Yahoo next multinational to join data centre crowd in Dublin
Mon 30 Mar 2015
According to recent reports, Yahoo is expected to be the next U.S. tech giant to buy and build data centre property in Dublin, a move to Ireland which other multinational firms are looking to mirror in the near future.
Having opened its latest offices at the Point Village in Dublin last week, managing director of Yahoo EMEA Pat Scully said that it would not be long before the company starts buying or building a new facility in the area.
Currently Ireland has 210MVA from data centres connected to the electricity grid. However, according to forecasts laid out by electricity transmission system manager Eirgrid, there is also 700MVA waiting to be connected over the next three years.
The list of big firms operating data centres in Ireland already includes Amazon, Microsoft, IBM, BT and Google. Amazon is in the process of completing large expansion plans at a number of its seven Irish facilities. Sources familiar with the development have confirmed that the company is considering powering these updated data centres using wind energy.
At the end of February Apple also announced its plans to open an €850mn data centre in Athenry, Galway. The facility, like Amazon’s renewable initiatives, is expected to be powered by 100% green energy and will collaborate with land recovery and planting programmes to help establish outdoor education environments for local schools.
EMC has also suggested it will be building a large data centre in Ovens, County Cork. Again, the firm is thought to be in talks with the wind energy sector who are expecting many major investments in windfarm-powered data centres in Ireland over the next few months.
The majority of Ireland’s data centres are located in the country’s capital city, Dublin, where the electricity transmission system is the strongest. Ireland is a popular destination for data centre builds due to its cool climate, which results in considerable savings on cooling equipment.
