Microsoft 170m investment brings 380 construction and 20 permanent jobs

Microsoft today announced plans to further expand its Europe Middle East and Africa mega datacentre in Dublin, Ireland. The expansion, due for completion in Spring 2014, represents a new investment of €170m million.   Construction of the facility, which has already commenced, will create 380 building-related jobs.  Once the new datacentre is operational next year, an additional 20 people will join the team of approximately 80 already based at the company’s existing facility.

This second expansion brings the total level of investment at the company’s Dublin facility to €594 million, increasing the datacentre campus’ computing capacity by 15,700 m2 (169,000 square feet) bringing the total footprint up to 54,255 m2 (584,000 square feet). The datacentre was officially opened in 2009, with the first expansion announced in February 2012. This continued programme of investment is driven by the growth in demand from consumers and businesses for Microsoft’s cloud services.

Welcoming the investment, Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Eamon Gilmore T.D. today said: “We welcome this further commitment from Microsoft, one of the earliest multinational investors in Ireland. As a country, we have a strategy to become the Cloud Centre of Excellence and the country of choice for datacentre investments. Microsoft contributed greatly to this strategy when it chose Ireland as the home for its first mega datacentre outside of the United States. We realised that the factors that influenced that decision were key differentiators that could also attract further investors.

“We are delighted that Microsoft continues to choose Ireland as a location and welcome the decision to further expand its footprint in Dublin.  I’d like to congratulate Microsoft on today’s announcement and thank Cathriona Hallahan and her team for its continued support in positioning Ireland as a location of choice for Cloud Services and the associated infrastructure.”

Speaking from Indonesia where he is attending a World Trade Organisation Ministerial Conference, Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton T.D. said: “Big data is a sector which offers great potential for Ireland, and which we have targeted as part of our Action Plan for Jobs. In recent years we have seen some major announcements in this sector. Today’s announcement that an iconic company like Microsoft is investing €170million, creating 380 temporary construction jobs and 20 permanent jobs by building a world-leading data centre here is very welcome, and I wish them every success with this project”.

Speaking about the investment Cathriona Hallahan, Managing Director, Microsoft Ireland said: “This expansion is evidence of the continued demand for Microsoft’s cloud services such as Office 365, Bing, Skype, Xbox Live, and the Windows Azure platform across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.  As the demand for these Cloud-based services continues to grow we are investing to meet our customers’ needs.

“Not only does this highlight the growth in our cloud services business but it also highlights our continued commitment to investment and innovation in Ireland and Europe.  I’d like to thank the Government and the IDA for their continued support and look forward to working with them in the years ahead.”