Facebook's Open Compute Project Boosts "Coopetition"
The cloud data center space just got a whole lot bigger with familiar names connecting together for efficient, open source data center hardware. Google recently joined Facebook’s Open Compute Project, a push that will change how data centers are designed and operated, turning competition into “coopetition.”
The Open Compute Project (OCP) gained new traction with Google, Microsoft, and others tapping into the Facebook project. The news was unveiled at the OCP US Summit in San Jose, California.
“Today, Google joined the Open Compute Project. Google has always built some of the best infrastructures in the industry, so this is a strong symbolic move that our open model of development is the best way forward for everyone,” announced Mark Zuckerberg through a post.
Through the project, Facebook aims to make faster progress by sharing the designs and working together with other companies.
Facebook’s project has been one of the most talked about developments in data center news, and providers are authorized to design, build and deliver certified OCP storage and OCP solutions with industry-leading efficiency for maximum data center ROI.
The reason OCP platforms are kind of a big deal is because they are modular and offer building blocks built for large-scale data center infrastructures that can be repurposed.
The OCP community has collaborated with other open source software projects with energy efficiency in mind; it successfully helps develop energy-efficient servers, a 100 percent air-side economizer and evaporative cooling system, just to name a few benefits.
Data center power over all is a hot button topic in the data center management space. Overall, these literal powerhouses provide mission-critical computing functions essential to the daily operation of top U.S. economic, scientific, and technological organizations. These data centers consume large amounts of energy to run and maintain their computer systems, servers and associated high-performance components. As energy costs eat up bigger slices of the corporate budget, IT managers are under the gun to find ways to make their data centers more efficient.
The open compute initiative makes for an interesting example for the IT industry, as it focuses on the need for computing resources while considering the increasing cost of electricity.
“We realized that if we opened up our designs and shared our progress with the industry, we’d all make faster progress together. By working together, we’d produce more efficient designs that would save energy, protect the environment and build better infrastructure for our community,” said Zuckerberg.
Edited by Stefania Viscusi
