ACADEMIA

A €75 million-worth data-center facility owned by the Internet giant, Google recently opens in Dublin, Ireland. A year after its construction plans were announced, the said energy-efficient facility is finally operational. The site is located at Profile Park, in Clondalkin, Dublin.

Officially unlocked by Ireland’s Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton, the new datacenter facility is intended to host computers offering Google’s imperative cloud-based services also known as cloud-computing services, including Gmail, Google Maps, and Google search engine.

Cloud computing refers to the use of computer hardware and software (computing resources) to offer services over the Internet. Remote services are delivered with software, computation, and the user’s data.

It took several months, almost a year, for the datacentre to be completely built by more than a thousand professional workers. Emerging as final output is an active contemporary datacentre, rising with a highly-efficient air-cooling system, taking the benefits of the naturally cool environment of Ireland. Given Ireland’s cool climate allows the centre to minimize substantial power requirements, according to the company.

The opening of Google’s new IT facility in Dublin also denotes more job opportunities for the Irish society, depending on their expertise. According to Google, a wide range of empty roles are to be filled, from catering and security staff, computer technicians, electrical and mechanical engineers.

During the inauguration of the new site, Mr Bruton emphasized the importance of cloud computing on the government’s action plan for employments, given the State’s growing technological infrastructure and cool climate advantage.

Google also said the advantage of having a cold climate in Ireland will bring its new IT facility among the world’s most energy-efficient centres to date. Unlike any other traditional data centers utilizing costly air-conditioning units, Google’s data centre in Dublin uses natural or free air-cooling system. This means, the facility will only be using 50 per cent energy than the traditional data centers. All these efforts are in conjunction to the company’s prior commitment to carbon neutrality.

Natural cooling, also known as free-air cooling is by far, the most economical means of preserving an optimum temperature within a datacentre facility. A benefit Google sees and wants to utilize.

Dan Castillo, Google’s global data center operations director said the company makes sure their datacentres are efficient enough in terms of electricity consumption.

Furthermore, in line with its obligation to carbon-neutrality, Google also said on its latest announcement this week that the company will utilize wind energy to operate its datacentre facility in Oklahoma City.

According to John Herlihy, head of Google in Ireland, the company regarded its new datacentre in Dublin as a long-term investment and a medium that fortifies the connection between Google and Ireland.

In the past few years, the company sees an increasing demand for Google services besides its expanding footprints across Ireland. To date, Google already has more than 2,500 employees in Dublin, from the previous year’s roughly 2,000. The company links this surge on the rapidly mounting demand of Google services across the country in the past few years.

Given Ireland’s potentials as an ideal site for such technological investment, many of the UK’s technology giants also erected datacentres in Dublin. Among other techno-firms with active datacentre facilities in the city include Microsoft and Amazon. An international headquarter owned by Twitter is also expected to operate in Ireland soon.