Microsoft opens ‘mega data centre’ Sunday, July 05, 2009 Software giant Microsoft has opened a $500 million data centre in Dublin after two years of work on the extensive project, writes Gavin Daly.
The facility at the Grange Castle Business Park covers 303,000 square feet, or almost seven acres more than twice the size of the playing surface at Croke Park. The centre is part of Microsoft’s investment in cloud computing, and houses tens of thousands of computer servers running the company’s online software and services.
It is the company’s first so-called ‘mega data centre’ outside the US, and is seen as an important investment by the firm, which already employs about 1,200 people full-time in Dublin.
A small number of jobs will be created at the data centre, which went live on July 1, but will not be officially opened until the autumn.
The company described the opening of the Irish centre as a ‘‘key milestone’’. Microsoft is investing billions of dollars in a small number of data centres worldwide, as it sells more software and services over the internet, rather than on packaged CDs. It will open a 700,000 square foot data centre in Chicago on July 20.
‘‘As the company’s softwareplus-services strategy progresses, these data centres will play a key supporting role,” said Arne Josefberg, general manager of infrastructure services with Microsoft.
The Irish centre is on a 19acre site, which Microsoft bought from South Dublin County Council for €11.3 million in 2007. It had 5.4 megawatts of critical power available and could expand to 22.2 megawatts, Microsoft said.
While Microsoft is investing heavily in the data centres, it is cutting costs in other areas and laying off 5,000 staff worldwide in a bid to save $1.5 billion a year.
In May, it said it would lay off 60 staff in Ireland, but that it would hire 40 staff in other areas.
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