Equinix managing director for Ireland and emerging markets, Maurice Mortell. Image: Equinix
West Dublin is still booming in terms of data centres and soaring data volumes.
Data centre empire Equinix has acquired an 8.2-acre site in Ballycoolin in a €5m deal to accommodate more data centres as data volumes soar. The site is not far from Clonee, where social networking giant Facebook built a €300m data centre park.
‘Ireland’s digital ecosystem is thriving and we have positioned ourselves at the centre of that’
– MAURICE MORTELL
The acquisition of the land is strategic to position Equinix for volume growth. “Companies tell us every day that their data volumes are skyrocketing and our own research confirms this,” said Maurice Mortell, managing director for Ireland and emerging markets at Equinix.
“The demand is immense and it is no longer just demand for storage space. Enterprises are making their data work for them by interconnecting with other businesses and cloud service providers. We are ensuring that we will be there to not only store this data, but also to make it valuable to both businesses and the economy they benefit.”
Data tsunami
New research carried out by Equinix shows that Irish enterprises expect their data volumes to grow by an average of 72pc in the next three years.
Figures published by IDA Ireland this year show that data centres have contributed €7.13bn to Ireland’s economy since 2010.
“Ireland’s digital ecosystem is thriving and we have positioned ourselves at the centre of that. By operating in densely interconnected areas, we are where multinationals and Irish companies meet and collaborate digitally. We offer customers direct connectivity to more than 200 data centres in 52 markets. We are enabling digital business in Ireland.”
Equinix’s Irish operations owe their heritage to long-running data centre company Data Electronics, which was acquired by TelecityGroup in 2011 for €100m. Equinix acquired TelecityGroup in January 2016 for $3.8bn, increasing its data centre footprint globally to 145 sites, including three in Dublin.
