Google has officially opened its second Irish data centre, adjacent to its first in Dublin’s Grangecastle. The high security €150m facility houses servers which run many of Google’s main products in the region, including the search engine, Gmail and Maps.
The new facility uses advanced air-cooling systems that utilise Ireland’s cool climate to keep the servers at the right temperature. It took a team of 400 workers one year to build the centre, and 30 people will now be employed permanently to keep it running.
The big G also revealed that its workforce here has grown to 6,000 in the past 12 months, an increase of 1,000. 3,000 of these staff are employed directly, with the balance on contract. They also have 250 open positions available at its Dublin based Europe, Middle East and Africa headquarters. Finally, Google revealed that it has invested over €750m in capital assets here.
Microsoft and Apple also have state-of-the-art data centres in Ireland, and Apple is planning another.