How Facebook wants to lead the green Internet initiative

Those photos of your sweetheart or grandkids uploaded to Facebook live near Forest City along a dimly lit corridor with flashing lights and a constant hum. The Facebook data center off U.S. 74 has begun an innovative way of looking after those images. On Wednesday, the 2-year-old data center about 75 miles west of Charlotte hosted a rare media tour that included a new “cold storage” facility that officials say has revolutionized the way Facebook manages billions of photos shared by users.

Tucked away in the foothills of North Carolina’s ancient South Mountains is the gleaming campus of Facebook’s Forest City data center. In operation since 2012, the rural 160-acre campus is one of Facebook’s fleet located across the country, joining the flagship U.S. location in Prineville, Ore., and an upcoming location in Iowa. On a recent tour of the facility, guided by data center site manager Keven McMammon, it became evident that Facebook doesn’t want to be part of the green Internet initiative, it wants to lead it, and that means abandoning the cutthroat “Fight Club” mentality of yesteryear and embracing the power of community-driven innovation.