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The Q1 2019 Report is available to download HERE
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The data centre industry is off to a strong start in 2019 according to our latest Quarterly Report and recent announcements. Inward investment from the data centre industry since 2009 is now expected to top €10bn by 2022 with annual investment holding firm at €1.3bn.
These are unprecedented levels of investment. To put the level of spending into context, the level of investment into data centres in Ireland is the equivalent of building the proposed Metro (€3bn) and Dart Underground (€4bn) (€4bn) and the recently announced rural broadband scheme(€3bn).
We know that 55% of spend in the sector was on equipment including generators and
other large items of equipment such as air conditioning units, according to Mitchell McDermott. A further 20% was spent on civil, structural and architectural services, 15% was spent on mechanical, electrical and plumbing services and 10% on preliminary construction costs.
The enormity of this investment has been transformational for Ireland over the past 10 years.
Over a similar period the ICT sector in Ireland has seen direct and indirect employment increase to more than 100,000 jobs. Our ability to provide the data infrastructure required by some of the largest companies in the world has meant that computer service related exports now top €69.3bn making it the largest export sector in the economy beating pharmaceuticals and the agrifood sector*.
The cumulative effect continues when you account for the proximity factor of startups that spin out from the major ICT companies due to skill transfers that go on to attract venture capital funding and subsequently provide more high paying jobs for the Irish
economy.
This is made possible from Ireland’s positioning as Europe’s “Data Isle” and our ability to continue to provide optimum hosting conditions for the world’s largest ICT companies.
As Ireland’s reputation grows as a centre for data centre excellence we can expect the strength of our digital exports to continue to grow alongside that of data centre services itself. The ability to send, receive and store vast amounts of information as quickly and efficiently as possible is key to Ireland retaining its competitive advantage in the tech industry. The demand for data globally only continues to grow and investment will continue so far as that trend lasts.
Last quarter it was revealed that Dublin is now the largest market for data centres accounting for 25% of the European marketplace**. This quarterly update highlights that Ireland will continue to see direct investment grow in the data centre sector which indirectly supports growth in the overall ICT sector unpinning more than
100,000 jobs.
In support of this growth we need sustainable solutions and we were delighted to see the Irish Government increase its renewable energy target to 70% in line with the recent renewable energy campaign of which Host In Ireland
were a part of.
The data centre industry remains a strong renewable first advocate. There have been several good news announcements with respect to renewable energy this quarter. They include a €1.5bn investment from Statkraft to construct a series of wind farms around Ireland.
However, the most significant is Amazon’s decision to invest almost €200m in the construction of a wind farm off Donegal without subsidies, the first of its kind in Ireland.
The announcement sets an important precedent and highlights how serious
Hyper Scales are in pursuing renewable first policies.
We look forward to the second quarter with more positive announcements to come.
Garry Connolly
President & Founder - Host in Ireland