Cloud-based customer service software platform Zendesk’s European data centre in Dublin has been officially launched. The facility will employ 30 people.
The new facility goes beyond US-EU Safe Harbor legislation, giving Zendesk’s European-based customers the choice to keep the customer data that Zendesk manages on their behalf within the EU.
Zendesk has more than 7,500 customers in Europe, including Just Giving, GOV.UK, L’Oreal and Glasgow NHS. It enables organisations to service their customers across multiple channels – from their websites, emails and phones to Facebook, Twitter and chat.
This infrastructure investment is a result of Zendesk’s plans to increase its scale and global reach after securing US$60m in additional funding in 2012.
Zendesk’s CEO and founder Mikkel Svane described the new data centre as a significant milestone for Zendesk in Europe. “We’re committed to serving our growing number of European customers and addressing their concerns over where their data resides. By opening the centre within their borders, we hope to create a model for the cloud-based software industry.”
Zendesk will not only process and store data in the new European data centre, but also replicate data through an EU-based data backup provider. The new data centre, combined with a development centre that Zendesk opened last year in Dublin, will create more than 30 jobs for skilled IT professionals over the next two years.
Dublin: a centre of European technology excellence
Barry O’Dowd, head of Emerging Business at IDA Ireland, said, “Dublin is increasingly being seen as a centre of technology excellence in Europe and the ideal location for technology companies to extend their operations. We are pleased to see a market-leading company such as Zendesk increase its investment in Ireland and recognise the wealth of talent and skills available here.”
More than 100m people in 140 countries get their customer service through Zendesk. Along with Dublin, the San Francisco, California-based company also has offices in London, Tokyo, Copenhagen, and Melbourne.
Officially launching the data centre, the Minister for Research and Innovation Sean Sherlock, TD, said: “Zendesk announced its plans to establish this centre here, with the creation of 30 new jobs, back in October of last year and so I am delighted to be here today to officially welcome Zendesk to Ireland.
“Data analytics is an area of massive potential growth and job creation for Ireland and today’s announcement follows on from the recent establishment of CeADAR (Centre for Applied Data Analytics Research), which aims to make Ireland a world leader in this area. Zendesk is a welcome addition to Ireland’s data centre cluster, and I wish the company every success in the future,” Sherlock said.
