An artist rendering of what the new Singapore Data Center will look like.
Facebook’s first data center in Asia will be a new $1 billion building in Singapore.
The 11-storey, 170,000 square meter Singapore Data Center is specifically designed for the country’s humid weather, and features a new StatePoint Liquid Cooling system, which is designed to use water to cool the air as well as reduce water usage by up to 20 percent. Facebook also plans to power the center entirely with renewable energy — and is working on expanding solar resources in the country. The building’s facade will allow air to flow in and let people peek inside.
“The Facebook data center will host many of the pictures and videos that you see everyday,” said Thomas Furlong, Facebook’s vice president of Infrastructure Data Centers. “User growth in Asis is very rapid, and having a data center close is good as we can serve our users better.”
Singapore was selected as the host for the data center for a few reasons: It has already established infrastructure and a fibre broadband network. It also has business-friendly policies, Facebook noted in a statement. It will be the first Facebook-owned data center in the country, and is the 15th globally.
The data center is expected to begin operations in 2022, where the first servers will be put in, though construction is expected to continue as Facebook adds more capacity.
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