Microsoft officially opened its first 'mega data centre' in Europe.

The $500 million total investment is part of Microsoft's long-term commitment in the region, and is a major step in realising Microsoft's Software plus Services strategy.
 

In a statement Microsoft said: "The facility covers 303,000 square feet and can generate up to 5.4 megawatts of critical power, with the potential to expand to a total of 22.2 megawatts of critical power. Making use of the low ambient air temperatures in Ireland, the facility uses 'free air' cooling almost exclusively. This means the operating environment can be maintained without mechanical or refrigerated cooling systems for over 95% of the time. Mechanical cooling typically represents ~38% of the power consumed in traditional data centres. This cooling system eliminates the necessity for chilled water cooling systems, used in traditional data centres. This saves ~18 million litres of water each month. The facility uses latest generation IT hardware, designed through tight collaboration with manufacturers to deliver the highest performance, lowest power consumption and least heat generation."
 

Commenting at the official opening event An Taoiseach (Prime Minister), Brian Cowen T.D. said: "As we all know, Microsoft is a dynamic company, driven by innovation. It is exactly the kind of company that we want in Ireland as we seek to renew our economy - and a model of the kind of company that we would like to grow in Ireland ourselves. We envisage a high-value, export-led, economy with companies creating the products and services of tomorrow providing high quality employment for our people.

The data centre has been officially recognised by the European Commission's Sustainable Energy Europe Campaign as a "best practice" in environmental sustainability design through its innovative design which has made it 50% more energy efficient than traditional data centres built three years ago. The data centre increases hardware utilisation, reduces use of resources like water and electricity and reduces waste material.

The data centre is the next evolutionary step in Microsoft's commitment to thoughtfully building its cloud computing capacity and network infrastructure throughout the region to meet the demand generated from its Online, Live Services and Cloud Services, such as Bing, Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite, Windows Live, and the Azure Services Platform.

"The opening of the data centre is a milestone in our ongoing investment in Europe and provides the critical infrastructure to support the delivery of our next generation of online services for both businesses and consumers. This facility will play a central role in our promise to deliver computing experiences that seamlessly connect people, data, devices and applications across the digital workstyle and lifestyle - a vision we call Software plus Services," said Jean-Philippe Courtois, president, Microsoft International.

"The opening also celebrates Microsoft's long-term commitment to Ireland. As we approach our 25th anniversary of being part of the local economy, I would like to thank the Irish Government and its agencies, particularly the Investment and Development Agency, IDA Ireland, for their on-going support and to express Microsoft's commitment to continue to work closely with government, education and local businesses to help contribute to the local software ecosystem and to help Ireland achieve its goals around building a Smart Economy," he concluded.

The data centre - one of the largest construction projects in the Republic of Ireland over last 12 months - has taken approximately one million man-hours to complete and involved a workforce close to 2,100 at peak. The facility covers 303,000 square feet and can generate up to 5.4 megawatts of critical power, with the potential to expand to a total of 22.2 megawatts of critical power.
Fast facts about Microsoft's Online, Live Services and Cloud Services: Bing supports over 2 billion queries/month; Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite hosts one million+ people on e-mail; and Windows Live ID processes more than 1 billion authentications per day.