IRELAND’S BRICKS and mortar building boom might be a distant memory but a virtual building boom is taking place in west Dublin, which was confirmed yesterday when internet giant Google said it would build a €75 million home for its computers in the capital.
Google is just the latest technology firm pouring millions of euro into building a data centre in Ireland.
Data centres are specialised facilities which are home to densely packed banks of computers used to run services delivered over the web.
The concentration of so many computer servers in a single place means they require huge amounts of power both to run the computers and to keep them from overheating.
A single centre can use as much electricity as a provincial town.
Google’s data centre is being built in a warehouse that it has purchased in Profile Park, a development just off the N7.
The fit-out of the building will create 200 construction jobs. Following the completion of the project at the end of next year, Google will create 30 new jobs to run the centre.
Microsoft, the world’s largest software company, invested more than €340 million building a “mega-data centre” in nearby Grange Castle.
It opened in September 2009 but Microsoft recently lodged a planning application for a new building on the site, which would expand its data centre space by one-third.
Digital Realty Trust, a specialist US firm which develops data centres and leases them to clients, is also expected to expand its centre in Clondalkin, according to local Labour Party TD Robert Dowds.
Mr Dowds paid tribute to South Dublin County Council, which developed the Grange Castle Business Park.
“They were looking for forward-thinking industries to locate there and they resisted the temptation to take just any investment,” he said.
Google’s top-ranking executive in Ireland, John Herlihy, said his company’s decision to build the data centre in Ireland was a “a rare case where the Irish weather is a cause for praise”.
Google cools its computers using a technique known as “free-air cooling” where it sucks in air from outside and blows it over the servers.
Older data centres use power-hungry chiller units to blow cold air into the computer rooms. Google says its data centres have reduced their power consumption by 50 per cent through innovative approaches.
Microsoft also praised the temperate Irish climate when it opened in Grange Castle.