U.S based tech mogul Facebook have announced that they will be building their 9th data center in Newton County, Atlanta by investing USD 750M. This data center, which will span 1 million sq.feet, will be built by taking advantage of the county’s access to renewable resources and strong pool of talent according to Facebook.
Facebook say that this new data center project will be built in order to lend support to rest of their data centers in the U.S which currently serve more than 2 billion people worldwide. They also say that with more and more people migrating to their social media platform every year, upping their data center prowess was becoming mandatory.
Explaining this, a spokesperson for Facebook said:
Our Newton Data Center will be part of the valuable infrastructure that helps bring Facebook apps and services to 2+ billion people across the globe. These buildings, and the hardware inside of them, support our mission to give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together.
This data center will help us continue to provide a good experience for people around the world, especially as the number of photos and videos being shared grows and as we create more immersive experiences through live video, 360 photos and videos, and virtual reality.
With this new data center, Facebook claims that they want to use solar energy in a bid to reduce their carbon footprint. They also say that Newton County’s location will allow them to avail this renewable resource.
According to Facebook the county will also provide them with an added advantage of a diverse pool which will help them steer the data center project successfully. They further added that they will hire engineers, managers IT administrators etc., totaling 100 employees, to ensure the smooth running of this facility.
Elated with Facebook’s presence in Georgia, Nathan Deal, Governor of Georgia State commented:
We appreciate Facebook’s leadership for recognizing Georgia as a state that serves not only as a major hub for general business, but also as a place where tech firms can be successful in the future.
Georgia’s business-friendly climate and world-class technological infrastructure continue to attract innovative companies like Facebook. It is fitting that the No. 1 company in the world in terms of active users has chosen the No. 1 state for business for this project.