Microsoft invests in Ireland datacentre

Microsoft is expanding its Dublin datacentre with a €170m investment.

Speaking at the Cloud Innovation event in Ireland, Cathriona Hallahan, managing director of Microsoft Ireland, said: "We are making a further investment in Ireland. We are adding an extra 16,000m² of space, which will be completed in spring 2015."

This expands on the cloud services that are supported by the €480m European datacentre, which opened in 2009, and the additional investment will increase the facility to 54,200m².

Eamon Gilmore, minister for foreign affairs and trade at the government of Ireland, said: "We welcome the announcement of the expansion and the generation of almost 400 jobs in construction, and 20 new jobs at Microsoft."

Scott Guthrie, vice-president for Windows Azure, said: "Cloud powers modern business. The cornerstone of our enterprise business is the Cloud OS, a core consistent platform that delivers infrastructure to power modern business and allows organisations to unlock insight from data."

He said the strategy aims to preserve corporate security and enable modern business applications to be built on top of the infrastructure.

Microsoft provides a consistent platform across on-premises, private and public footprints, he said, allowing businesses to use the same skills to develop application in both public and private clouds with consistent expertise and tools.

It also does not require any extra licences – you only pay for what you use, he said. "Azure allows you to move faster by using the cloud's global footprint to reach new market and cycle resources, depending on what you actually use."

Customers include Toyota, Coca-Cola, Aviva and EasyJet.

Aviva is using Azure instead of in-car blackboxes for pay-per-mile car insurance. Instead of using an expensive telemetric box, users download journeys to their smartphones. This data is used to give an insurance quote based on the user's driving style.