Facebook’s Delfina Elberly presented on Facebook’s Optimizing the Data Center.
Keynote: Optimizing Data Center Operations
It’s time to recognize that making data center operations more efficient greatly reduces OPEX, increases internal customer satisfaction, and increases employee satisfaction and retention. Facebook has developed a wide range of tools and systems to measure the status and reliability of data center hardware; automate repair processes; deploy staff more effectively; and perform a variety of other functions that help it run one of the most efficient server fleets in the world. In this talk, Facebook data center operations director Delfina Eberly will describe how Facebook addresses operations challenges, with a focus on best practices and systems that can help you unlock more efficiencies.
This slide has concepts shared.
Another concept shared is focusing on service.
The majority of tools are developed in house, except asset tracking.
For those of you who are curious what Asset Tracking system Facebook uses Delfina didn’t say what the software is. Should you buy the same software as Facebook uses for asset tracking. Unfortunately, unless you are running 100,000 servers and making your own servers and servicing them yourselves like Facebook their software stack may not make sense.
I preface these points because don’t run out and grab a copy of Oracle Agile unless you are prepared to build you own servers with BOM discipline. Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Dell need Agile, most of you don’t.
Delfina presented great concepts though that are good for optimizing a data center. And I agree with the points Delfina made. The hard part is executing with software. I know how to do this, and how to build it given I have a client ask how to do product lifecycle management in the data center three years ago. And, I’ve been crawling through a bunch of the issues to do this for years. Disclosure: my brother works on the Oracle Agile product and it was Facebook employees who have said they use Agile, not my brother.
Delfina closed with a point that also describes the approach we use to transform operations.
Operations has a huge opportunity to be transformed. Can you see the future? “The Transformation of Operations” is coming.