Frankovsky called this practice "gratuitous differentiation." If a data center wants to use only one kind of rack -- a common practice to help standardize the data center -- then it must buy all its racks from one vendor. While good for the vendor, this practice is potentially problematic for the customer, should the vendor wish to take advantage of this reliance by raising prices.

"Can I stick a HP server into a Dell chassis? No. Why not? Does it really have value to me to have different racks?" Frankovsky told an audience at the O'Reilly Open Source Conference (OSCON), held earlier this month in Portland. "Why can't we all get along right there, and work on something more innovative than the underlying physical infrastructure?"

To help design the racks, Facebook collaborated with Asian Internet giants Baidu and Tencent. Baidu and Tencent engineers visited Facebook at the company's Prineville, Oregon, data center to discuss rack technologies. Those companies experienced many of the same frustrations with racks that Facebook did, and even started their own design specification, Project Scorpio. "We converged our voices," Frankovsky said.

"We compete with those guys, but on the infrastructure side, if we can make our infrastructure more efficient, it makes everyone that much better," Frankovsky said. "Where we differentiate our business is in the service we provide to our end users."

The Open Rack specification calls for a slightly taller chassis, one 48 inches (122 centimeters) tall rather than the 44.5 inches (133 centimeters) that is the norm for most racks. The taller rack allows more air to circulate through the equipment and makes it easier for technicians to access the gear, Frankovsky said.