Pat Rabbitte, TD, Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources
Video of Communications Minister Pat Rabbitte’s speech in Dublin yesterday, where he outlines Ireland’s potential to be the home of cloud computing and big data.
Rabbitte was speaking yesterday at the launch of a joint Irish Government and EMC cloud innovation centre. Partners in the project include Cisco, VMware and VCE.
Consisting of infrastructure at EMC and within the Irish Government’s systems, the innovation centre will allow indigenous SMEs and multinationals to test, develop and demonstrate apps that could be used by the public sector.
It will provide public-sector departments and agencies with a platform to trial new cloud solutions and avoid costly IT blunders.
The centre will also promote Ireland as a leader in the cloud computing and big data industries and provide entrepreneurs and start-ups with an opportunity to vie for Government contracts that would have been out of reach.
Minister Pat Rabbitte, TD, on the value of cloud computing to the Irish economy
Strategic focus on cloud
Rabbitte said that cloud computing is a strategic focus for the Irish Government and has been identified as a priority for development and support.
He said that in terms of the major investments by players like EMC, Microsoft, Google, Intel, IBM and others, Ireland is emerging as a global leader for cloud computing. “This can be a driver of innovation and growth.
“We intend to bring forward Government cloud strategies and we’re working with industry players and employers.”
