Cork Internet Exchange (CIX) is to expand its data centre in Hollyhill, creating 10 jobs as it doubles its capacity.

The company, which has invested almost €5 million in the Cork centre, plans further expansion in the future as the city hopes to attract international investment from the tech sector.

"Data centres have become the heart of the digital economy," said Minister for Research and Innovation Sean Sherlock. "More and more devices with Internet connectivity are being developed and released, meaning that data centres will form the technological backbone to the recovering economy nationally and regionally."

According to a recent report from 451 Group, the Irish data hosting market is set to grow by almost 20 per cent every year up to 2016, as internet traffic here expands at a rate of 200 per cent per year.

The CIX centre will connect directly to the Government Cloud Network, which will allow the company and its clients to deliver services to government.

"CIX is critical to the broadband infrastructure of the region, and indeed in Ireland, " said CIX chief executive Jerry Sweeney. "There has been an explosion of digital technology and generation of digital data in recent years. All this data must be processed, stored, managed, exchanged and monitored in data centres."

The company, which was set up in 2008, has a wholesale broadband business in Munster that works with some of the country’s top telecoms brands to supply services to homes in the region.