Key European Cloud Computing Hub
Dublin has become a key cloud computing gateway to Europe and beyond for U.S. companies due to several factors, including the city’s location, connectivity, climate and ready supply of IT workers. Dublin’s temperature is ideal for data center cooling, allowing companies to use fresh air to cool servers instead of using huge, power-hungry chillers to refrigerate cooling water.
This allowed Microsoft to design and build one of the world’s most efficient data centers, a huge facility that hosts the company’s cloud services for Europe and operates entirely without chillers. At 550,000 square feet, it is also one of the world’s largest data centers.
Amazon opened a data center in Dublin in December of 2008 to house the European availability zones for its EC2 cloud computing services. The company recently acquired a 240,000 square foot building in Dublin which will be converted into an expansion data center.
The company’s property moves reflect the rapid growth of its European cloud computing operation, which was chronicled by Netcraft in December.