How Facebook Stores All Your Data
Ever wondered how all of you, your friends’, and all the billions of other users’ photos, videos, status updates, etc. are stored at Facebook? They do it with servers. A lot of them. Giant data storage facilities in Prineville, OR keep track of everything from the events you’re “attending”, all the way down to a status like (or love, haha, wow, sad, or angry face). In total, recent estimates put Facebook’s Oregon facility storage capacity at upwards of 300 petabytes, which would be enough to hold about 100 billion average-sized photos. The good news is this space is not going to run out anytime soon as the social media giant has both improved its storage efficiency and is nearing completion of its largest data center yet (at over 450,000 square feet).
What exactly is in these data centers and why should you care? First, if you were to take a walk through the building, you would be met with row after row of glowing blue towers. These towers each contain the hard drives that store and record all of your information. Sometimes that information becomes stale and hasn’t seen any action in a while (think: that music video you thought was so funny/cool in 2008, etc.). In these cases, it goes into cold storage until if/when it is needed again. This is important, mainly, because if Facebook didn’t have a place to put everyone’s information, then every time you logged off and logged back in, you’d have to start all over again. It would be impossible for Facebook to remember who you are. There’s a slot (or few million) reserved just for you to be able to share, comment, or post to your heart’s desire. And if you’re worried that anyone working for Facebook can easily access all your information, don’t be. In fact there are rooms in the facilities that are so secure that not even people who’ve worked there for years could access them if they wanted to, without the proper credentials.
All this storage requires a great deal of maintenance, and thankfully Facebook has that covered as well. Although they do use power from the local grid, they also have entire solar farms to provide auxiliary power as needed in an eco-friendly way. In the case of power loss, many giant tractor-trailer-sized generators immediately come to life to keep the data flowing. Additionally, in order to ensure the server’s hard drives are protected, the facility generates its own “ecosystem” by way of heavy fans and complex filtration that brings Oregon’s High Desert air in at just the right temperature and humidity. So take solace in knowing that Facebook spent just as much time and effort to preserve and protect your information as you spent creating it over the years.
