Microsoft announces plans for €134m campus in Dublin
The computer giant yesterday announced details of a €134m campus-style building to be located at the South County Business Park in Leopardstown.
The 34,500m sq campus, built on a three hectare site, is due to be completed at the end of 2017.
Microsoft Ireland managing director Cathriona Hallahan yesterday said the investment, which comes on the company’s 30th anniversary in Ireland, underlines its commitment to the country.
“Dublin is now home to a number of European and global teams and groups as well as the first data centre located outside the United States — a facility that has grown rapidly over the past five years,” Ms Hallahan added.
Having opened in 2009, the data centre has since been expanded in 2012 and 2013, bringing the total investment in data centres to date to just under €600m.
However, the centre has also been mired in a data protection storm over the past number of months as US authorities have sought access to emails stored on the company’s Irish servers in relation to an ongoing criminal matter in the US courts.
Microsoft has held firm in refusing to hand over the data and has gained considerable support for that stance from other tech firms, including Apple and eBay, highlighting the importance of the case to data protection generally and states’ ability to reach across borders to access information.
The Government also took the unusual position of filing an amicus brief to the US court outlining its position on the case.
The new Leopardstown campus will bring all of Microsoft’s employees, across a range of business functions including developers, engineers, and sales staff, together under one roof for the first time in its recent history here.
Currently, the company’s staff are spread across three bases — two of which are located in the same business park for which the new centre is earmarked and a third in the Atrium Building in Sandyford.
To date, Microsoft has invested close to €1bn in Ireland since its arrival in 1985, a figure that includes significant investment in its data centre in west Dublin.
