The report,
Data Centres Ireland by BroadGroup suggests that attracted by its low corporate tax environment Ireland has benefited from investment by both webscales and enterprises from the gaming, pharmaceuticals and content sectors making the country their European headquarters. It is also sustaining further expansion by third party data centres.
Active government support for inward investment by hyperscales from such as Amazon and Microsoft has resulted in the construction of massive facilities around Dublin. Even now authorities are seeking to identify potential land banks for new large scale data centre facilities in Ireland, which indicates that the supply of more space will continue to enter the market.
The overriding attraction of Ireland is due to its status in the EU and low tax rates, with data centre investment across a range of business models and has become the main hub for webscales regionally. It has also fostered the development of renewable energy – primarily wind energy – and is targeting 40% by 2020 well beyond the EU mandatory benchmark of 16%.
Connectivity is supported by a range of international cable capacity, with the first direct submarine cable system from Ireland to France (bypassing the UK) due to be launched from Q3 2019. The country also has a high installed base of fibre and dark fibre with further deployment planned.
Although currently the seventh largest market by third party m2 space in Europe, the presence of webscales mainly in the Dublin area, the report suggests, makes a strong argument for the city to be re-classified as a Tier 1 hub alongside London, Paris, Amsterdam and Frankfurt.
Research for the report finds that should all current plans for third-party expansion come to fruition a total investment of ˆ740m will be made by the end of 2020.
The report provides forecasts for both m2 and MW across both third party data centres, and webscales present in the country through to 2020.
