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04/29/2024 05:35:05 am

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Facebook Opens New Data Center In Central Iowa

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(Photo : Facebook) Facebook Inc. launched a new Android app for its social media service that runs faster and uses less data in locations with spotty connections.

Facebook is investing billions into its infrastructure worldwide, mostly in data centers to store all of the information being uploaded and viewed on the social network.

Data centers are becoming big business for governments, and actually provide jobs in places where industry has died. Essentially, a data center is comprised of several large rooms (or one huge room) filled with racks of servers.

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In order to maximize efficiency, Facebook and other server creators make the racks extremely small and fill rooms to the brim, leaving only enough room for a few staff to walk around and monitor the facility.

Having its own data center removes the need to pay a third-party every month - something that is very costly considering how much traffic Facebook receives. Large-scale data centers only number four at the moment, but more are coming in 2015.

The newest facility for Facebook, based in Altoona, Iowa, is a $300 million investment in the future of the social network. It employs 75 staff members who have been working there for a year.

Facebook is not finished at one room either; the company is already building the second room, set to be finished in 2015. The third room - currently under evaluation - should come soon after.

Iowa offered Facebook $18 million in tax credits and 20 years without any property tax as an incentive for building the data center in its state. States and government are opting to make sure Facebook, Google and others continue to invest in new high-end technology facilities, like Google Fiber and solar farms.

Facebook currently has 1.2 billion active users, 500 million running the Facebook Messenger app on their mobile devices. The social network also owns WhatsApp, with 650 million monthly users, and Instagram with around 200 million active users.

Having all of this data: messaging, photos, videos, posts and other uploads, means Facebook needs to cut costs with its own data centers. The social network is looking for other states to reach out with offers, for another potential data center in the near future.

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