Falling electricity prices are contributing to a boom for Dublin data centres, with overseas internet and telecoms providers deciding to locate services in the city, Tanya Duncan of Interxion told Siliconrepublic.com today at the launch of its new €12m data centre.
Duncan, who is managing director of Interxion in Ireland, told Siliconrepublic.com: “Having this infrastructure in Ireland has a lot of benefits. Power costs have been high but internet and telecoms firms see the strategic value of locating in the city.”
About DUB2
Duncan was speaking at the opening of Interxion’s second Dublin data centre, DUB2. The €12m expansion was required to meet growing customer demand for energy-efficient, high-power-density co-location infrastructure and outsourced managed services. The new data centre will provide an additional 2,455m2 of gross space, increasing Interxion’s overall capacity to 4,755m2.
With a redundant 4 MVA grid connection, the data centre supports the latest high-density power configuration requirements. It offers 2N UPS power and N+1 cooling, as well as advanced alarm and monitoring systems.
The site has been designed using Interxion’s energy-efficient modular architecture, with free cooling and maximum-efficiency components as standard. Power monitoring and management systems also enable customers to monitor their power usage, streamlining their operations to optimise power usage effectiveness (PUE).
The data centre in west Dublin has built-in power redundancy technologies that can see power generators fully operational in less than 30 seconds.
Minister Eamon Ryan on convergence of internet, telecoms and green energy
Speaking with Siliconrepublic.com at the opening of the data centre, the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources Eamon Ryan TD said that the convergence of internet and telecoms with green energy is already taking place in Ireland.
“IBM’s Smart Cities R&D operation is a core business for the future and at the top end of that company’s plans. HP’s cloud computing headquarters in Galway is another example. When you look at some of the groundbreaking work taking place at DERI at NUI Galway in terms of communications and energy efficiency. Indeed look at Bell Labs in Dublin with its Green Touch initiative to reduce the amount of power used in IT and comms infrastructure.
“Ireland has the climate and the people who know what they are doing with these technologies. In addition, electricity prices are coming down by 30pc this year.”
Ryan said that in attracting the technology businesses of the future whose decisions will be influenced by the supply of affordable clean energy, he envisages that 30-40pc of power in Ireland will come from wind energy.
“They will be happy to know that their electricity usage will be coming from a power source that’s not filthy like coal but clean.”
Duncan said that the new data centre has been built with green in mind. “The build-out is entirely modular. We only put in equipment as and when we need it, nothing runs idle.”
The data centre also incorporates a free cooling element. “When the temperature goes below 14 degrees, we use cool air streams to cool equipment. All our piping is external and we maintain our chillers outside the building.”
Duncan said Interxion will be embarking on a second phase data centre build-out in 2011. The carrier-neutral data centre hosts servers and storage technologies for telecoms companies, financial services firms and media companies. Telcos are the largest residents, accounting for 20pc of Interxion’s business in Dublin.
By John Kennedy
Photo: Tanya Duncan, managing director of Interxion in Ireland, with the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources Eamon Ryan TD
