Any place you see “Smart” in front there is a “Centre” behind it, Garry Connolly, 2019

By Garry Connolly, CEO Host In Ireland 

Latest research from Host In Ireland’s Q.1 report has revealed data centre investment is on course to exceed €10 billion by the year 2022. This figure is proof data centres are continuing to fuel smart living and innovation, assisting in ensuring Ireland maintains its golden tech hub status well into the future.

Smart Data Centres

I think the term data centre has become very much generic, like the word car. From the very large centralised “hyperscale”, to the smaller, more numerous “edge”, I believe the biggest global challenge faced will be in maintaining the highest level of security and privacy of data as we move past the 100 billion things connected in 2020/21, heading towards 1 Trillion by 2030.

To achieve this, all aspects of the delivery chain including 5G, Edge, Regional and Core infrastructure require technological enhancements, policy changes and a more collaborative mindset to maximise the potential of the Datacentric Industrial Revolution 4.0. Edge is the next evolution happening to data centres including emerging tech like autonomous vehicles and 5G. This shift will result in mini data centres appearing in the most diverse locations across the globe, from cars to lamposts.

This year will continue to see unprecedented levels of activity in the data centre field, in terms of design, build and operation of data centres. Innovative infrastructure with a focus on renewable energy has become a key priority for the most important players. This is organically fuelled by the data that is driving the Industrial revolution 4.0 or digitisation of everything 1.0.

Great coverage in the media over the last few days following the publication of the Q1 Report for 2019 on the Irish Data Centre Market – @Independent_ie reports: https://t.co/3bkfhWneCQ

— Host In Ireland (@hostinireland) May 15, 2019

What some people don’t realise is that any device with ‘smart’ written in front of it, is actually being operated through a data centre, constantly capturing, storing, analysing and performing actions in the background. Data centres are of significant importance to Ireland in terms of attracting tech leaders to base operations here, they truly are facilitators of the digital world.

Our Host In Ireland in association with Bitpower Q1 report also identified the Dublin metro area as the largest single data center cluster in Europe. In addition to this, it highlighted the Dublin metro is now 2nd largest DC cluster, with the largest being North Virginia/DC. It is the proximity of these data centres to each other, which is one of the overarching and dominant trends for Ireland, similar to the Pharmaceutical cluster in Cork or the Financial services in IFSC proximity to each other is critically important for now. This makes the Irish and North Virginia clusters unique, as increasing levels of data are exchanged between innovative centres in the “Core” of the Internet which includes the Dublin metro.

Data centres will soon be at the heart of smart grids and smart cities with infrastructure responsible for the processing of data to facilitate traffic management systems, security systems and transport systems. As Campbell Soup CEO Denise Morrison once said ‘Innovation requires an experimental mindset’, and it is that ethos that data centres have employed to maintain Ireland’s platinum status in the data universe which in turn equates to the centres that host it.

Garry Connolly is the President and Founder of Host in Ireland, a strategic global initiative created to increase awareness of the benefits of hosting digital assets in Ireland, and winner of the Datacloud Europe 2016 award for Innovative Data Center Location. He is also Co-chair of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Awareness Coalition, a not-for-profit initiative designed to raise awareness of the data privacy obligations for companies resulting from the implementation of the GDPR. A much sought-after keynote speaker, panelist and moderator at global industry events, Garry regularly appears in conferences throughout the United States, Singapore, Hong Kong, Dublin, London, Monaco and Costa Rica.

You can read about new data centres in Hosts report here.

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