Microsoft has asked for permission to build another data center in Ireland, its fifth on the existing West Dublin campus.
According to the Irish Independent, the expansion includes a new 7,600 square feet facility at the cost of €70 million.
The Fair City
In 2009, Dublin became the first city in Europe to host a Microsoft ‘mega data center’. Ever since, Microsoft has continued to invest in facilities near the Irish capital - most recently $230 million in 2013.
If the plans are approved, the new facility at the Grangecastle business park in Clondalkin will employ 180 people full-time, and take 15 months to build.
Grangecastle already hosts three Microsoft data centers and the company is currently developing the first phase of a fourth.
But according to the planning documents submitted to the South Dublin County Council, existing facilities are quickly approaching their capacity.
The Independent reports that the Dublin campus hosts around 200 core Microsoft products including Office365 and the Azure cloud.
Ireland has attracted large data center builders with cold climate, generous tax breaks and great network links to the other side of the Atlantic. Microsoft’s existing neighbors in Grangecastle include Amazon and Google .
Apple will be spending €850 million on a massive data center in a forest in Galloway, while Facebook is planning to build a s €200 million data center in Clonee, County Meath - the first outside the US that it will own outright.