THE US software company majority-owned by storage giant EMC is to create an additional 250 jobs at its Cork offices over the next three years.
Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton made the announcement at the opening of a major new VMware office in Ballincollig. The company, the global leader in virtualisation, already employs some 550 people at two sites in the town.
The majority of the new positions will be for support and sales specialists and recruitment is already under way.
VMware opened in Ballincollig in 2006 with fewer than 100 employees but it will have 800 staff when the current expansion is complete.
“VMware is a really exciting company operating in the area of cloud computing which the government has targeted as an area where Ireland has advantages and where it is estimated that 8,600 jobs cans be created by 2014,” Mr Bruton said.
“This is 250 jobs for Ballincollig and for Cork and for Ireland and it shows the dynamic ability of the workforce here in Cork to support one of the most dynamic companies in the world, so it’s a very positive story.”
The VMware expansion reflects the fact that cloud computing has moved to top of the business agenda as companies seek to cut costs, according to VMware senior vice-president Maurizio Carli.
“The availability of the required skill-sets and languages in Ireland, along with the strong work ethic and solutions-orientated approach of the campus, has proved to be invaluable for our business,” Mr Carli said.
VMware Ireland country manager Ian Moore said the expansion was due to the dedication of the company’s existing Irish workforce, Cork’s development of a cluster of IT companies and its long-established support for global technology brands.
Mr Bruton conceded it had been a tough fortnight with 575 jobs being lost at TalkTalk in Waterford and concerns growing for up to 400 jobs at Pocket King and Allied Logistics in Dublin, but he was confident for the future.
“Every day is a struggle in this job. We are seeking to rebuild an economy that has had a real hard hammering in recent years but there are really positive achievements and days like today show the underlying trends are positive.
“Many of the most dynamic and ambitious companies in the world regard Ireland as a location of choice and that is a testimony to the IDA and to the quality of the workforce here and it does give us hope and confidence to build for the future.”
Mr Bruton noted that IDA Ireland, in its mid-year report, had signalled the number of companies coming to Ireland this year was up 25 per cent while projected job losses within IDA-supported companies was down 50 per cent.
IDA Ireland chief executive Barry O’Leary said his agency expected to make four or five further announcements “with between 700-800 jobs”.
VMware is headquartered at Palo Alto, California, and has over 10,000 employees worldwide and more than 250,000 customers.
