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Overview of Ireland’s Cloud and Big Data Landscape

By March 17, 2014Article

Despite a hefty amount of rainfall each year, Ireland is seeing sunny days with the explosion of cloud computing. As the industry continues to grow across the globe, Ireland has managed to remain the “go-to place” for cloud enterprises. In addition to the fact that the temperate climate in Ireland is ideal for data facilities, what makes Ireland the best little country for Big Data? 

The answer is clear: talent and track record. Identifying potential in early-stage companies led to success in new sectors such as “born on the Internet,” where the Irish government has secured investments from leading names including LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. 

Ireland Rainbow

As Irish officials began to recognize the high-growth capabilities of these companies that utilize the cloud and Big Data, educational initiatives were adopted to provide the right talent. Ireland’s education system emphasizes mathematics and engineering focused on key strategic areas including Internet and social media applications, data analytics, security, context-aware computing, cognitive computing, personalization and visualization. 

Sunrise over the River Liffey in Dublin's Silicon Docks district

Sunrise over River Liffey in Dublin’s Silicon Docks district

With the ability to recognize burgeoning Big Data companies such as MongoDB or Zendesk and provide the talent to service them, Ireland will continue to house major players in the cloud computing industry. 

As evidenced by the past few years, Big Data isn’t making an exit anytime soon — this cloud is a big one with an even bigger silver lining. 

Barry O’Dowd is senior vice president of the emerging businesses division of IDA Ireland, the leading inward investment agency in Ireland. Prior to his current position, Barry headed IDA’s pharmaceutical and biotechnology division, where he led a team that had nine of the world’s top 10 pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies as customers. He also is a barrister of law. Follow him on Twitter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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