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Top 5 Server Farms in Terms of Size

The Princeton.edu definition of a ‘farm' is: a workplace consisting of farm buildings and cultivated land as a unit. Another definition reads a farm to be: an area of land, including various structures, devoted primarily to the practice of producing and managing food. A large server farm is not much different in practice but a world of a difference in product.

A Server Farm is also referred to as a server cluster, computer farm, or ranch and is defined as: a group of networked servers housed in one location. A server farm streamlines internal processes by distributing the workload between the individual components of the farm and expedites computing processes by harnessing the power of multiple servers. Farms rely on load-balancing software that accomplishes such tasks as tracking demand for processing power from different machines, prioritizing the tasks and scheduling, and rescheduling them depending on priority and demand that users put on the network. When one server in the farm fails, another can step in as a backup. ~portal.state.pa.us

Energy is 60 percent of the data center's cost. A typical server farm uses 10-20 megawatts of power per hour. This is the equivalent to 10, 000-20, 000 homes with every light and every appliance turned on. Performance is measured by the data center's cooling systems and electricity cost rather than by performance of the processors because a large server farm requires huge amounts of electricity for running and maintaining a cool 68 degrees. A growing trend is the idea of building facilities to house server farms that are run by natural gas plants to save on energy costs and make less of a carbon footprint.

The top 5 published Server Farms in terms of size:
1. Intel - 100, 000 servers
2. 1&1 Internet - 70, 000 servers
3. OVH - 65, 000 servers
4. Facebook - 60, 000 servers
5. Rackspace - 59, 876 servers

The server farm locations are often secretive and have maximum security features. Several of the larger companies do not publish their large server farm numbers or locations. Google has an estimated 450, 000 servers, however, there could be many more in existence or in the making. Microsoft has an estimated, unpublished, 300, 000 servers.

To host a server farm, it takes a savvy team of varied technical backgrounds and expertise including system developers, project planners, technical supervision and management, networking gurus and security masters. There must be ongoing training and support and a 24/7 help desk for the tech crew and clients. Whether you want to find hosting for business or personal, make certain to do your research and turn to the professionals to assist in finding the right hosting for your needs.

Marcos Garza is the founder of FindRackSpace.com - a search directory of local data centers and website hosting options. The directory puts webmasters in contact with web hosting companies suited to their particular needs. Visit FindRackSpace.com today for more information.

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com