1.5bn now. Seeing as facebook wasn't even the first of its kind, he's had a pretty good deal.

antijoke · 15 Oct 2009 at 11:25

I think I should create a social networking site.

Fegruson · 15 Oct 2009 at 11:28

We now have an update: Facebook has 30,000 servers supporting its operations. That number comes from Jeff Rothschild, the vice president of technology at Facebook

Cue the conspiracy theories that not only are they taking over the worlds banks, but the biggest social networking sites too

Mp4 · 15 Oct 2009 at 11:28

Wow thats just crazy! Just think how much data we have given facebook about our personal life and images etc!

Though it is good to stay in contact with relitives over seas and whatnot

though Mark Zuckerberg was there at the right place at the right time! lucky man!

steve-h · 15 Oct 2009 at 11:29

30,000 wow!

i'd love to work in a data centre... /nerd

Van Hellseek · 15 Oct 2009 at 11:30

Mafia Wars f.t.w

Scam · 15 Oct 2009 at 11:32

The thing is, it's not like it's a bubble either. People aren't suddenly going to get bored of using FB to socialise are they? It's practically engrained in everyones consciousness now, it's up there with sending texts/phoning people/emailing etc.. Mark Zuckerberg is only going to get richer and richer and richer!

LeJosh · 15 Oct 2009 at 11:33

Me being me, I want to know what one server consists of hardware wise. Is there any info on that? I looked but can't find.

I suck at searching... I'm lazy too.

platypus · 15 Oct 2009 at 11:35

I doubt they'd release the specifics of the hardware.

rsatd · 15 Oct 2009 at 11:36

LeJosh said:
Me being me, I want to know what one server consists of hardware wise. Is there any info on that? I looked but can't find. I suck at searching... I'm lazy too.

Its a farm, hot swappable servers, backup servers for them, dynamic load management I bet. If you seen a server rack from Sun, these are going to be similar whoever they come from.

Inquisitor · 15 Oct 2009 at 11:37

LeJosh said:
Me being me, I want to know what one server consists of hardware wise. Is there any info on that? I looked but can't find. I suck at searching... I'm lazy too.

I imagine the actual hardware isn't ultra high-performance. It's cheaper to use very large clusters of cheaper servers (hence the 30,000

).

LeJosh · 15 Oct 2009 at 11:40

In the article it says they borrowed $100 million to buy 20k servers apparently. :eek:

Going at 5k a server if my maths is correct. I'll check out the Sun racks as you mentioned rsatd.

Sawell · 15 Oct 2009 at 11:43

Evidently it's estimated that google have 700,000+ servers. That's like twice the population of my city, lol.

Inquisitor · 15 Oct 2009 at 11:43

LeJosh said:
In the article it says they borrowed $100 million to buy 20k servers apparently. Going at 5k a server if my maths is correct. I'll check out the Sun racks as you mentioned rsatd.

I stand corrected!

Al Vallario · 15 Oct 2009 at 11:47

...and Facebook is still unprofitable and losing millions of dollars each month.

Dark_Angel · 15 Oct 2009 at 11:48

Sawell said:
Evidently it's estimated that google have 700,000+ servers. That's like twice the population of my city, lol.

That is just insanity...

meghatronic · 15 Oct 2009 at 11:50

They're still living on ego fumes. If fb went down for good, people would adapt in a week at most. Something else would come along and fill the void. I find their valuation laughable as their turnover is nowhere near that, and for that reason, I'm out.

platypus · 15 Oct 2009 at 11:54

Al Vallario said:
...and Facebook is still unprofitable and losing millions of dollars each month.

Well it's exactly because of this that they are unprofitable! Huge leases, $125m, $100m, $150m etc on various datacentres, all based on a model of internet advertising, the revenues from which plummeted 9 years ago.

Sawell · 15 Oct 2009 at 11:57

Interesting article on the discussion of 'if facebook will ever turn a profit'

LeJosh · 15 Oct 2009 at 12:00

The day facebook makes a profit is the day they make a free membership and a premium membership to pay for their services.

Then the users will plummet so no profit. I can't see how exactly profit is to be gained other than advertising and even then it's pretty minimal from what I see. Depending on how much companies pay to be advertising on the website.