Microsoft Expansion for South Dublin

I’m delighted by today’s announcement that Microsoft is expanding its data centre in South Dublin. This confirms and strengthens Ireland’s reputation as a leading global centre for cloud services. I visited the Microsoft European Development Centre at the South County Business Park in Leopardstown today to hear the good news first hand.

This Government has directly targeted big data as a sector which offers great opportunity for job growth in Ireland.

Microsoft investing €126million, creating 380 temporary construction jobs and 20 permanent jobs sends a message globally that Ireland is an excellent environment to invest in.

I am particularly pleased that the new Microsoft facility has a strong focus on sustainability. Ireland’s temperate climate will allow the new data centre to keep appropriately cool, meaning greater power efficiency and cost savings. Also, 99 percent of all waste at the facility is recycled.

The expansion, due for completion in Spring 2014, represents a new investment of €170m million. Construction of the facility, which has already commenced, will create 380 building-related jobs.  Once the new datacentre is operational next year, an additional 20 people will join the team of approximately 80 already based at the company’s existing facility.

This second expansion brings the total level of investment at the company’s Dublin facility to €594 million, increasing the datacentre campus’ computing capacity by 15,700 m2 (169,000 square feet) bringing the total footprint up to 54,255 m2 (584,000 square feet). The datacentre was officially opened in 2009, with the first expansion announced in February 2012. This continued programme of investment is driven by the growth in demand from consumers and businesses for Microsoft’s cloud services.