Facebook seeking tenant space for Oculus Rift VR data at Irish cinema data centre
Wed 30 Nov 2016
Despite Apple’s ongoing problems with its Athenry DC build, Facebook seems set on joining the device manufacturer in staking a bigger claim in Ireland’s burgeoning data centre market, with the ambit of staking dedicated storage space for data relating to the company’s Oculus Rift virtual reality system.
According to the Irish Examiner, the social media behemoth is looking to be the first occupant of a retro-fitted data centre in Cork City, a site that was previously a cinema. The company is reported to currently be in discussions with property developers JCD for tenancy of the top floor of the Capitol Scheme at St. Patrick’s St and Grand Parade.
Oculus VR, purchased by Facebook for $2 billion for its cutting-edge developments in tethered, rich virtual reality technologies, claimed its first space in Cork last month, with the acquisition of Cork-based startup InfiniLED, a manufacturer of low-consumption ILED displays (which in itself has led many to believe that the Rift may join Microsoft’s HoloLens in abandoning its tether in the near future – or at least engaging in wireless streaming).
It has been speculated that InfiniLED could move into office space at the new Cork location. Apple has its European headquarters in Dublin, three hours from Cork, while Microsoft continues its ongoing skirmishes with U.S. authorities regarding access to information stored on its own data centres in Ireland.
Facebook has already committed substantially to the Irish data centre scene – of which notable current tenants include Apple and Microsoft – with the building of a €200m facility in County Meath, in the mid-East of the country. Additionally Facebook is constructing another data centre – billed at the time of the announcement as ‘the world’s most advanced’ – in Clonee, a small village close to Dublin. The Clonee build will be Facebook’s second Europe-based data centre after Luleå in Sweden.
