Definition: Open Compute Project

An initiative spearheaded in 2009 by Facebook to design the most efficient data center in order to better serve its growing customer base. In two years, the Prineville, Oregon data center was the result: 38% less expensive to build and 24% less expensive to run than Facebook's previous facilities. In 2011, the Open Compute Project Foundation was launched with founding members Facebook, Intel, Rackspace, Goldman Sachs and Andy Bechtolsheim. All aspects of server hardware and data center management from cooling to networking are undertaken by the organization.