EMC HAS expanded research work at its Irish operations this week and announced University College Cork as its anchor partner for programmes looking at cloud computing and data management.
Called EMC Research Europe, the new organisation reports to the company’s chief technology officer and is intended to advance the company’s innovation network, a worldwide collaboration initiative involving technology researchers within EMC and external university research partners.
To begin with, EMC Research Europe will be staffed by a “virtual research team” of EMC technology and business leaders from Ireland and the company’s other offices in Europe.
The initiative puts a more formal structure on technology research projects that had been already taking place at the company, said Donagh Buckley, the centre’s director and newly appointed chief technology officer.
Rather than conducting research for its own sake, he said EMC uses a “direct connect” RD model that is intended to align very quickly with the company’s product development plans.
Mr Buckley was part of a team based in Cork that previously developed intellectual property for functions in EMC’s PowerPath data storage products.
“Our track record in contributing to engineering efforts stood us in good stead,” he said.
EMC already employs more than 1,600 people at its Cork operations.
Locating the new research group there is intended to spark “corridor conversations” between researchers and product teams, Mr Buckley said.
In 2008 the company established an RD centre on site and it subsequently developed links with many local and European universities and industry players.
UCC’s collaboration with EMC dates back to 1988 to when the company first set up in Ireland. Now, EMC researchers will be co-located at the Cork Constraint Computation Centre on the college campus.
The research programmes are co-funded by Science Foundation Ireland and will focus on the challenges of managing and analysing large and ever growing volumes data stored in cloud computing systems, and in ensuring those systems can cope with increasing demands for high performance from consumers and businesses.
EMC also collaborates with the University of Limerick and it will work with other European research bodies, including the Hasso-Plattner Institut in Germany and the Swiss École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne.
EMC hasn’t disclosed the cost of establishing the centre. “We’re just getting started and we will make ongoing investments on an as-needed basis,” said Mr Buckley.
A company spokesperson confirmed that EMC is due to announce further jobs across its entire Cork operation in the coming weeks.
