Facebook finally confirms it will host its first non-US datacenter in Sweden

Rumours that social networking behemoth Facebook was to open its first non-US datacenter in Sweden have been circulating since May 2011 but today the company has finally confirmed it will build its new datacenter in Lulea, making it the largest of its kind in Europe, to serve the companys 700 million plus users.

Reuters issued a report stating that the new datacenter will be the northernmost of its magnitude on Earth, with Facebook choosing the site because of its climate, clean power, local workforce, cooling resources and land availability.

Tom Furlong, Facebooks director of site operations, said:

We concluded Lulea offered the best package of resources, including a suitable climate for environmental cooling, clean power resources, available land, talented regional workforce and supportive business and corporate environment.

Lulea is located 1,00 kilometres north of Swedens capital, Stockholm, facilitating the social networks new servers with hydropower in its three new server buildings, with construction beginning immediately. The company hopes to have its new datacenter operational within a year with the facility due to be completed by 2014.

Amazing that the announcement has been so long coming, Swedish newspapers had the correct location and details back in May but Facebook would not confirm the reports.