Microsoft expands Dublin 'mega datacentre'

Vendor invests $130m to enable EMEA facility to handle mushrooming demand for cloud

Microsoft is injecting a whopping $130m (£82m) into its Dublin datacentre to accommodate the ever-growing demand for cloud services.

The additional investment is on top of the original $500m already spent on the datacentre, which has been operational since July 2009, catering for customers across EMEA.

This latest expansion will add a 112,000 sq ft Generation 4 facility, and create about 400 construction jobs over the coming year.

Once complete, Microsoft will employ an additional 50 to 70 people to manage the needs of the existing and expanded facility.

Peter Klein, chief financial officer at Microsoft, said: “This investment shows where we are placing our bets for the future.

"As customers embrace Microsoft cloud services such as Office 365, Windows Live, Xbox Live, Bing and the Windows Azure platform, we are investing in regional cloud infrastructure to meet their needs.”

Stephen McGibbon, chief technology officer at Microsoft EMEA, said: “We are seeing increasing numbers of European businesses and consumers adopting Microsoft’s cloud services, and we are continuing to build new infrastructure and services in order to meet current and future demands.

"From small businesses to large enterprises and governments, we are experiencing increased momentum where organisations are starting to really embrace the full potential of cloud computing to help them transform their business."