Microsoft yesterday confirmed that a site in Grange Castle Business Park, Dublin, has been selected as the location for its new European data centre. Planning permission has already been granted by South Dublin County Council for the $500 million (€343.6 million) 51,000-square metre data centre.
Ground works have begun at the site and the data centre is due to open in May 2009.
Grange Castle will be the main data centre for Microsoft in the European, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region to support its "software + services" strategy of offering more of its applications as services over the internet under the Live brand.
Debra Chrapaty, the Microsoft corporate vice-president responsible, said the centre would require 30 megawatts of power but the cost of electricity in Ireland was not an inhibiting factor.
"We clearly wanted to make a commitment in the EMEA region," she said "There was nothing startling about Ireland versus anywhere else in the general area."
Ms Chrapaty said that by using outside air to cool the servers and other innovations, Grange Castle would be up to 50 per cent more efficient than similar-sized facilities.
It will be the third data centre, and the first outside the US, that Microsoft has built to support Live, which is seen as key in winning ground back from Google. The other facilities are in Washington state and Texas.
Ms Chrapaty said the centre was seen as Microsoft's fourth major commitment to Ireland in addition to its Irish sales operation, development centre and operations centre which employ 1,200 people.
The new facility will employ just 20 staff directly when operational. "Data centres that are highly efficient are highly automated," said Ms Chrapaty. "We don't see this as a jobs initiative."
She said that there would be considerable employment provided during the two-year construction phase and in firms which were supplying the centre.
Microsoft first looked at building a data centre in Ireland in the late 1990s but it was not possible due to the lack of international broadband links.
"Connectivity has gotten better and our network team is very good at getting the right bandwidth where we need to have it," said Ms Chrapaty. She said the Government and its agencies had been very supportive of the project.
