Business News

Microsoft announces Irish expansion

By Business & Finance
10 November 2015
microsoft Maurizio Pesce

Microsoft today announced completion of the latest phase of expansion for its data centre facilities in Ireland and the Netherlands, both of which serve as cloud computing hubs for European customers.

The expansion in Ireland builds on two previous expansions of the data centre which first opened in Ireland in 2009 following an initial €500m investment.

Both Ireland and the Netherlands serve as hubs for Microsoft cloud services, including Microsoft Azure, Office 365 and Dynamics CRM Online, and will provide additional capacity for customers across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Each location is built using the latest technology improvements to significantly reduce water, power and energy use.

Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft, said: “At Microsoft, our mission is to empower every person and organisation on the planet to achieve more. By expanding our data centre regions in the UK, Netherlands and Ireland we aim to give local businesses and organisations of all sizes the transformative technology they need to seize new global growth.”

Cathriona Hallahan, MD, Microsoft Ireland, added: “We are delighted to share details of further expansion of the Irish based data centre during our year of celebrations marking our 30th anniversary of investing in Ireland.”

Martin Shanahan, CEO, IDA Ireland, commented: “Ireland is global technology hub of choice when it comes to attracting the strategic business activities of ICT companies. Data centre activity in Ireland continues to thrive and Ireland is well positioned to win more investment in this area.”

The company has also announced plans to offer commercial cloud services from the UK today. Microsoft Azure and Office 365 will be generally available from local UK-based data centres in late 2016 with Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online following shortly thereafter. Built on foundational trusted cloud principles of security, privacy and control, compliance and transparency, these services will offer customers data residency in the UK, bringing world-class reliability and performance to government organisations, regulated industries and other businesses.

Photo: Maurizio Pesce