Innovator
4/5/2012 9:09:16 PM
User Rank Management GUI
The Hacker Mentality of Face Book
"We decided to honor our hacker roots and challenge convention by custom designing and building our software, servers and data centers from the ground up -- and then share these technologies as they evolve "
I really like this sentiment from FB, even though I am not FB fan - I am a fan of the "Hacker Mentality" - of course FB wants to engineer their surroundings much like Google does for instance and it does make sense to cater to their own specialized needs.
I don't think I would invest in the technology though, since most of the refinements might not necessarily add any value to enterprise based setups. But maybe this will spur redesigns within the offerings of the major makers of servers and that would be adding value to all concerned.
SaneIT
4/6/2012 7:33:42 AM
User Rank Basic Coder
Re: Facebook Rolls Its Own: Servers, Storage, & More
I love that companies are doing this but I wonder how long it will last and how far it will reach. When I first got into IT the server side was where branded hardware reigned and desktops tended to be white box units. With the big guys like Google, Facebook and Amazon (so I hear) cutting out the middle man and building their own servers it makes me wonder if we're going full circle and we'll be back to building our own boxes to meet our specific needs. If that does happen one good thing should come of it, lower prices for hardware.
cpafern
4/6/2012 12:17:21 PM
User Rank Basic Coder
Re: Facebook Rolls Its Own: Servers, Storage, & More
One issue with hardware is the low margin on each sale. In my consulting days, we pushed the software because there was not much money to be made selling hardware. Perhaps, there is related lower commissions/salaries in hardware manufacturers, oems, etc., as a result?
What is presented here is exciting! Do you think there will eventually be like a time-share, so the SMB's may take advantage?
Re: Facebook Rolls Its Own: Servers, Storage, & More
Building your own servers requires a lot of technical expertise and skills so it might work for the big few but I don't see it happening for the smaller firms. If these companies have a marketing strategy for their customized servers then I'm afraid life will become very difficult for the middle man.
Smaller firms will then have the opportunity to get hardware on lower prices and with much more efficiency (assuming that server designs are tuned for maximum performance). Although I am not sure how they will manage them in the long run with their limited pool of resources.
Re: Facebook Rolls Its Own: Servers, Storage, & More
@CPAFern, when you ask about time-share, you are talking about cloud computing! An clearly, SMBs wiil be, and already are, taking advantage of that model, renting software in the cloud as on-demand services.
It may turn out that there are not enough brave, self-sufficient customers to make Facebook/OCP's hardware a big business, but what might happen is that an established hardware maker would adopt the design, perhaps tweak it is some way, and work it into their product line. All hardware makers are interested in being able to offer "greener" hardware boxes, and if the design happens to be one invented by an open source project, all the better.
Re: Facebook Rolls Its Own: Servers, Storage, & More
My guess, Sohaib, is that if these servers ever show up beyond Facebook's data center, they will be used by other companies with big computing needs of their own and/or they will be used to create public clouds. The latter will make the hardware's lower costs and higher efficiencies available to many customers who could not, as you point out, build and maintain and support their own machines. If nothing else, Facebook's hardware should inspire other hardware makers to rethink their own designs and cost structures.
Interesting times, these.
SethGB
4/8/2012 3:40:54 PM
User Rank Management GUI
Re: Facebook Rolls Its Own: Servers, Storage, & More
I'm sure what ever Facebook learns from this feat will be boon to others.
Facebooks, needs are unique. such as storing over 140 billion photos and that translates to unprecedented hardware costs. By keeping everything open-sourced everyone can learn from everyone and that's a great way to spur innovation.
SaneIT
4/9/2012 7:20:45 AM
User Rank Basic Coder
Re: Facebook Rolls Its Own: Servers, Storage, & More
If a company like Facebook open sources their hardware designs then yes we have the potential of seeing much lower costs for servers. Half the battle is putting all the chip sets together to squeeze out performance. I do have to wonder though if these companies like Amazon and Facebook have their own hardware designers or if they are using designers from the manufacturers.
As far as margins on hardware goes, it is true that the margins are much lower than software but when you're building a big data center every little bit helps when you're trying to hit your budget numbers.
Re: Facebook Rolls Its Own: Servers, Storage, & More
@John: I agree with you, these are interesting times. If they are used to create public clouds then people will have a cheaper alternate to Amazon and others.
As far as inspiration is concerned, I think that in due time other hardware vendors will step up to the challenge. We might see some thing much more efficient and surprisingly at a lower cost.
Re: Facebook Rolls Its Own: Servers, Storage, & More
@SaneIT: You are absolutely correct. The margins on hardware are lesser than those in the software industry. However, building a data center will require both and if companies can save cost on open source hardware designs they will gladly opt for this solution.
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