Facebook joins the ranks of industry's elite

07.04.2011
Facebook's start-up days are long behind it.

That was made clear Thursday when executives from the social networking company announced that they had worked with industry giants Intel, AMD, Hewlett-Packard and Dell to create their own server and . They also shared the specifications of what they created with the rest of the industry.

, with more than , has been a major player in the online industry. However, it became startlingly clear Thursday just how big a player the company has become.

"It's an indicator of their change in status," said Richard Fichera, a vice president with Forrester Research. "This certainly is like a coming out party ... Not everybody is big enough to merit designing your own . It's an indicator of their change in status."

The initiative that Facebook announced, called the , reveals the secret sauce behind its redesigned servers and data center, making them more efficient, cheaper and making its servers more lightweight.

Facebook, the company that has made its name and fortune on serving up users' status updates, photos and videos, is all about the muscle of its data center. Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the data center will use 38% less energy and cost 24% less to build - all while delivering the data to users when they want it.