Back in January, we reported that Facebook’s over 1 billion users have uploaded a staggering 240 billion photographs. Now, news has surfaced that 82 percent of Facebook’s traffic is actually focused on just 8 percent of those photos. In other words, while Facebook is storing an incredible number of images, just a small percentage of them must be readily available. This fact has led Facebook to experiment with something different: The Oregonian reports that the social giant is constructing a 3 exabyte (3,000 petabytes) cold storage data facility in Prineville, Oregon. It will allow Facebook to store these archived photos at 33 percent of the energy costs of traditional servers, with one caveat: the idling servers wont be able to deliver photos “as quickly as something posted just a few hours ago.”
About Shelly Palmer
Shelly Palmer is the Professor of Advanced Media in Residence at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and CEO of The Palmer Group, a consulting practice that helps Fortune 500 companies with technology, media and marketing. Named LinkedIn’s “Top Voice in Technology,” he covers tech and business for Good Day New York, is a regular commentator on CNN and writes a popular daily business blog. He's a bestselling author, and the creator of the popular, free online course, Generative AI for Execs. Follow @shellypalmer or visit shellypalmer.com.