Document-management firm DMG Services is investing €2m in its west Dublin Filestores facility as part of a plan to increase turnover to €20m.
The plan includes an investment in a fireproof storage vault for media such as tape drives.
The investment in the fireproof chamber is driven by a growing imperative over the safe storage of vital company data. According to the National Fire Protection Association in the US, 71pc of companies whose data-processing facility is destroyed by fire or other disasters never recover form the loss or fail within three years.
The 300,000 cubit foot extension of the Filestores facility includes the installation of a fireproof Firelock media storage vault, which is the first of its kind in Ireland.
The vault is capable of withstanding temperatures of 1,000 degrees Celsius and is used internationally by the US Airforce and Disney for secure storage.
DMG Services in Ireland comprises the Filestores, Shred-it, Scan Images Services and Archives Consulting Services companies. It employs 185 people across four locations in Ireland and Northern Ireland.
The company has more than doubled turnover to €12m in the past four years and has completed three acquisitions. The €2m expansion is part of a plan to support the company’s growth target of €20m turnover before 2009.
Speaking with siliconrepublic.com yesterday, Hugh Smith, vice-president of marketing at Firelock, explained the strategic imperative behind protecting firms’ data in fireproof chambers. “Although we live in a world where there are increased fibre optics and the ability to send data from one part of the world to the other, firms are still relying on tape storage because it is an economical way to store data offsite.
“If you are sending data offsite, it usually costs you US$52 per gigabyte. If you think about the thousands of gigabytes that firms own and multiply that day by day and month by month for the year, businesses are racking up large sums of money. We’d all like to fly first-class but don’t because it is too expensive.
“Tape storage is the most economical method for firms all over the world and is a way of protecting data in case of downed phone lines or computer problems.”
Another problem, he said, is that computer media generally degrades at low temperatures. “The vault effectively extends life to media by a factor of three. As a result, businesses are not going to have difficulties with failed tape backups.”
Smith said that the fireproof vault is modular and can be doubled from its present size of 70,000 sq ft to over 140,000 sq ft just by adding panels.
“Data storage is a fast-growing part of our business. Ireland is becoming the hub of digital storage in Europe because there is so much investment from the US in the country. The country is regarded as a safe haven for data,” Smith told siliconrepublic.com.
By John Kennedy
