Facebook is building another data center in Prineville, Oregon, that will mirror phases A and B of its first data center in the Facebook Prineville Campus.
Facebook data center manager Ken Patchett made the announcement last night at a Prineville City Council meeting.
"We believe the construction of the phased expansion of Building 2, and the operation of Building 1, staffing and supplying of the Prineville Data Center will continue to have a positive impact on the Crook County-Prineville economy," Patchett told the meeting.
Facebook’s first Prineville data center came online in April this year.
An earlier report by DatacenterDynamics in January this year said Facebook was considering expanding this data center site to keep up with demands from its rapidly growing user base.
Patchett said back in January that Prineville had been chosen as a location because of the available land on its 120 acre site, which allowed it to grow as required.
"When Facebook first announced its Prineville facility it had 350m users. Today Facebook has 750m users," Patchett said.
Facebook’s existing data center covers five football fields – more than 300,000 sq ft.
To date, more than 1,400 people have worked on the Prineville data center project, and Patchett said that this second expansion will allow it to continue to employ similar amounts for the year moving forward.
"This announcement helps to ensure the same type of activity for at least another full year," Patchett said.
The first data center currently employs 54 full-time staff working on building maintenance, security and maintenance of the servers.
"Facebook expects a small increase of approximately 10 jobs at the Prineville campus as a result of this expansion. By having two buildings side by side it will gain efficiency in staffing needs," Facebook said.
In a post on the Facebook Prineville site, US Congressman Greg Waldon welcomed the news, saying it would help drive growth in Prineville.
"This is the kind of investment form the private sector that grows jobs long term.
This is great news for the county and for Facebook," Waldon said.
