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Facebook Open-Sources Code For Efficiency Dashboards At Data Centers

Facebook announced Friday that it is open-sourcing the code for the dashboards in its data centers that measure PUE (power usage effectiveness) and WUE (water usage effectiveness) levels.

The social network introduced the efficiency dashboards at its data centers in Prineville, Ore., andForest City, N.C., last April, with Facebook Sustainability Team Program Manager Lyrica McTiernan saying in the announcement:

Why are we doing this? Well, we’re proud of our data center efficiency, and we think it’s important to demystify data centers and share more about what our operations really look like. Through the Open Compute Project, we’ve shared the building and hardware designs for our data centers. These dashboards are the natural next step, since they answer the question, “What really happens when those servers are installed and the power’s turned on?”

Facebook announced the open-sourcing of the dashboards in a post on the Facebook Engineering blog:

Last April, we launched public dashboards that visualize real-time energy and water efficiency in our Oregon and North Carolina data centers. We’re proud of our data center efficiency, and we wanted to demystify data centers and share more about what our operations really look like.

In the spirit of transparency, we encourage others to share these data, as well. To make this easier, today we’re open-sourcing the code for these dashboards so anyone can use it. Since not all operational systems aggregate data in the same way, we’ve separated the code into two pieces: a front-end user-interface component and a back-end data aggregator that may be helpful for those with systems similar to ours. The two components work together, or they can be used separately.

Rackspace participated in beta-testing this code and provided feedback prior to this open-source release. Rackspace is currently considering integrating the open-source code into its facilities.

In the coming months, we will be adding a dashboard for our Sweden data center and — when it’s operational — for our Iowa data center, as well.

To access the dashboard code, go to GitHub for the front-end component, and the back-end data aggregator.

Readers: Should more companies make details about power usage effectiveness and water usage effectiveness levels at their facilities publicly available?