Microsoft is investing €170m to expand its data centre in Dublin which serves Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Construction of a new facility has already begun and 20 additional tech jobs and 380 construction jobs will be generated.
The existing data centre in west Dublin built via an investment of close to €1bn employs 80 people.
“This expansion is evidence of the continued demand for Microsoft’s cloud services, such as Office 365, Bing, Skype, Xbox Live, and the Windows Azure platform across Europe, the Middle East and Africa,” said Microsoft Ireland’s managing director Cathriona Hallahan.
“As the demand for these cloud-based services continues to grow we are investing to meet our customers’ needs,” Hallahan said.
The cloud has a home in Dublin
This second expansion brings the total level of investment at the company’s Dublin facility to €594m, increasing the data centre campus’ computing capacity by 15,700 sq metres (169,000 sq feet), bringing the total footprint up to 54,255 sq metres (584,000 sq feet).
The data centre officially opened in 2009, with the first expansion announced in February 2012.
Richard Bruton, TD, Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, welcomed the news.
“Big data is a sector which offers great potential for Ireland, and which we have targeted as part of our Action Plan for Jobs. In recent years, we have seen some major announcements in this sector.
“Today’s announcement that an iconic company like Microsoft is investing €170m, creating 380 temporary construction jobs and 20 permanent jobs by building a world-leading data centre here is very welcome.”
The data centre makes extensive use of Ireland’s cool outside air to efficiently cool its facilities year round, with air side economisation, resulting in greater power efficiency and an annual power usage effectiveness (PUE) average of 1.25 during peak usage hours.
The existing data centre is also 50pc more efficient than traditionally built facilities and uses only 1pc of the water used by other similarly sized data centres in the industry today, according to Microsoft. With a focus on sustainability, about 99pc of all waste at the facility is recycled, including packaging, pallets, crates, and cabling.
IDA Ireland chief executive Barry O’Leary said data centres have been a buoyant sector for the IDA in the last number of years and will enable Ireland to win further investments worldwide.
“This investment, by such a well-respected global brand, reinforces Ireland’s credentials as the leading location in cloud computing,” O’Leary said.
