Facebook plans to construct an 800 million dollar new data center in DeKalb. The massive facility will be soon powered by renewable energy. Facebook is now coming to DeKalb. It will be constructed on a 907,000 square feet facility at the close interaction between Peace and Gurler roads. The building will be expected to complete in the year 2022.
Features of the project:
a) Job opportunities
This amazing project will bring 100 operational jobs and 1,200 construction jobs for security personnel, logistics professionals, data technicians, engineers, and facility managers.
b) First data center
This project will be the first data center of Facebook in Illinois and the 12th data center in the United States of America.
c) Renewable energy
The project will relay 100% on renewable energy like wind energy. But according to Facebook in addition to renewable energy, the data centers will also use 80 percent less water as used by average data centers.
d) Online network
Once this data center online, it will be the best part of the network that will connect millions of people from all over the world. The decision of making the center at DeKalb enables the companies to know about this city and those things that offered by this region.
e) Invest
The social media giant i.e. Facebook will invest 800 dollars in constructing this facility. This investment will bring lots of amazing facilities in this area.
Facebook and its data centers
Facebook is the world’s largest social media giant that was founded in 2004. The headquarter of Facebook is in Menlo Park, California. There are more than 48,000 people employees across the globe.
The data centers of Facebook currently working in various places like:
- Lowa
- North Carolina
- New Mexico
- Ohio
- Alabama
- Nebraska
- Utah,
- Oregon
- Texas
- Singapore
- Sweden
- Ireland
- Georgia
- Denmark
- Singapore
- Georgia.
Facts about the Development of Facebook to 800 million dollar data center
a) Facebook choose DeKalb in Chicago state for this project because of the easy access pf renewable energy, strong community partners, and talent pool.
b) It will be the first data center of Facebook in Illinois. There are 15 other data centers of Facebook located in various regions of the world.
c) Facebook guaranteed in 2018 that it will power all of its facilities with 100% renewable energy at the end of 2020.
d) In 2019, lawmakers of Illinois accredited data center tax incentives that will attract firms and other technology companies to build the facility for data storage in the state.
e) Besides all of the other requirements, the companies must invest 250 million dollars in the facility and will hire 20 full-time employees for 5 years.
Variables involved in the decision process of this project in DeKalb
There are lots of variables that may enter the decision process to find the best location for the data center. DeKalb offers many reasons to Facebook to construct a new center in Illinois.
According to Vice president of Datacenter strategy of giant social media platform Facebook:
We are so thankful to the city of DeKalb, Illinois department of commerce and economic opportunity, DeKalb economic development corporation, and community member for their enthusiasm and diligence in the whole process. We are feeling proud to join the community of DeKalb and look forward to making a strong relationship in future
The hiring of the project
During the project planning, the officials of Facebook estimate that the construction of the site will demand 1,200 construction as well as trade workers. The period of construction will be of 2 to 3 years.
Facebook plans to hire:
- Construction management
- Logistic professors
- Engineers
- Technicians
- Facility managers
- Security personnel
The data center will be hidden to 20-year and 55% property tax plan that is proved by the council as well as agreed via DeKalb country company zone. It also offers 50 tech jobs having a starting salary of $ 38.5 per hour to qualified for the tax abatements within some years.
In the next 20 years the officials of the city sad that this data center has been projected to the yield test revenue for the participating taxing bodies.
Why Facebook hire locals only?
Facebook will hire only locals because these workers know the layout of the land better. Other data centers also find a better way to utilize the local workforce development either through local education facility or other.
The main reason to hire locals is that it is not easy to hire a workforce from outside because people will come here to the area and will here. They will also have kids in the schools and will participate in society.
How does this project work?
Hollis said that we choose DeKalb because of the best connectivity of the region with water connections and land resources. It also has partnerships from city and countrywide officials that worked for building the social network for many months.
The main goal of the data center will be long-term expansion across the globe. The site will help to store the computers that are used to process many technical sites of Facebook like Instagram, Whatsapp, Facebook messenger app, and Facebook app. It allows the user to use these sites in a perfect way on tablets, computers, and phones.
The site will use 100% renewable source energy because storing computer that contains much data takes a complex cooling system. The services will not only used in DeKalb and its surrounding communities but also users from all over the world.
Water in this project used for cooling the system of computers because with continuously running, they may get hot. This system is designed to focus on the efficiency of the site. Less water is required to act as the cooling agent.
Facebook already has many offices in Chicago. The only way to construct a site in DeKalb is to expand the business in all over the world. It is a great opportunity for the DeKalb community because people of the world will able to learn more about this country. This project also gives lots of job opportunities to their community members.
