Facebook Estimated to Be Running 180,900 Servers
How many servers does it take to run Facebook? A new estimate puts the company's server base at roughly 180,000 units.
There is no information on the exact count, but some use Facebook's disclosed power consumption of its data centers for a guideline. According to the company, it consumes about 509 million kilowatt hours annually, while the data center power usage is estimated to be about 58 megawatts. Combined with Facebook’s published Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) of 1.07, the company conclusively sends 54.27 megawatts to its servers. At 300 watts per server, that would mean about 180,900 servers, according to James Hamilton. If Facebook can achieve the generally assumed 250 watt estimate for Google, the company may run as many as 217,080 servers.
The growth in server numbers is stunning. Hamilton said that the company may have run just 30,000 servers in October 2009, and 60,000 in June of 2010. He also reminded us that Google's datacenters consume a total of 260 megawatts. With a PUE of 1.14, the company provides 228 megawatts to their servers, which would translate to about 1,040,000 servers at the estimated average power consumption of 250 watts per server.
Contact Us for News Tips, Corrections and Feedback
Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.
Wolfgang Gruener is an experienced professional in digital strategy and content, specializing in web strategy, content architecture, user experience, and applying AI in content operations within the insurtech industry. His previous roles include Director, Digital Strategy and Content Experience at American Eagle, Managing Editor at TG Daily, and contributing to publications like Tom's Guide and Tom's Hardware.
-
snowzsan LOL well they probably wouldn't need so many if people reviewed their pictures before uploading them to facebook for relevancy/quality/content. Instead you see one user has about 300 albums listed "~!~-~-SUMMER 2010!! -~-~!~" with 300 pictures in it where only 30 are of any importance or even visually descriptive.Reply
Honestly, it's a mess. -
tupz Facebook, in its IPO filing, said it stores over 100 petabytes (PB) of media (photos and videos). It’s not unrealistic to say that Facebook probably has a total storage of capacity well beyond that, once you factor in backups and other data (status updates, likes, and so on), possibly in the 300PB range.Reply
Nuts! -- via -
Antimatter79 In 5 years, the picture above will be updated to show one lonely server on a rack in Zuckerberg's basement.Reply